Latest Tips from MakeUseOf.com |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [ September 3 ]
- 5 Sites for Free Online Star Wars Games
- 5 Useful Websites For Photographers
- How To Submit Reality TV Applications Online
- Ditch Repetitions & Automate Your Work With Blaze Application Launcher [Win]
- How To Manipulate the Mac Menu Bar & Login Items
- Get Cool Website Icons and Buttons For Free At IconFinder
| Cool Websites and Tools [ September 3 ] Posted: 03 Sep 2009 06:01 PM PDT
(1) GetHighNow – Cool website that lists 35 audio and visual illusions ("hallucinations") which you can personally experience online, and use some of them to relax. If you are bored and looking for something to make you go WOW or even get high without any drugs or alcohol this is the website you should check. Read more: GetHighNow – Get High Without Drugs or Alcohol
(2) HistoryTree – Firefox add-on which lets you visualize your browsing history. It displays the websites in a hierarchical structure, hence the name History 'tree'. It can show such four different history views, show you the screenshot of every page you've visited and even pages which you can no longer navigate using the back and forward buttons of the browser. Read more: HistoryTree – View Your Browsing History as a Tree Diagram (3) LifePartition – New online to do application that can help you stay organized. It is simple and has one distinctive feature which separates it from most of the other online to do lists. It provides a multi-column interface where you can group your tasks by adding them to corresponding sections: Personal, Work and School. Read more: LifePartition – Stay Organized With Grouped To Do Lists (4) Smart.Apnoti – Price comparison engine that shows the latest prices for products compared in real time, hence making sure you are getting the best and most recent deals. The site searches over 10,000 online retailers and can be used to compere prices on almost anything. Read more: Smart.Apnoti – Real Time Price Comparison Engine With Price Trends (5) VidoopCAPTCHA – Image based CAPTCHA service which aims to make CAPTCHAs more interesting as well as more secure. The user is shown a set of images and he is required to identify them in a sequence to confirm that he is a human. The images change randomly and are different every time one attempts to solve the CAPTCHA. Read more: VidoopCAPTCHA – Get Image Based CAPTCHA For Your Site
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 Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
| ||
| 5 Sites for Free Online Star Wars Games Posted: 03 Sep 2009 03:01 PM PDT
And so begins one of the pinnacles of my childhood – Luke Skywalker fighting the evil Darth Vader. I can still remember playing Star Wars games in the school playground where we would take turns playing the Jedi Knight. We would get the pleasure of beating the hell out of the poor soul who had ended up getting the part of the hapless stormtrooper, chasing him around the playground while he shouted “right, it’s my turn to be Luke Skywalker now!“” Nowadays, you can still play Star Wars but, as with everything else these days, it has moved itself online. Here are some online Star Wars games you could play (and I don’t mean the drinking game). OK granted, they are not as good as the paid PC games but if you have a spare 5 minutes to kill, these freebies are good enough to satisfy your Star Wars fix.
Star Wars Lightsaber Simulator
Well, this isn’t really a game as such. All you can do here is swing a lightsaber about which does get boring after a while. But if you want to practise your Jedi moves before moving onto an actual real game, this is a good one to start off with. Just choose your lightsaber from the bottom, click your mouse to activate it and then use the mouse to swing back and forth. Can you feel the Force yet?
This basic game (but still quite fun and addictive) involves killing droids with your lightsaber by deflecting the lasers (which they are shooting at you) back at them with the lightsaber. It is actually not that easy to do and you lose points if the laser hits you instead. And yes, I got my butt whooped. By a droid. I’ll never live it down in the bars of Mos Eisley. Jedi Versus Jedi – Blades Of Light
This one has a bit more to it and the graphics are MUCH better. Hosted by Hasbro who make the Star Wars toys, you have to choose which Jedi you are going to be and then begin fighting the other one. Pressing A & D on your keyboard gives you the fighting moves while pressing the space bar releases the Force (if you have enough that is)
I predictably got my ass well and truly kicked. Can you do better? Clone Wars
This one involves you aiming your mens guns (who are in fixed positions) so that, when the time runs out, they will then fire and hit your opponent’s men, wiping them out. Each side has three men and the first one to wipe out the other side wins. I actually won at this one! Maybe I am not such a write-off after all at this gaming lark.
