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- Cool Websites and Tools [July 25]
- 3 More Cool Twitter Tools To Do Your Tweeting With
- Top 10 Disgusting Websites to Share With Friends
- How To Convert Books to Audio & Get Them on Your iPod
- How To Use Facial Recognition in Picasa Web Albums
- How To Easily Convert Video Files to DVD, MP4, VCD, MPEG, AVI … with VideoSpiritLite
| Cool Websites and Tools [July 25] Posted: 25 Jul 2009 03:01 PM PDT
(1) BigCartel – This site allows artists, bands, crafters and other non-tech people easily create free online store and sell their stuff. It is very easy to setup and lets you focus on your products instead of worrying about things like merchant accounts, server configuration, software installation and other technical details. Read more: BigCartel: Create Online Store For Free
(2) Dotter – Dotted background generator that lets you create dotted backgrounds for use on your website or design project. The site doesnt' require users to register and creating backgrounds is really easy. Read more: Dotter: Dotted Background Generator (3) OpenLibrary – Comprehensive book cover database that aims to profile every book ever published, including the translated versions. It already lists over 20 million published books in multiple languages, including full text for 1 million scanned books from public domain. Read more: OpenLibrary: Extensive Book Cover Database (4) Postal Code Lookup – Web application which lets you search for postcodes worldwide. It provides you with an accurate post code information for almost any country, and also shows you the correct address formatting rules. Read more: Postal Code Lookup: Search For Postcodes Worldwide (5) WhyDoWork AdSense Monitor – Handy Firefox add-on which enables you to monitor your Google AdSense earnings right in your Firefox browser. Once installed and setup with your Google AdSense account details, it gives you real-time AdSense performance reports right in your browser status bar. Read more: WhyDoWork AdSense Monitor: Monitor Google AdSense Earnings Right In Your Browser 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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| 3 More Cool Twitter Tools To Do Your Tweeting With Posted: 25 Jul 2009 12:01 PM PDT Over the last few years Twitter has became very popular with users but also popular for developers, and a lot of Twitter tools have been developed as a result. The easy to use API makes it incredibly fast to develop applications and that’s why there are so many – some good and some not so good. Here I will discuss 3 of my favorite latest discoveries. Twi.tt
If you have never logged into a Twitter service using OAuth before it is as simple as two clicks. First click the Sign in with Twitter button and then click Allow when you have been taken to Twitter.
Twi.tt allows you to upload pictures, videos, documents and audio from your computer, link to it via a URL or capture pictures, videos and audio straight from your computer. They are also planning on adding support for emails in a few days. When creating a poll you have 112 characters for the poll question and there is no limit for the number of poll answers. You also have the option of disallowing repeated votes and not posting your poll to Twitter. When your poll has been created you will be given a link to it and a link to it will also be posted on your Twitter feed if you did not select the option to not post there.
The profile page that Twi.tt creates for you is almost identical to your Twitter account as it has your background image and your profile image. People also have the option to comment on content that you have posted. Tweepler
To login in to Tweepler you must enter your Twitter username and password at the top of the site. When you hover over Why? next to the login form you will see that they state your details are encrypted and not stored. When you log in you are shown a list of people that are following you but you are not following back. These are listed as Unprocessed Followers. If you do not want to add a person you can move them to the ignore bucket by pressing the arrow to the right. If you want to follow a person back you click the arrow to the right of their name. You will be able to see everyone’s username, name, website, location and their bio. But if you click on more details you will get
It is possible to sort users by newest followers, oldest followers, name and username. If you don’t want to bother going through all of the Unprocessed followers you can click the Follow All or Ignore All button at the bottom of the page. Tweetboard
Tweetboard is still in alpha but you can grab an invite by requesting one on the Tweetboard website by clicking the “Request a free alpha invite!” button. When you click the button it will take you to Twitter where you must send the message that is entered upon load.
