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- Cool Websites and Tools [September 7]
- Embrace Left-Handedness With These 5 Great Sites
- Create Simulated Model Train Layout Plans And Control Your Train With Your PC
- How To Organize iPhone Apps From Your Mac
- Tokbox & Etherpad: Potential Google Wave Competitors, Available Now
- How To Turn Gmail Into A Multitasking Machine (Part II)
- How To Easily Update Your Version of Firefox Portable
| Cool Websites and Tools [September 7] Posted: 07 Sep 2009 05:00 PM PDT
(1) Diagrammr – New online tool which offers a really cool and easy way to create diagrams online. The best part about it is that unlike other diagramming apps you can have your diagrams done by writing simple sentences. The actual diagram creation is handled by Diagrammr. Read more: Diagrammr – Really Easy Way to Create Diagrams Online (2) Masher – Web-based tool for quickly mixing together video clips, music tracks and photos. The site provides you with an easy to use editor where you can upload content and mix it the way you like. You simply need to drag and drop videos and images onto a timeline, and then incorporate provided special effects such as transitions, saturation and modes. Read more: Masher – Create videos by mashing video clips, images & music online (3) LazyFeed – If you are more into tracking stories on a particular subject like technology, music, etc. rather than tracking specific blogs then LazyFeed could be the tool you need. You just need to sign up and add your favorite topic and Lazyfeed would crawl the web to bring you the most updated stories on that topic in real time. Read more: LazyFeed – Follow Latest News on your Favorite Topics (4) Magma – Fun site which features 100 most popular internet videos from various video-sharing sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Hulu and many more, on a single page. It also features videos popular among social network users on sites like Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc. The great thing about this site is that although the content comes from so many sources, it is neatly arranged and organized under different blocks. Read more: Magma – Puts Most Popular Internet Videos on One Page (5) Olark – Nice website which provides a really simple and easy to use live chat widget for website owners. Live chatting with your site visitors is a great way to gather feedback in real time. With Olark, you don't need to install any extra software. Plus you could use your existing IM client like Google Talk, Meebo or iChat to chat with your site visitors without adding them to your buddy list. Read more: Olark – Simple Live Chat Widget for Your Website
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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| Embrace Left-Handedness With These 5 Great Sites Posted: 07 Sep 2009 03:00 PM PDT
Now, I am right-handed, at every activity except one – shooting a rifle. That’s about the most awkward thing I think you can do left-handed, and it was a pain in the neck (literally) when I was in the military. Hot casings popping out and going down my shirt. Ouch! Anyway, that’s what lead me to look for great websites for the southpaws in our society. And away we go! Famous Left Handers
There have been some famous actors as well. Did you know Joey Lawrence is a lefty? Whoa! Cary Grant made the ladies swoon with the soft touch of his left hand. Jim Henson, the creator of Muppets had his left hand up the posterior of Kermit, who, coincidentally, is also a lefty. Who knew? Oh and Angelina Jolie is left handed too. I only mention that because I think she’s the second hottest woman on Earth. My sweetie is first of course. Left Handers Day
The left-hander facts were pretty cool too. Did you know that Lefties usually reach puberty about 4-5 months earlier than Righties? They also have a higher incidence of dyslexia. Which is interesting because my sweetie is left-handed, dyslexic and definitely sexier than a right hander like me. Rosemary West’s Left-Handed Page
There’s also a note about a $100,000 scholarship for lefties. Very cool. After reading the 13 -year-old’s story, you can definitely see where there would be a need for something like this. Handedness Research Institute
HRI supports a Research Fellow and Internship program for those studying handedness. Perhaps even more useful to the average person is their rich section on educational resources, including the Homework Help section. Crochet Lessons for Left-Handers
I hope you have enjoyed my selection of left-handed sites. Perhaps you’ll find them as fascinating as I did, and as insightful into the lives of people who do things just a tad differently than most. It’s a great world because nobody is the same. Image Credit: Hortulus Related posts
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| Create Simulated Model Train Layout Plans And Control Your Train With Your PC Posted: 07 Sep 2009 01:00 PM PDT
Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve covered a lot of topics that involve ways you can use outside applications to control your PC; such as Ben’s article on how to control your PC using Remote Access, or my article on 3 ways to remotely restart your computer over the Internet. But, what about controlling other things with your computer? Specifically in the world of model train building and operation, the ability to design and then control a model train with your computer would be very cool. This is where CATrain comes in. CATrain is a very cool Windows app written by a guy by the name of Joel Bouchat over in France. With his application, you can design and lay out a complete model railroad track, design a timed “itinerary,” and yes – you can even hook up your train to your computer and automate your model train. Getting Started With CATrainWhen I first discovered CATrain, from the screenshots I thought that it would be a simplistic, amateur application. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent too many years playing graphically intensive games like SIM City or Roller Coaster Tycoon. A video game CATrain is not. Once you install the application, it quickly becomes apparent that what you’re dealing with here isn’t so much a simulator style game, but more of a design application that comes preloaded with everything you might need to accurately lay out a model train railroad.