Another offering from the Star Wars website. This one has you in control of a gunship and you have to use your left mouse button to fire at the enemy which are flying your way shooting at you. Use the spacebar to drop bombs too if you have any. The Star Wars site also offers other free online games called Sharpshooter and LiveFire. There’s a lot of stupid pointless games online as well (including one I found where you have to fire at Imperial Tie-Fighters but they don’t tell you where the fire button is – you have to find it yourself!). If you want a decent free game, the Star Wars website is the best place to go but as we’ve seen, there are a few other sites if you keep looking. Which sites do you go to when you want to play Star Wars for free? 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
| ||
| 5 Useful Websites For Photographers Posted: 03 Sep 2009 01:01 PM PDT
Now, with digital SLRs readily available and even the world's first ever 3D camera now on the scene, the hobby (and indeed profession for many) keeps growing and growing in an era where still images and print was predicted to be obsolete. The web is the greatest place for photographers to share photos and socialise, with Flickr undoubtedly being the biggest site for photographers to show off their snaps. But how about when it comes to editing their snaps or indeed just getting solid advice? I have whittled down a list of many photography websites that I found into the five best sites for the amateur and semi-pro photographer.
Photoshop ExpressThis is a web app owned and run by the well-known Photoshop company – Adobe. It is a watered down version of their software and it allows the user to make basic editing to their photographs online before sharing them.
It's really easy to use. Down the left hand side of the editing screen you have your basic tools such as 'Auto-Correct', 'Crop', 'Touch up', and 'Remove Redeye'. These can all be used by clicking and dragging the mouse, which your average PC user, who has used MS Paint once or twice, should have no trouble with. The list continues with some more advanced tools such as 'Colour Saturation', 'Highlighting', 'Tint' and 'Focus'. All of these can transform a good shot into something memorable where the eye washes over the picture numerous times taking in all the attention to detail. Across the top there are some upload tools and a link to your gallery. Photoshop Express lets you have up to 2GB of online storage – more than enough to upload a days worth of photographs waiting to be given a tweak here and there. You also get you own gallery page under the Photoshop domain, for example, Mygallerypage.photoshop.com. For more on Photoshop Express visit the MakeUseOf Directory. PicResizePic Resize is a photography website that does pretty much what it says on the domain; it resizes pictures. This is an easy to use tool with some extra features thrown in.
When you get to the home page simply select the file you want by clicking 'Browse' and upload it. This will bring you to section two as seen in the screenshot. Here you can crop your picture, select what size you want to make it and add special affects such as 'Sharpen', 'Greyscale', 'Rotate' and 'Blur'. You can do one or all of these options. Then click 'Resize' at the end of the page. The final page gives you four options to choose from. You can preview the image, save it, publish it to the web or use the 'Advanced Edit' tool. The advanced edit tool doesn't give much more options but it is good for just giving it that final touch-up after the resize. You can crop, add text, blur, explode, and add a frame along with a few other small options. Golden HourGolden Hour is a web app that tells you the best times to go out on the hunt for a mean shot in a certain area. Any photographer will tell you that they always go snapping at the 'Golden Hour' (or 'Magic Hour' as it's sometimes known) because the sun is at the right angle of elevation relevant to the particular landmass selected.
All you have to do is click on where it is on the map that you plan on shooting and the app will tell you what times are the best to go. The hour is highlighted on a chart below the map and when you roll over it gives you some information as to why this is the golden hour for this location. The app will also tell you when there is a full moon coming up for those who want some good night time pictures. WatermarkSo after spending the day snapping like crazy, the photographer comes up against a new problem – copyright. As a freelance writer, I discovered my work stolen by two websites on two separate occasions when playing with CopyScape. The feeling of anger and to be honest, helplessness is awful. What can you do? It's the internet and tracking down someone is like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, with photographs the creators can protect them by adding in a watermark that will stop people from stealing their work.
A great (and free) online tool I found that can do this is a photography website called Watermark. This has a good free account option with the ability to upgrade to the premium account if you so wish. The free account does all you would really need. You can mark multiple photos at once and you can customise the watermark with different text, colours, size and effects as seen in the screenshot. The only bad parts to the free account that you would notice is that a picture cannot be any larger than 0.5Mb which shouldn't obstruct you much if you're only posting them online. Also, it doesn't save your watermark for when you come back later. Both Karl and Jim have discussed watermarking alternatives here and here. FotopediaFinally when the photograph has been taken, edited, resized and protected there comes the time to publish it. Sure, one could indeed use Flickr or perhaps a personal blog but for me, Fotopedia stands out from the rest.