When your account has been set up you will be notified. From the Tweetboard you can then grab the javascript snippet of code that will be placed on your website for Tweetboard to function. On certain content management systems and blogs the code may not work as intended to so some tweaking may be needed. Tweetboard is a really good way of increasing traffic to your website and also a great solution of getting to know what your visitors think of your website. If you have a favorite Twitter tool or service then post a comment below and share it with us. 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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| Top 10 Disgusting Websites to Share With Friends Posted: 25 Jul 2009 11:01 AM PDT
There is one remaining, very powerful way to provoke a reaction from your half-asleep friends. Link to one of the following top 10 disgusting websites, and watch what sort of response you get.
How to Determine The Top 10 Disgusting WebsitesChoosing which websites should make the top ten list was very difficult only because there’s just so much stuff on the net that’s absolutely nauseating. And there’s really no way to pick the top websites, because there are just so many within each category – so instead I chose one appalling sample from each category. Those categories include surgeries (both human and animal), medical conditions, bugs and insects, bodily functions and a few other utterly gross things I can’t even type without gagging. I decided to write this article partially as a form of therapy. I admit it – I’ve got a weak stomach. I’ve been stung by wasps and hornets enough so that some insects really creep me out. I hate the sight of bodily fluids, and if you want to see me pass out just put me in the same room where there’s some kind of surgery that involves a scalpel cutting open human skin. Okay see…I almost just passed out again. Alright, let’s take a deep breath and work our way through the list. #1 – Horror Movies Are Really Gross
Some of the videos in the video section are pretty explicit, so beware. But if you’re one of those horror fans that can’t get enough creepy scenes filled with guts and gore, then this site will make you very happy. For the rest of you, expect lots of scenes that will make you wince. #2 – Diseased Human Organs
However, the one thing the site proves is that pathologists are not normal. This entire library constists of snapshots taken by pathology students of real, juicy, slimy human organs taken in various states of disease (after the person has died, obviously.) #3 – Neuticles. No, It’s Not a Dog Toy.
Now, Neuticles takes that process to a whole new level. Not only does the site post free videos of animal neutering, but you get to watch as they insert these freaky polypropylene objects back into the animal. Yikes. #4 – Doctor, I Seem to Have a Strange Rash
The medical photos in the “Skin Disease Finder” section at this site are not something you want to browse right after eating lunch. #5 – Watching Surgeries For Fun
It’s called Medline Plus, and there’s a giant area devoted to offering the public surgery videos for just about every surgery imaginable. I’m serious – they’ve got everything there. Not for the squeamish! #6 – Creepy Crawlies Make Me Itch
What that means is that you’ll find an image for almost every creepy critter imaginable. Trust me, after going through two or three of these pages, you’ll be scratching behind your neck and running for the bug repellent. #7 – Poop Report, Proving That Some People Are Just Weird
However, it’s not entirely clear what generates the author’s obsession with poop – but every single article and news item mentioned is somehow focused on the topic. You can even get your own Poop Report t-shirt. Now wouldn’t it be a riot wearing something like that to visit family? Okay, maybe poop is funny. #8 – National Geographic is King of Disgusting Video
It’s the most surreal and disgusting video I’ve watched in a log time – it’s difficult to keep in mind that she’s doing this to human body parts in the same manner she’d slice up beef for stew at home. It’s very disturbing. #9 – Prank Your Friends With Vomit
Yes, some people never really do grow up. You just thought of several friends that you’d like to send this to, didn’t you… #10 Man Vs. Wild and Eating Disgusting Things
He’s scarfed down raw animal meat, maggots, and in one case he ate a larvae that he described as an “explosion of pus” in his mouth. How lovely. You have to give the guy credit, he has a stomach of steel, and he’s willing to do anything for television. Do you know of any websites with disgusting content (keep it PG…okay maybe PG-13 please!) Share your own links, or your opinion about these, in the comments section 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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| How To Convert Books to Audio & Get Them on Your iPod Posted: 25 Jul 2009 09:01 AM PDT
I’m trying to get through my Instrumentation Technician apprenticeship as fast as I can, but between my day job and my night gig, I don’t have a lot of study time. But what I do have is a fair amount of time in my truck, traveling from site to site. Hmmm, light bulb, convert my text books into MP3’s that I can play on my iPod. Hmmm, bigger lightbulb! Write an article on that. Step 1: Get a Good Free Text to Speech (TTS) Program
Step 2: Get a Good Book
I suppose you could do this with an eBook you own, as long as it wasn’t for public performance and you didn’t upload it on the web somewhere, and you had the express written consent of Major League Baseball, its broadcasters and affiliates. That’s just an opinion – do so at your own risk. Step 3: Edit the Text as NecessaryYou could skip this step if you don’t have the time. Keep in mind that older books often have different spellings or curious characters that might not be read properly by your TTS program. Step 4: Open the Book in Your TTSWell, this means that you open the book in your TTS. Okay, here’s more details. Click on the Load Text from File button.