The app first comes up in design mode, and you’re offered a pallet full of the various train track segments that you’d find in most model railroad kits. The learning curve for folks already familiar with most Windows applications is essentially zero. It’s all drag and drop – that’s it.
As you click a track segment, it attaches to your mouse pointer. Move your mouse over to the grid section that you want to fill and the application provides a tip with your options at the upper right hand corner of the application (nice touch!).
Once you have a decent model train track laid out, you can switch the application mode over to add elements like the power supply and signals (electrical design), set the grades of track segments, or switch the application over into “run” mode.
Under Display options is where you’ll find the bulk of how you configure the on-screen appearance of your design and where you can configure the itinerary for your train. It’s also where you open up the throttle and device controls, a critical part of the application if you plan to simulate the operation of your train on the screen, or control your real train off the screen.
The next menu item is where you can view the wiring configuration of your design track to make sure that you’ve placed the correct connections together, and that the polarity of the power supply is correct. When you select the “show polarity” option, it shows up overlaid on top of the track as shown above.
Ready to place your simulated train on the track? When you go to select “Place a Train on the Railway” under the “Trains” option, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a total of 30 train types. You also have the option to edit your own train.
Once you’ve selected your train, bring your mouse over to the track and left click to place it wherever you’d like the train to start, the application pops up the throttle control icon as shown above. I’m afraid my pathetic little track won’t exactly provide the opportunity for a fun itinerary for this poor little train. However, the application comes preloaded with a long list of pre-designed tracks (under the TCI folder), and when you see the creativity (and complexity) that went into some of these designs I’m sure you’ll be as surprised as I was.
Of course, on top of the well-written design software (and free on top of that), the best part of this software is its ability to actually control your model railroad hardware. When you install the application, you’ll notice a USB driver installed along with it for that purpose. However, this is where the “free” stops, because obviously to control your model train you need the microprocessors to plug your computer into in order to do so. Required hardware includes a USB interface, PWM controller, device controller and train detector. Joel sells these pre-made, or you can buy the electrical schematics to build them yourself. Whether you choose to use his hardware, or you build it yourself, CATrain represents at least one very cool way that you can interface between your PC and something in the real world that you can actually control. Are you a model train enthusiast? Have you ever hooked up your PC to control something in the real world? Tell us about it 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 Organize iPhone Apps From Your Mac Posted: 07 Sep 2009 11:00 AM PDT
I’ve had my iPhone for a little more than 2 years; and yes, you guessed it: I’m still using a 2G iPhone. Just like Macs, the iPhone’s functionality tends to get better over time with newer operating system updates. Over the years, I’ve used a lot of apps and certainly gathered a whole bunch of free games, utilities and other junk. Luckily, Apple increased the number of home screens to hosts apps on the iPhone. We are now allowed 11 pages of applications. Unluckily, however, there is still no easy way to organize them. But there is hope. All that’s required is a jailbroken iPhone and a Mac. If the terms jailbroken, unlocked, 2G, 3G or 3GS don’t mean anything to you, then I suggest that you first browse through MakeUseOf’s Underground Guide To The iPhone and familiarize yourself with some common lingo before proceeding. Basically, a jailbroken iPhone allows the user to access and modify the iPhone’s database. A word of caution: Apple does not provide support for jailbroken iPhones. So please, if you don’t exactly know how to go about jailbreaking your iPhone and do not want to void your warranty then do not proceed. Otherwise, get ready to be rewarded by the easiest method to arrange your apps. Just a little background information: the traditional way of arranging apps would be to press and hold an icon until it starts to move about and wiggle. Then, we are able to re-position each app. Individually! Can you even imagine how tedious this can get? A nifty application comes to the rescue. Aptly, it’s named Movement.
