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- Cool Websites and Tools [November 4]
- LiveBrush – A Versatile Freeware Image Editor That Lets You Draw Like An Artist
- AM-Deadlink: Clean Up Your Bookmarks by Removing Dead Links And Duplicates
- October Roundup – MakeUseOf Authors
- 5 Cool Mac Optimization Tips to Get The Most From Your Mac
- 3 Great Sites To Help You Achieve A Lower Cost Of Living
- Top 5 Sites For Free Sound Effects Downloads
- Hide Your Drives From Prying Eyes With No Drives Manager [Windows]
| Cool Websites and Tools [November 4] Posted: 04 Nov 2009 04:00 PM PST
(1) SpecialGourmets – Community driven web resource that acts as a global guide to hotels, shops and restaurants specifically catering for people with food allergies, dietary restrictions and celiac disease. It currently lists over 15,000 restaurants and shops all over the world. Read more: SpecialGourmets – Find restaurants for people with food allergies
(2) TwiBack – New Twitter tool that lets you upload photos, set times and automatically rotate them as your background or profile pictures on Twitter. You can upload all sorts of photos, icons, avatars, patterns, designs, background wallpapers, even advertisements and they will change automatically. Read more: TwiBack – Rotates Your Twitter Background & Profile Pictures (3) Tinkomatic – All-in-one search tool for online classified ads. It combines all searches from popular classified ad websites like Craigslist, Kijiji, Oodle, and eBay in one page so that you can find what you need quickly – be it a new job, a house, a used car, or any item for sale. Read more: Tinkomatic – Search Multiple Classified Sites At Once (4) Mooshell – Online tool for testing HTML, CSS, and Javascript elements, but more importantly, a tool for combining all these together to debug Mootools code. You only need to enter your Javascript, CSS, and HTML in the corresponding boxes and click run to view the results. The application is ideal for programmers who want to test their snippets. Read more: Mooshell – Edit & Debug Mootools Scripts Online (5) intodit - Free and flexible hosted Wiki service that allows you to create your own wikis online. Each created wiki will have its own URL and can be easily shared with others. You can add all sorts of content (text, graphics, images and video) to your wiki, and collaborate on it across the net. Read more: intodit – Create a Wiki For Anything
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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| LiveBrush – A Versatile Freeware Image Editor That Lets You Draw Like An Artist Posted: 04 Nov 2009 02:00 PM PST
With the freeware version of LiveBrush, you can export your drawings as PNG files. With the $10 paid version, you can export vector files for professional use. The InterfaceWhile LiveBrush is easy to use, there are no tool-tips to help you get familiar with the interface. In order to get comfortable using LiveBrush, we must first understand the various interface controls.
The Project Bar at the top shows the current project and brush style. It also has buttons for LiveBrush app settings, and saving the project. The Styles Panel at the top right is the key place where you select brush styles with which to draw. You can create new styles, import and export styles, or rearrange their order. The most interesting thing however, is that you can select multiple brush styles to draw. It is fun letting your imagination go wild experimenting with different brush styles! It is also useful to preview a style before using it, using the "eye" button.
The Tool Settings panel displays settings for the currently selected tool. For the Brush tool, it provides access to three kinds of settings:
For the Transform tool, the Tool Settings panel gives access to transformation properties for the currently selected line points or layer. At the bottom is the standard Layers panel to work with layers. You can duplicate, rearrange, remove, transform and flatten layers using this panel.
Drawing and EditingDrawing is easy! Just select a brush style and draw. Apart from some basic styles, you will find floral, ink splats, fractal, light, smoke, and ribbon styles of brushes. Experiment with different brush behaviors – velocity and friction settings. Try out different Line and Decoration settings.