With Fotopedia, photographs are organised and even voted upon by users as one of the main features to determine which ones should represent each category. Many of the photographs actually come from other web services such as Flickr as seen under them in the photographer's credit area. You're assured that you're getting the best of the best however, as irrelevant or low quality photos are removed from the categories via the user vote system. Fellow MakeUseOf writer Jim Henderson has done lots of photography-related articles here on MakeUseOf. To see what he has done so far, check out his MakeUseOf writers page. So what web tools and services do MakeUseOf readers use for their photographs? 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
| ||
| How To Submit Reality TV Applications Online Posted: 03 Sep 2009 11:01 AM PDT
The truth is, unless you’re especially gifted or unique, it really is very difficult to get on the top few most popular reality shows. However, many people don’t realize that there are over 20 to 30 ongoing reality shows that regularly accept reality TV applications from folks just like you. A lot of these reality shows are a lot easier to get chosen for than many people think – all you have to do is choose the show that sounds like something you’d like to try, and apply. What do you have to lose – other than your dignity and the respect of all of your friends?!
How to Submit Reality TV Applications Online And Get Chosen!A lot of people want to be seen on national television. The opportunity to get featured on one of the major cable networks is a dream for many people. Reality TV shows are one of the only ways that regular folks are able to land a spot on a television series. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to submit reality TV applications online to your favorite shows, but you shied away because you thought it was just a pipe dream and your chances are nil – I’m here to tell you that your chances of getting chosen are a lot better than you might think. The following are a few of the best reality TV shows where you can submit your application online for a chance to appear on the show. Apply To TLC Reality ShowsThe TLC channel is part of the Discovery network, and if you visit their casting page you’ll discover a constantly updated list of reality shows where producers are seeking out folks like you to take part in their shows.
Additionally, it’s not like the producers are seeking extremely talented folks. For example, some of the shows listed this week as “now casting” for upcoming shows include people who are moving into a new home in the New York tri-state area (for the show Moving Up), anyone whose child ate something and had to go to the emergency room (for the show Your Kid Ate What?), and if you are feeling evil – nominate a friend for What Not to Wear, where the only requirement is bad fashion sense. VH1 Reality Shows – Smaller Networks Mean Better ChancesWhile most folks who are interested in applying for reality TV shows may run for the big three – NBC, CBS and ABC – your odds of getting selected are much higher if you avoid doing like everyone else. The fewer applicants, the greater your chances, and this is why networks like TLC and VH1 offer better odds. In the case of VH1, there’s also a section of the website that offers a constantly updated list of reality show casting opportunities.
At the moment the site is dried up. There’s just one opportunity where producers are looking for aspiring actresses. This is a show that’s sure to produce a significant crowd of scantily clad, bleached blonde Hollywood wannabes who can’t act, but this is reality TV – the one chance to get on television for people who can’t act! ITV – Home of Britain’s Got TalentIf you’re in the UK and desperate to get yourself on the tube – don’t forget about the popular network ITV, the home of the worldwide famous reality show Britain’s Got Talent. ITV has a section of their website titled “Be On TV” where you can choose a show to apply for.
ITV offers viewers opportunities with both old and new shows. For example, if you’re simply going on an important road trip, there’s a show for you. If you’re an amateur cook – there’s a show for you. If you think your family can handle a “thrift money makeover,” there’s a show for you! Opportunities change often, so check out this site often. The Big U.S. Three – NBC, CBS and ABCThe most popular reality shows usually appear on the huge cable networks that we all know and love. For that reason, competition is going to be a bit more fierce. I’d suggest avoiding applying for the hottest shows like Big Brother or Survivor – you probably have just as much chance to get struck by lightning (although it does happen). Instead of applying to those, take a look at the newer, upcoming shows that no one knows about yet – or the smaller reality TV shows that aren’t quite so competitive. However, when it comes to CBS, there really aren’t any non-competitive reality shows.
If you want a chance at getting on one of these major reality shows, you’ll need to make a good impression on the producers. CBS has a very simple casting page, complete with a simple drop-down list of current reality shows, local locations for open call auditions, and a PDF application form you can fill out and mail in. NBC also has a similar all-inclusive casting page that lists all of the current shows accepting applications.
NBC reality shows aren’t quite as popular as the CBS hits, but they’re still competitive. Sift through current opportunities and submit your application. If you choose to take part in The Biggest Loser – good luck with that. I can never understand how grossly obese people are willing to disrobe and bare their rolls and jiggles for the entire world to see! Finally, if you really want a good list of opportunities to be on TV, ABC is the king of reality, and their casting page always features the longest list of open auditions than most other networks.