There are just 6 easy steps to follow:
The application reads your iPhone for the structure of its home screens and lays them out for you. This is when you re-arrange your heart out. When you are finally done, remember to click on ‘Write Apps’. A warning popped up to prompt me to back up the springboard and disconnect the device then restart it.
Select individual apps and move them about or Command-click several and re-arrange them in a group.
Yep, I’m reckless and loving it.
Restarting the iPhone each time is a hassle but I’ll admit, it’s a small price to pay for all the time that is saved if a major reshuffling is required. It couldn’t be simpler. I tried Movement after doing a little bit of cleaning (I finally removed the apps that I never, ever use) and wanted to arrange the apps according to their categories. It worked flawlessly. After some mock-ups, we finally have a working model of a direly yearned for application. Movement works with Leopard (and Snow Leopard) but remember that you’ll need a jailbroken iPhone. 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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| Tokbox & Etherpad: Potential Google Wave Competitors, Available Now Posted: 07 Sep 2009 09:00 AM PDT
I don't particularly appreciate sensationalistic titles, either in print or online media but today's title accurately reflects the content of this article. By adding support for Etherpad inside their already comprehensive communication web app, Tokbox just created the ultimate online communication tool. Let's take it one step at a time and take a look at Tokbox, a San Francisco start-up with some very smart people at the helm; Tokbox is an online video chat application that implements basically all the functionality of Skype minus the mobile and landline phone support.
It's free, it's got an awesome interface and supports more concurrent video streams than your bandwidth can handle (more than 20 people in a conference call according to the Tokbox homepage). That alone is a great product, but there's more; it's got a multi-platform chat client, just type in your Yahoo!, GTalk, MSN or AOL credentials; free video ‘voicemail’ and integration with all the web services you might want: inline YouTube videos, Picasa & Flickr picture slideshows, Slideshare presentations, and notifications for MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
You'd expect a feature-rich application like that to be destined for your local hard drive, but the fact is that it works amazingly well online. If someone paid attention to past reviews of web applications – it's these developers. Not only is the interface simple and intuitive, it's also got power – detailed privacy settings, an Adobe Flash helper for guiding the user to the necessary steps to enable the webcam and microphone and a task list that takes the guessing out and walks the user through the available features.
Etherpad on the other hand, was created by a group of former Google employees with some support from Y Combinator and a couple of fellows from FriendFeed. It started out as "what might be both the ugliest and most useful group productivity app", at least that's how TechCrunch put it back in November 2008.
Now, Etherpad is all grown-up and its design, while it still remains rugged, is considerably improved. If you've seen the Google Wave demo, you'll immediately catch the grip of Etherpad: collaborative online text editing, all happening live and with different color highlighting for each participant.
Now imagine a video conference call with your friends, planning a vacation and writing down the itinerary; discussing features and design with a client; proofreading an article with your editor; or collaborating on a project with someone from school. That's what this amazing web app duo achieves. This functionality is basically what we all expect to see coming from Google Wave. Although you might think the opposite, these two start-ups already have a leg up compared to Google's vertical solution; they already integrate with existing web services and user habits: pop in a Slideshare, a Flickr slideshow or integrate a chat window in Facebook. If these two have an Achilles heel, it's the brand awareness and sheer number users Google has in its grasp. Until Google Wave proves me wrong – I'm declaring Tokbox+Etherpad the best web applications of the year. Check out Tokbox and Etherpad, then remember to come back and share your impressions. For more cool reviews of web applications visit the category page. 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 Turn Gmail Into A Multitasking Machine (Part II) Posted: 07 Sep 2009 07:00 AM PDT
We move onto Part Two. Now that we've set up our labels, we need to do something with them. We'll set up the filters in this part, so that labeling email isn't as painful, and is mostly automated. I find that maintaining is the hardest part of organization, so if there a bit of automated help involved, hopefully that will motivate you to keep up the hard work of sorting through your communication. 4. Filters Having labels set up is excellent, but that doesn't accomplish anything in itself, unless you plan on applying labels by hand to every email you receive. However, that would make this system tedious and redundant. That's why we'll use filters to automate email labeling.