All graphics are organized in Layers. Use the Layers panel to remove, flatten, or change colors of layers. Click the Transform tool after you've drawn a few lines, select a layer, and see how you can move, rotate or resize layers. Import and ExportLivebrush encourages you to share your drawings with the community. The Livebrush forum is a great place to check out art that others have created. Here is an example from the Livebrush photostream on Flickr:
The File > Import and File > Export menus let you import and export different parts of Livebrush projects such as the whole image, individual layers, brush styles, or a Deco list. New brush styles (Typography, Geometry, etc) and decorations are regularly added to the community, so make sure you check them out to import and use them in your drawings. Did you like using Livebrush? Share your creations (and experiments) with us 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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| AM-Deadlink: Clean Up Your Bookmarks by Removing Dead Links And Duplicates Posted: 04 Nov 2009 12:00 PM PST
Bookmarks gather by the dozen each day and they gather dust just as quickly. Today, a browser like Firefox offers tagging as a means to clean up bookmarks. Subject specific folders have always existed to bunch similar bookmarks together. But bad habits reign supreme and usually bookmarks end up in a haphazard array. A lot of sites have their fifteen minutes of fame and then disappear. But the bookmark is left behind like a gravestone marker. A lot many sites update their favicons or change over to a new URL. But the bookmark remains stuck as a misdirected pointer on the web highway. The broom to clean up bookmarks and bring them up to date by eliminating the dead ones is called AM-Deadlink. The four browser bookmarks it helps sweep are of Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox (FF ver. 3+ with an alternate method). AM-Deadlink detects the dead links and duplicates, and marks them for removal. It can also clean up duplicates in comma-separated and tab-limited text files and saved URL files. Also, AM-Deadlink downloads the current favicons for all your Favorites and Bookmarks for the four browsers. AM-Deadlink is a 1.3MB free download. Its operation is fairly straightforward. Let’s see it in action. Sweeping away the dead bookmarks
Alternate Method for Firefox 3+AM-Deadlink does a good job with IE and Opera but falters slightly when it comes to the latest version of Firefox. You have to go around a bit because the latest version of Firefox uses a database rather than a single URL file to store all the bookmarks. The alternate method involves using the Export HTML feature in Firefox's Bookmark Organizer and processing this HTML file through AM-Deadlink. The cleaned up HTML file can then be imported into a fresh bookmarks folder (importing it into the older bookmarks will create duplicates).
The bit of manual labor with the latest edition of Firefox is the only slight flaw in an otherwise impressive free program. Also, apart from the Help file, AM-Deadlink does not really make it clear how to go about the Firefox cleanup job. But the end, AM-Deadlink does a dandy job of cleaning up the waste that lies in our bookmarks folder. Now, it's only left to us to pay those links an occasional visit. AM-Deadlink (ver.3.3) is supported on Win9x/Me/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista. Image Credit: P/\UL 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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| October Roundup – MakeUseOf Authors Posted: 04 Nov 2009 11:00 AM PST
In October, we took several new writers. If you’ve noticed, we have added more content on photography, Photoshop and Linux. We will also be emphasizing a lot on iPhone apps in the coming month so stay tuned! The two PDF manuals which were released in October were authored by Mark O’Neill — Twitter: Best Practices and Tips; and Dean’s Internet Music Guidebook. In addition to that, we published a round-up of all 15 MakeUseOf PDF Manuals. I’m sure that you’ll find all of them really useful! Simon Slangen is our PDF Manual Editor, so if there are any subjects you would like to see turned into a downloadable PDF manual, enter your ideas in the comments below or send him an email at simon@makeuseof.com. You may also find the past manuals here. So take a look at the articles that were published in October. Have you read them all? Karl – Ask The Admin Analyze Your Auto-Startup Programs Easily With AutoStart Explorer Saikat – The Things I Do How To Make A Documentary Online That Will Spread Like Wildfire Ryan – BetterContent Top 5 Websites