In the current list, there are both well-known existing series, as well as a few first-time shows that you may have excellent chances at taking part in. It’s just a matter of finding a show that suits you, and then applying in a way that captures the interest of producers. Play attention to the requirements and what the producers are looking for and do your best to fill those requirements in every contact you have with the network, starting with your application. Check out All-In-One Casting SitesIf you’d rather not have to visit every single TV network website to check for new reality TV opportunities, there are lots of websites online that aggregate “casting call notices” that go out from various networks, big and small, and display them in one database. One of the best sites is RealityTVCastingCalls, which features an impressive volume of reality TV opportunities.
In the most recent list, I counted between 7 to 15 new opportunities each month from both small producers as well as big networks like FOX, MTV and HGTV. Surfing this list, you’re certain to find a reality TV show that fits your personality, and one where the producers of the show decide to pick you to star on their reality TV show! Have you ever considered submitting a reality TV applications to take part in a show? Have you been in a reality TV show? Do you know of any other online resources that makes applying for them easier? Share your insights and experiences 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
| ||
| Ditch Repetitions & Automate Your Work With Blaze Application Launcher [Win] Posted: 03 Sep 2009 09:01 AM PDT
We have covered our fair share of launchers here on MakeUseOf, each having its own strong point. Blaze is yet another innovative addition to the application launcher universe, however it has a lot going for it with its some of its killer features. Let’s have a look. First off, it does all the usual application launcher chores like indexing, launching your applications and letting you jump to a file or location. I didn’t find anything special in here except for the fact that it handles typos better. Application launchers generally give way when you accidentally type in a character that is not a part of the application name, Blaze handles this scenario better than others. Let’s face it we all make typos and having a program smart enough to still guess the correct application really helps.
Blaze can monitor and automate anything from entering text to mouse clicks to renaming files to creating folders. In short, if your previous few actions have something in common, Blaze will most likely come up with a suggestion to do it for you. Here is a look of the suggestion window:
If Blaze comes up with a suggestion which is not what you were looking for exactly, you can tweak the suggestion to your liking before giving Blaze a go ahead to perform it. You can click on the arrows to cycle through the various suggestions that Blaze has to offer, you can increase or decrease the number of repetitions that should be performed, you can control the speed with which the automation is performed allowing you a chance to jump in if something is not right.
Blaze also lets you create new automations from scratch or modify the suggested automation to your liking. You can do so by clicking on ‘Create a new Automation’ or ‘Modify this Automation’ buttons. You will be shown the Automation editor, in here you can modify the automations, add, subtract and modify actions to your liking.
Blaze doesn’t currently support skins so you would to have to be content with the default orange look. It supports plug ins and there are some handy plug ins installed by default, like the one that lets you perform calculations or one which indexes the ID3 tags to let you search music better. I tried but couldn’t find any more plug ins than the ones those are already installed. If you are into development you can use IronPython to write some of your own! Overall Blaze is an application launcher with some amazing features that make it worth checking out. You can also refer to the Blaze Quick Guide for advanced automation examples. What do you think of Blaze? Let us know 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
| ||
| How To Manipulate the Mac Menu Bar & Login Items Posted: 03 Sep 2009 07:01 AM PDT
However, for whatever absurd reason, Apple does not give the clock a calendar display. We have to depend on third party application(s) for this I’ve tried several applications and at the moment I’ve settled with the combination of Mac OS X menu bar clock and TinyCal – a Mac menu bar calendar with Google Calendar integration (free for basic features). The problem is, the location of the menu bar clock is inconveniently separated from TinyCal.
I began to wonder whether we can re-arrange the order of items in the menu bar so that the couple could be positioned next to each other.
The random re-arrangementIt turns out that its possible to re-arrange the Mac menu bar items. A quick web search reveals that all that you have to do is just click and drag the item around to the location that you prefer while holding the Command key. Very convenient. You can also drag out the items from the menu bar just like you can with the Dock items. A quick way to unclutter your menu bar.
However, this trick is only applicable to native Mac OS X applications like the clock, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi; with the exception of Spotlight which always stays at the utmost right of the menu bar. As for third party applications, they are just untouchable. Non-Mac menu bar items are arranged in the order of their loading. But there’s no way to determine which app pops up first in the menu bar because they load simultaneously and not in sequence – another feature that should’ve been included by Apple. So far, I am able to drag the clock as near to TinyCal as possible just by dragging it left. But to move the TinyCal right, another trick is required. Leveraging the login itemsYou can’t touch the third party menu bar items, that much is clear. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try to take the different route: manipulate the login items. My research on tweaking the login items led me to several scripting solutions – the area where I prefer not to go. Luckily I found one app called DelayedLauncher which is almost perfect for the job.