Click on the Settings link in the upper right hand corner of your screen. In the page that pops up, click the Filters header, and you should be greeted by a list of the filters you currently have. Click Create New Filter.
You don't need to fill out all of the boxes; it actually is best if you fill out as few of them as necessary, as the more boxes you fill out, the more likely you are to miss emails that should fall under that filter. On the contrary, the less boxes you fill out, the more likely you are to accidentally capture unrelated emails. Thus, it goes without saying that you should only be using very specific key words to set up your filters. For example, my school job sends out mass emails to their mailing list by addressing all mass emails to "stc-all." Thus, I created a filter for all the emails that were directed TO: stc-all. If you have more than one keyword for a particular box, you can use AND or OR to append that keyword to the filter as well. In my above example, I could put TO: stc-all AND ucla.edu, and that would filter out emails that are only to both stc-all and ucla.edu. If I had put OR instead of AND, then the filter would single out all of the emails directed to either stc-all or ucla.edu (which, in this case, would be inadvisable, since all of the emails directed to any ucla.edu address would not necessarily be related to my job. Keep in mind though, the separate boxes represent parameters that are added onto your search. If you typed something in both TO: and FROM:, for example, your filter would only catch emails that are directed both TO: keyword 1, and FROM: keyword 2.
From here, you can do a test search to see which emails your filter catches and if the keywords you are using blanket enough of the right emails. Then, if necessary, you can adjust your keywords if they do not filter out the necessary emails. Otherwise, you can move forward and specify what you would like to name your filter and do with the emails. If you’re applying the “Skip the Inbox” option to any of your emails, you might want to consider unsubscribing from the newsletter or asking the sender to desist. The “Mark As Read” function is great for any emails that you need to check, but don’t want necessarily cluttering your inbox. For example, I use Freecycle, and want to see all the emails sent by its members, but if left alone, I would get ten or twenty some emails from Freecycle every day. Of course, leaving it as is doesn’t impact my workflow too much, but I prefer setting them all as “read” by default so that when I’m done sorting my important emails, I can select “Select: All Read” to quickly clear out my inbox. We're almost done! There's only one part to go before we hit the final bend, and learn how to keep our inboxes tidy and efficient, so we're not swamped by the influx of emails. Take some time before the next article comes out to play around with your labels and filters, and figure out a system that works for you. Perhaps you'll only utilize some of the tips that I gave you, and that is definitely fine. As always, whatever works for you is always the best path to take. 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 Easily Update Your Version of Firefox Portable Posted: 07 Sep 2009 05:00 AM PDT
Doing my research for this post (yes, it’s almost like real journalism here at MakeUseOf), I was surprised to read the first version (1.0) was released only five years ago, in November of 2004. Even with the recent extra competition brought on by Chrome from Google, Internet Explorer and Opera, it kept gaining popularity. Mozilla Firefox now has a market share of about 22%. Alright, enough with the history lesson. Many people like to take Firefox with them on a USB drive to college or work so that they can use their personalized settings and plugins. A lot of these places still use Internet Explorer 6 or something like that, so using a portable version of Firefox seems like the smart thing to do. Installing is easy when you use the portable version PortableApps, but updating is not so easy. If you don’t have a portable version of Firefox installed yet, read this article on how to turn your USB drive into a fully functional PC or just go to www.portableapps.com to install it. But if you want to update a portable app, you can’t just click the auto-updater button that pops-up when there’s a new version. You have to install a normal version of Firefox, with some special settings. Here’s how. Download the regular setup fileYou can download the regular setup file from Mozilla. The latest version at the time of writing is 3.5.2. So if you have a previous one, it’s wise to update because Mozilla keeps plugging security holes all the time. Start the installationDouble-click the file you have just downloaded. Click ‘Next’ in the first window. Now pay attention as it goes a little differently than usual. In the second screen, select “Custom” and deselect the check-box next to “Use Firefox as my default web browser”.