To Learn How To Hack Like A Pro Dean – Tapping Thought How To Use Your GPRS Cell Phone As A Modem Simon – Wombat Labs Clipfinder HD Finds Plays & Converts Internet Video Files Varun – Tech Crazy Try Linux Live CDs from Windows Without Using any CDs Jeffry – Super Subconscious iWeb – Build A Quick, Easy & Beautiful Website [Mac only] Guy – Canada Prepared Technology Explained: Understanding The Internet Speed Jackson 2 Simple iPhone Tips To Avoid Getting Work Done Tina How To Convert a DAT File into A Word Document Mahendra – Skeptic Geek Threadsy – Integrates Your Email and Social Networks (+Invites) Bakari – Mac Photographer Tips Photoshop Mobile – A Freeware Image Editor for Your Mobile Will – PiccDrop How To Build A Home Media Server From An Old PC Angelina – Nothing Major 3 Reasons Why Students Should Be Using Dropbox Eyal – ProductiveWise How To Create Shared Collaborative Google Maps Tim L – timmyjohnboy How to Take Easy Screenshots with Lightscreen Portable Paul – You’re Stupid, I’m Not 5 Websites To Help You Become a Safer Driver Jack – Jack Cola How To Enable File Sharing On Vista Without Any Password Bohed – TrueKolor.net How To Add A Cool Tattoo To Your Photo in Photoshop Tobias – personal tobias How to Read PDF Files and Other Docs on iPhone & iPod Touch Grant – GrantBlog How To Trace & Deactivate A Stolen Cell Phone Sharninder – Geeky Ninja How To Make An "EXE" Installation File Stefan – The Tux Geek View Your Website's Visitors' IP Address & Keep Statistics John 5 Best Websites For Space and Astronomy Fans Corvida 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 Cool Mac Optimization Tips to Get The Most From Your Mac Posted: 04 Nov 2009 10:00 AM PST
More often than not, all your Mac probably needs is some maintenance. Here are some tips to optimize your Mac and keep the system running healthily. 1. Quit Inactive ApplicationsProbably one of the most overlooked causes of a slowdown is running an app in the background without knowing. Sometimes, this happens to me as well — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left Photoshop running by accident. Apps running in the background use memory even if they’re inactive, depriving the operating system. Hence, forcing it to use the available hard disk space as virtual memory; leading to an excessive amount of pagings and slowdowns. This also puts unnecessary strain on your hard disk, especially so if you’re running low on free space.
So, keep an eye on the Dock for apps that shouldn’t be running. Be frugal with your memory usage and you’ll notice a different in the system’s performance. 2. Disable The DashboardIf you hardly use widgets, then you should disable the Dashboard in order to prevent the widgets from loading. The less memory you have to spare, the more reason you should do it. Disabling the Dashboard requires the use to Terminal. Before you get all frightened, relax. It’s not that difficult. Launch Terminal from Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app. Copy and paste this line of code into Terminal and hit Enter:
Don’t quit Terminal just yet. The Dock has to be restarted in order for this hack to work. So copy and paste this line of code to restart the Dock then hit Enter:
You can quit Terminal now by pressing Command+Q. With Dashboard disabled, nothing will happen when you press on the dedicated Dashboard button (F4), hit F12 or click on the Dashboard dock icon; preventing the widgets from launching and hogging precious memory. To re-enable the Dashboard, copy and paste this code into Terminal and hit Enter:
Then, restart the Dock by using the code above. 3. Look Into PreferencesThere is a lot you can do within System Preference to make sure that your Mac is running as smoothly as possible. For starters, you could take a look through your list of apps which automatically launch on login. You can find it under Accounts setting then hitting the ‘Login Items’ tab. I’ve listed this tip in a previous article but I can’t emphasize how important it is. Apps that launch when your Mac powers on prolong start-up time and take up memory. Keep this list lean and mean.
Then spend some time examining other options and evaluate if they’re absolutely essential to be running. For example, if you’re don’t use Bluetooth, then make sure to turn it off. Enabling File Sharing shows that you’re generous and kind but is taxing to your hard disk — especially if you’re sharing the Movies folder. Having someone stream movies from your Mac while trying to run Photoshop is well, for lack of a better word, hazardous. My advice is to disable File Sharing and other unnecessary Sharing options, and revert to using a pendrive to share files.