What DelayedLauncher does is delay the start up of chosen applications, then activate them after the pre-set delay time. To achieve our objective of placing TinyCal next to the Mac’s menu bar clock, we should set TinyCal to load before the other menu bar items. All you have to do is drag and drop all the third party menu bar apps from the Applications folder to the DelayedLauncher window. Then you set the delay time – how long do you want the system to wait at login before starting to launch the applications on the list. You can do this by moving the slider left or right. There’s the indicator on the right area of the window telling you the exact delay time (in seconds) related to the position of the slider.
The next step is to delete all of the menu bar items from the Login Items in the Accounts of System Preferences, and add TinyCal and DelayedLauncher there. This involves a simple process of clicking the minus and plus button below the application list pane.
There you go. A little lengthy process just to satisfy the curious.
But I learned a few useful new things here. First: I can finally get rid of that useless menu bar item; and second: I can decrease the login load of my system by delaying some items from starting up at login. Please note that if you launched DelayedLauncher the second time to add more items, you have to click on the slider to stop the count down. This app don’t have any icon and also doesn’t have the feature to start the listed apps one by one in sequential order – yet. 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
| ||
| Get Cool Website Icons and Buttons For Free At IconFinder Posted: 03 Sep 2009 05:01 AM PDT
Time and time again I have to create custom icons and buttons for clients. Now with IconFinder that is a thing of the past. IconFinder is a search engine that will return icons or png files with free website icons. They allow you to change the background of each from either black, white or transparent as well as filter results for a commercial website or just for personal use. Let's take a look at Icon Finder:
Just like any other search engine the search bar and options are at the top. Type in a search term and hit that search button. It will then search through their 109,067 free website icons and 206 icon sets. Not too shabby for a new site.
After hitting that search button you will be shown your results. They will look like this:
Now you can click on one to download or view it but check out these features. Click on the transparent or black button under background color and watch the free website icons change to meet your requirements:
You can also narrow down your results to only show commercial images or ones you can use personally by hitting this:
Once you see the image you want to download click on it and it will bring up another screen that looks like this:
You see from this screen that you can grab the PNG file or the ICO file. It also has the dimensions – in this case it is 128×128 – a nice size for an icon. There is a link to show all icons in this set and tags/ratings. When we click on the show all icons in this icon set button we get this:
These images are free for commercial use! WOOT! That means I do not need to pay any royalties or fees to use these in a website that makes someone money. I can’t express how awesome this is. Consider this the equivalent of Creative Commons for icons! I ran a few other searches before I bounced, including this left arrow search:
These icons are great for small buttons designating back or forward. The site is pretty new and I can only assume that as time goes on the site will get bigger and be filled with more and more icons. If you create icons I am sure you can get some recognition by uploading them to their site. You can browse all those sets by hitting the browse sets button. That will take you to a page that looks like this:
You can then click on the entire set and view all of the icons in it. This is great for sticking with a static theme throughout the website. Where do you grab your icon files from? We would love to hear about more icon download sites in the comments! Don't be shy guys! Related posts
|
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…..
Photography is a hobby that millions of people partake in every day. For many people, including me, it started out when they were a kid snapping pretend photos with their dad's empty camera.
Have you ever caught yourself watching some reality show where a regular person is challenged to perform some ridiculous stunt, which they fail at miserably, and you think to yourself, “Man, I could have done so much better than that!” Maybe you’ve even considered applying to shows like Big Brother or Wife Swap, but you’re put off by the fact that thousands upon thousands of people submit applications to these shows?
Launcher applications have taken off and advanced so rapidly that it almost feels old fashioned to click on the Windows button and then browse through to the application to launch using your mouse.
As a person who lives from one deadline to another (and barely survives to another day!), I’ve accustomed myself to regularly check the time. That’s why I rely so much on the Mac OS X menu bar clock display.
“should’ve been part of the OS” feature.
I find myself using the same crappy buttons on websites because that is all I have. Everyone knows that buttons and icons are a integral part of any website. So it’s always back to the drawing board and start making new icons!
| You are subscribed to email updates from MakeUseOf.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Please try FindIcons.com, a much better icon search engine
ReplyDelete