In this screen, click “Browse” to search for the folder where your portable Firefox is installed on your USB drive. Select the “DefaultData\Firefox” folder so the location ends with “\FirefoxPortable\DefaultData\Firefox”. This way, you overwrite the files from the current installation but keep all your settings and plugins. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Next’.
In the next screen, deselect the options to create icons since you already have icons from the previous installation. After this, you can click ‘Next’ to check the summary and press “Install” to do just that.
There you have it, your portable Firefox is updated, all secure and future-proof. Until the next update anyway. Click “Finish” with the checkmark in place to check out the newest version of the open-source browser. You can take Firefox with you to your school or office. It’s also a great way to try out the newest alpha versions without endangering your stable version. You can find the latest test versions here, but as Mozilla themselves claim it “might delete all your files and cause your computer to burst into flames”. If you’re new to the portable apps, I recommend looking around at their site Portableapps.com. There is a suite of the most used software that you can start with. Some apps to check out are OpenOffice.org Portable, Pidgin Portable and FileZilla Portable. Here are some more portable app suggestions. Do you use portable apps? How do you update them to the latest versions? Share your technique 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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Must be something going on in my mind about my dad. My last article was inspired by his tattoo. This one is about left-handers, which my dad was. I remember him telling me stories of how when he was a kid, they tried to force him to do everything right-handed. Apparently there was a time when being left-handed meant you had the devil in you or something like that. It was quite a big deal back in the day!
If you’re a southpaw, you’re in good company. Not just famous boxers and pitchers either, who took a supposed handicap and made it into their commodity. Five out of the last seven U.S. Presidents have signed their executive orders with their left hands. Maybe there is something to that ‘devil’ thing. Just kidding, Mr. Secret Service man. Please take off the latex glove. Seriously though, I do think Mr. Obama is a pretty cool guy, regardless of his politics.
Why shouldn’t Lefties have a day of their own? Every other day is dominated by the Righties. Look at them using scissors so smuggly. No ink stain on the edge of their oh-so-precious right hands. Left Hand Day is August the 13th, just in case you were wondering. The Left Hand Day web site has way more to offer than just that though. They have some great quizzes, lots of funny lefty jokes and stories, a left-hand-store.
Rosemary, Rosemary’s Baby, devil…left-handed. I’m telling you, there’s something there! Rosemary has taken the time to get a good blog going where people are encouraged to contribute questions and articles. This site is pretty enlightening about the plight of lefties. There’s a story from a 13 year old who was forced to be a righty, but has never sucessfully adapted. Now, he’s trying to foster his left-handedness and is struggling. With the importance of writing in school, you can see how difficult something like this could make your life.
The HRI’s mandate is to advance the scientific understanding of handedness (left-handed, right-handed,
Brought to you by the Crochet Guild of America, these visual lessons for lefties should get you making afghans in no time. Did you even know there was a Crochet Guild? This site bears merit to be in here for several reasons. It should encourage other craft guilds to put together something like this for Lefties. For many true crafts, the numbers of people doing them are dropping off. Why not tap into that 10% of the population and gain some grateful adherents? If I’ve learned anything from my sweetie, it’s that Lefties are passionate!
As an avid electronics enthusiast, I’ve always been fascinated by any hobby that involves electricity which moves objects. Model train building is a lifelong passion and hobby for many people, and it has been for many generations. 
One of the few things Apple did sublimely was the iPhone. It hit the right key with the public and instantly became a hit. Very few users will tell you that they aren’t satisfied with their iPhones just because of the vast number of apps out there. You can do just about anything with the iPhone, 
Although 
In 
Over the years, 
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