One last tip regarding System Preferences. After using your Mac for a while, there must be a load of preference panes installed. They are listed under the ‘Other’ section. Take a look at what’s installed and whether or not they’re needed. Preference panes are loaded during start-up and take up memory as well. If you find something that you deem not essential, right-click on it and remove it. 4. Make Room To BreatheHard disk space isn’t only meant for storing files. I’ve seen some people fill their hard disks to the brim. Mac OS X requires at least 20% of the hard disk drive to be free in order to perform smoothly. It uses this space to swap memory with the RAM (paging), write system files and other temporary files. By leaving OS X very little free space, you are choking the system, metaphorically speaking. How can you free up used disk space? Run an inventory and remove applications that you hardly ever use. Take iDVD and Garageband for example, it uses up free space in the gigabytes. If you don’t frequently use these apps, remove them — you can always reinstall them from the OS X Install Disc. Buy an external hard disk and store your large movie files over there instead of occupying the space on the primary (system) hard drive. You can also use applications like Filelight (direct download link, Snow Leopard compatible), GrandPerspective or OmniDiskSweeper to display your hard disk usage in an easily-digestible graphical interface and find the culprit that’s hogging your valuable disk space.
5. Update FrequentlyUpdating your system may feel troublesome to certain users, especially when it involves restarting. It should be made known that Apple releases updates to fix bugs and potential errors which may harm the system. Occasionally, performance updates are issued to address issues regarding improper hardware operation like this one, for instance, which was developed to fix hard drive stalls on Macs running Leopard and Snow Leopard. To scan your Mac for available updates, run System Update from the Apple menu in the menubar. So there we have it, five (frequently overlooked) tips to keep your Mac optimized and running smoothly. I hope that this helps solve the dreadful spinning beachball of death syndrome. How often do you run maintenance on your Mac? Do you have any other tips to keep OS X running lean and mean? Jot them down in the comments, I’d love to hear your ideas. Image credit: maczydeco 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 Great Sites To Help You Achieve A Lower Cost Of Living Posted: 04 Nov 2009 08:00 AM PST
So now, I have to earn 1.65 cents for every penny spent just to break even. Whew! That’s a lot of work. Before you check my math and compare it to tax laws in your jurisdiction, just take it as a fact that a penny saved is MORE than a penny earned. Math comments will be ignored – just ask my grade 12 math teacher. It seems that convenience has become a way of life for many. What frugality we do practice usually amounts to the odd coupon here and there, maybe recycling one or two things, if it’s fashionable, or buying a few more cans of spaghetti sauce if it happens to be on sale. There is oh-so-much more we can do! I think after you’ve spent a few hours or days on these sites, you might catch the frugal bug and enjoy a much lower cost of living by watching your savings grow while your lifestyle remains relatively unchanged. Creative Frugality
Nancy Twigg and her husband are inspired by their Christian faith. It may not be the same faith that you share, however it has resulted in this treasure trove that anyone can benefit from. Really, you should go. Festival of Frugality
Design issues aside, the Festival of Frugality is another great resources for money-saving tips. What they do here is act somewhat as an aggregator of articles from other sites as well as adding their own content. I particularly liked the article, If You Must, Do It Smart. Simple, you and your sweetie order a value meal at your local burger in a bag joint. Just buy an extra burger and share the fries and cola! You’re still eating out, but spending less money and consuming less empty calories. It’s a win-win folks! The publisher of this site also hosts a few other sites along the same lines, such as Carnival of Personal Finance, Carnival of Debt Reduction, Carnival of Money Hacks, and my personal favourite for use of a big word, Carnival of Pecuniary Delights. Wise Bread
Even more excellent is that this site was founded by three high-school students in 2006. What did you do in high-school? I can’t remember and I won’t incriminate myself.