From there, navigate to the text file you want converted. Select that text file, and click on Open.
Now, your text should appear in the main part of the program, just like this!
I take credit for creating the grumbling gremlin tongue twister. It came to me as I was thinking about a gremlin that was, um, grumbling. The car, not the monster. Step 5: Let the TTS Do It’s ThingThis is the time saver part. Just hit Record and Create Audio File, save it with the file name you want and walk the dog. Don’t have a dog? Walk the neighbour’s dog – just tell them first or it gets ugly, and the neighbour thinks you’re taking the dog for that ritual you had planned for later. Or something like that.
Spesoft also allows you to choose different voices, adjust the speed, pitch and volume of the voice as well as tweak the recording quality. Everybody seems to have different preferences, so you might just want to play around with that for a bit. Personally, I set the Output Quality and Sample Rate as high as possible. My iPod doesn’t have much on it. Not much of a music guy. Now you have an Mp3 of the book that you finally wanted to read. Pop it on the iPod, crank up the Shakespeare and get ready to cruise the strip. That’s kind of lame isn’t it? Well, hot librarians might dig it. Image Credit : yum9me 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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| How To Use Facial Recognition in Picasa Web Albums Posted: 25 Jul 2009 07:01 AM PDT
In Picasa Web Albums, Google has integrated a newer technology that I think you’ll be amazed with at how well it works. In choosing which website to use to host my photographs, this feature may be a game-ender. Watch how it works, try it for yourself, and see if the facial recognition feature doesn’t turn your head too! I would like to introduce you to what facial recognition is, show you its benefits within Picasa Web Albums, and give a quick tutorial on how to use it with your own photo albums.
What is facial recognition?You may have seen facial recognition used on your favorite cop or investigative television show. They may have used it to identify some suspect from a huge file of photographs. You may be wondering, what is it and how does this work? Well, Wikipedia defines facial recognition this way: “A facial recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source.” Well done with another good definition! Basically, facial recognition technology attempts to identify people’s faces by comparing facial features in photographs. As we will be seeing in this article, Google has put this technology to use in Picasa in order to make tagging people in your albums a lot easier. How does it help me with my Picasa web album?How many pictures do you post in your Google Picasa Web Album? For those who have many hundreds of photos, tagging people in each photo can be a real chore. However, if you want to be able to quickly find specific photographs containing specific people, tagging becomes very necessary. So how exactly does facial recognition help in this endeavour? Google’s Picasa Web Albums can scan your photos of what it believes are faces, allow you to identify a person you know in the photographs, and scan the rest of your photographs for the same person allowing you to quickly tag them also. Basically it saves you from having to tag each individual photo by hand by suggesting other photos with the same people in them. Cool! So how do I get started then?It’s an easy, two step process! 1. Enable “name tags” in settings: Click the “settings” link on the top-right menu of Picasa Web Albums, click the “Privacy and Permissions” tab, check the box labeled “Use name tags to name people in my photos” (you’re faced with a few viewing options once you check the box), and click “save changes.”