This site is fast becoming a favourite of mine, because of its extensive frugality tips, and because it has other large sections on Career and Income, Personal Finance, Life Hacks and Deals and Coupons. There they are, three of the top sites that can help you lower your cost of living. It isn’t too late to do so and it will help you weather out this economic storm. If you have some favourite money saving tips or websites, please share them in the comments. It helps us all! Photo Credits: HouseOfSims, ozmafan Related posts
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| Top 5 Sites For Free Sound Effects Downloads Posted: 04 Nov 2009 06:00 AM PST
Before you open up your wallet for expensive software or try to make your own sound effects, you may easily be able to find free sound effects on the Web. There are plenty of great resources available online. Best of all, it doesn’t have to cost you anything! Have your headphones ready? Here’s the top 5 websites for free sound effects downloads. Flash KitFlash Kit’s Sound FX page is one of the best places to download free sound effects. The site has over 7,000 royalty-free tracks available for download.
You can search the collection manually or browse various categories, like nature or transportation, for the sound you’re looking for. If you come across a desirable sound effect, all of its information, including length, quality, and size, are available and you can easily preview the track before downloading. All tracks are downloadable as WAV, MP3, or Flashtrak files.
Feel free to also contribute to the archive yourself by submitting your own original sounds. SoungleWhile Soungle may look and feel like just an audio search engine, it really isn’t. The website is touted as a mega online library and it only searches its impressive growing database of sound effects.
Soungle keeps everything easy and straightforward. Search results simply include a preview, description, clip information, and if you like the sound effect, just download it. It’s as easy as that. Soundboard
Soundboard has a massive supply of thousands of sound effects to choose from. You can either search the collection by keyword or explore the slew of soundboards, with everything from airplanes to circus animal sound effects.
Once on a soundboard page, you can listen to the playlist and download whichever tracks you like. All sound effects are MP3 files. SoundBibleOffering thousands of sound bites and effects, SoundBible is the encyclopedia of free sound clips. The site divides its content into free sound effects or royalty-free sounds.
All the sounds are plainly listed with a preview listen button and what license each falls under. Royalty-free sounds consist of Creative Commons and public domain works. Learn more about SoundBible in the MakeUseOf Directory. Freesound ProjectThe Freesound Project is a repository of Creative Commons licensed audio samples. It’s a huge collaborative database of just sounds, so you’re bound to find what you need.
You can search through all the content by keyword or browse the popular tags. Of course, you can always contribute to the database by adding your audio samples released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. Still can’t find what you’re looking for? Try out FindSounds, a great search engine just for sound effects. MakeUseOf’s Directory of Apps has also got the scoop on SoundSnap, yet another resource for sound effects, however, keep in mind that the site is not entirely free anymore and you’re limited to only five free downloads a month. Do you have a favorite website for downloading free sound effects? Let us know in the comments. Image Credit: Fe Ilya 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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| Hide Your Drives From Prying Eyes With No Drives Manager [Windows] Posted: 04 Nov 2009 04:00 AM PST
But for argument’s sake, let's say you are the Human Resources manager and you have an Excel chart of everyone's salary – that should not be stored on the network and if the file falls in the wrong hands, the consequences could be severe. But if you were able to hide that drive from prying eyes even if they are able to circumvent your security, you will be safe. Let us take a look at No Drives Manager, an application you can use to hide drives. You can grab the download from this link on SourceForge directly or from the users page on SourceForge here. The application does not need to be installed and can be run from a memory stick. What the application does is modify the registry so you don't have to! Take a look at the GUI.
The interface is very intuitive and easy to use. There are drive letters listed along the top drives A: through Z:. If the drive has been hidden, it will have a check box next to it. Chances are starting out no drives will be selected. You can hit the Hide all drives button to hide all your drives. But more likely you will want to hide a single drive. Let’s see how to do that.