2. Apply the name tags Choose which album you want to apply name tags to then click the “add name tags” button:
Then begin applying the names! The technology guesses which faces belong to the same people but make sure it guesses right. It gives you several suggestions:
But you can also choose from the list of already used names if the suggestions are wrong:
There you have it! The cool technology we see on those cop shows has come to help us organize our photos! Try it! You may actually come to finally enjoy the process of tagging your photographs! Who would have known? 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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| How To Easily Convert Video Files to DVD, MP4, VCD, MPEG, AVI … with VideoSpiritLite Posted: 25 Jul 2009 05:01 AM PDT
So when I happed upon VideoSpiritLite and saw that it could convert from and to any of these formats, VCD / SVCD / DVD / MPEG / AVI / DivX/ASF / WMV/DAT / SWF / FLV / 3GP / RM / MP4 / MOV, I was pretty happy and I hadn't even downloaded the application yet. While I started downloading the LITE version that is free from here I read through its features and it does some really neat stuff, other than converting, like extracting audio or still pictures from video. They do have a PRO version that costs money the only difference between the two products is the ability to edit the videos. Let's take a look at what we can do with the free version.
With these three codec packs you can convert to and from any of the above formats for free! If you do not have any of them installed follow their respective links to grab and install them. I had all of them installed on my system so I was good to go. Once you complete that, you will click close and you will then see the application. It looks like this:
I know, I know, you want to see how to convert a video… So here we go. Start with Add Task
Then I chose Convert One File and that brings up the Wizard to get your video converted. Just fill out the fields
I chose the type I want to convert my video to, then I chose the input video and it automatically gives you the most reasonable settings but, if you know what you are doing you can go in and modify most settings. When you are done hit OK. This will not start the conversion yet. The program can do batch processing – meaning you can set multiple files to convert and then start it. We will just be doing one today though. After you hit OK you will see a task like so:
Hit Start and you are off… Once the conversion is complete you can view or copy the file from the output folder to where it needs to go. Very easy, and VERY handy! To use the other features we were talking about it is as simple as going back to Add Task and selecting one of the other options:
You will see options to Split, Join and extract images. You can also convert a DVD. I was not able to figure out how to extract audio only from a video file but their website listed it as a feature. If you figure out how to do it – let us know 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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Are you constantly looking for something fresh and interesting to link to from your MySpace or Facebook account to intrigue and fascinate your friends? You’ve tried displaying hilarious YouTube videos (like the 
Now, in this list I decided to start with the most tame, and work down toward the most digusting website. The first on the list is 
The next most disgusting websites is one that features one of the grossest objects on earth – the human body. The website is titled 
One time in college, I remember having a free afternoon, so I started surfing the Internet (still very new at the time). What I came across was a veterinarian website featuring free videos of an animal neutering. Being a curious type, I clicked “play.” Doing so was one of the worst mistake of my life. I ended up in the bathroom, curled over the toilet and giving up my lunch.
When I was in high school, I used to occasionally get Athlete’s Foot from walking barefoot in the boy’s locker room. However, if the images on 
You’ve probably realized by now that I find many aspects of the human body to be terribly disgusting (what gave it away?). The next on the list of the top 10 disgusting websites is a website brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Library.
When you visit a website called 
Next on the list, there’s the 
At 
Bear Grylls, the host of 
Learning skills to increase our income or just having a moment to read a book for fun is hard to do when you put almost two-thirds of your day toward paying yesterday’s bills. Or am I the only one that feels like that?
Of the three TTS programs I tested with my text file of tongue twisters, the one I liked best was 
There is a veritable cornucopia of copyright expired books out on the web. 
I have used MANY video converters over the years. DVD to MPG or DVD to AVI and then I needed to convert AVI to WMV and many other combinations. Every time I was forced to find a different application to convert my damn videos! It was pretty annoying.
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