Let’s say, I want to hide my D: drive aka WhosYourDaddy. I simply check the box next to the letter D. The Binary and decimal settings will be auto-populated and you will not need to mess with them. If you want to use this application to teach yourself how to hide drives manually – you can use this data to do so.
After you choose the drive you want to hide, you have to hit the Write current setting to the registry button. That will tell you that you need to log off and back on to see your changes.
I am logging off to complete my task. OK, I am back and logged back in. Now let us take a look at my Windows Explorer – My Computer again:
I feel like a cheap magician! Wow, look it has disappeared! And with a wave of my magic stick I can make it re-appear. Well, a click of the Run button that is…
This exercise will show you that the drive is hidden but shortcuts and typing in a path or direct file path will take you to where you need to go as you can see below.
Un-doing it is just as easy concealing the drive. Bring the application back up, then uncheck the box next to the drive letter you hid – the D: drive in my case. And write your modifications back to the registry using the Write current setting to the registry button. After you log out and back in again your drive will be magically restored. We have tried doing this with the Windows tool diskpart – but we wound up corrupting data so this is far less risky! Do you have an easier way of doing this? We would love to hear about it in the comments, come on don't be shy! Related posts
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If you can use a mouse, you can draw beautifully with 
The different Tools in LiveBrush are shown in a vertical bar at the top right:
Do you remember the last time you ventured into the deep dark depths of your bookmarks folder and took along your broom? Tell someone that you regularly check the health of your bookmarks, and you will be labeled as a freak with a compulsive disorder. But here's where you need to look them in the eye and call it a good organizational habit. Which it actually is.
The Status column shows the state, whether the link is lost, it's healthy or there is some other error with the page. You can sort the errors to the top the list and individually re-check them by opening them in an internal preview or in a browser. 
Things are starting to get exciting in the MakeUseOf house. We’ve just passed over 116K subscribers and have over 2000 fans on our 
We’ve all been there. Every computer has this problem. Whether you use a Mac, PC or Linux; your system, at one point in time, will start feeling sluggish and less responsive. For Macs, the ever-popular symptom is the spinning wait cursor, also known as the spinning pinwheel or more ominously, the spinning beach ball of death! Usually, if you’re running a very old system, a simple hardware upgrade will solve the issue. Most of the time, this involves buying a larger, faster hard disk or by adding more memory.
The key to cost of living is being frugal. It doesn’t mean cheap, or stingy or being a tightwad. What it does mean is getting the most bang for your buck! Ever heard the saying, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”? Well, that’s only half of the story. For every penny I spend, up to 15% goes to sales taxes. Then, I have to make 1.5 cents to replace that penny after income taxes gets a hold of it.
You won’t find any fancy web design or whizbang gizmos here. What you will find are time-tested ways of living a frugal lifestyle that is still fun and exciting. Nancy Twigg started this site quite some time ago. I recall visiting it around 2001 or so. The ideas and tips are timeless, easy to put in to use, and guarantee that you will save money! 
Creative Frugality also has a sister site called 
Honestly, lowering your cost of living is FAR more colourful than these last two logos would suggest. Would it hurt to add a little pizazz? Wordpress templates are usually free, folks!
Alright! Finally some colour other than shades of grey!
The site is part-blog, part-community, part-economic movement, all fun business. The tips here aren’t all one-size-fits all. They talk about more than just saving on groceries and back-to-school supplies. You’ll find people sharing tips on less expensive ways to get designer clothes, inexpensive passport photo’s, and contrarian tips like 
Whether you’re working with things like video, music, animation, games, or any other media, sound is critical. The use of sound effects can make or break a project, but sometimes finding that right, good-quality piece of audio can be difficult.
I have a hard drive in my system over here that holds confidential information. Occasionally, I have designers and programmers connected to my machine via various methods (most of the time we use the free 
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Soundbible is a great website for free sound effects. It is best explained in : https://www.likelylive.com/soundbible-download-free-sound-effects/
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