MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [December 27th]” plus 7 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [December 27th]
- Geeky Fun: Latest Hilarious Picks
- Top 5 Websites for Java Application Examples
- Get Your Inspiration Online To Change Your Life in 2010
- Auto-Tag Delicious Bookmarks and Share Them Easily On Twitter With Faviki
- Geeking-Out Your Windows Desktop The Non-Geeky Way With Rainmeter
- Battleswarm – When Shooters and Real-Time Strategy Collide
- 3 Types of Notes You Can Send to Evernote From Your Cell Phone via SMS
| Cool Websites and Tools [December 27th] Posted: 27 Dec 2009 07:31 PM PST
(1) Morse Code Translator – If you have a thing for Morse Code, Qbit Labs' Morse Code Translator is a free morse code software online that can help you quench your thirst without having to spend too much of your time trying to learn the code. Read more: Morse Code Translator: Free Morse Code Software Online
(2) Ground Zero II – Ever wonder what will happen to your place after a nuclear strike? Then you should bookmark Ground Zero. This updated version of a Google Maps mashup can show you the extent of thermal damage, pressure damage, and nuclear fallout of a strike in a particular area. Read more: Ground Zero II: Analyze nuclear explosions on a nuclear strike map (3) JobSpice – Creating resumes from scratch can be very tedious. Fortunately, online tools like Jobspice lets you easily format, style, and build a free resume online. Composing your resume with Jobspice is pretty straightforward since you only choose the fields that you want to include. Read more: JobSpice: Build a Free Resume Online (4) Google Quick Scroll – When you search for a query in Google, it displays the most relevant results (i.e webpages) with snippets of content containing your search query. However, when you click on it and arrive on the page, sometimes you have a hard time tracking down the exact paragraph where that phrase appeared. Google Quick Scroll is a Google Chrome browser extension by the Google team, that aims to solve this problem. Read more: Google Quick Scroll: Quickly Find Best Matches For Search Queries (5) Expensify – is a web based service that helps individuals and businesses track transactions and expense reports online. It's an easy-to-use tool with a simple interface. You can log expenses and transactions by uploading digital receipts of your bills, forwarding emails with PDF attachments, sending SMS's from your cellphone or by entering it manually in the tool. Read more: Expensify: Track Transactions & Expense Reports Online
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| Geeky Fun: Latest Hilarious Picks Posted: 27 Dec 2009 06:30 PM PST
Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last week.
If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.
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| Top 5 Websites for Java Application Examples Posted: 27 Dec 2009 05:30 PM PST
To really take advantage of the opportunity to learn the Java Programming Language, I came to the conclusion that the internet was my best friend. Over a period of weeks as I continued to learn. There were about 5 major websites that I referred to on a constant basis for Java application examples–and I’d like to share them with you. Next, I would turn to a variety of online sources to give you relevant java application examples and different explanations for the concepts presented in a book. Below I’ve outlined several websites where you can do just that–and even a bit more. Planet Source Code
While you’re there, I would highly recommend viewing PSC’s java program Hall of Fame, where the most impressive or well written code submissions from the past few years are displayed. I personally found that the programs in the Hall of Fame were useful and professional. Oh, and of course–the source for all of the programs is free for you to use, monkey with, and recompile on your computer. Freeware JavaHands down one of my favorite sites as a Java Resource, Freeware Java provides source code for hundreds and hundreds of games and applications. This is by far one of the most valuable websites I’ve had access to over the past year for learning Java. My suggestion for using this as a resource is to look at a game or application similar to an area of interest you have, or even a program you want to write. If I want to write an air hockey game, it would be very beneficial to get coding ideas from another programmer’s “Classic Pong” source code, and improve on his or her methods and ideas. If nothing else, Freeware Java gives you source code access to quite a few well written Java applets and Java application examples. I’d recommend you go straight to the applets page to check out the source for chat rooms, games, website scripts and more. Java Galaxy
If you’re only about the source code itself, then just go straight to that page. However, feel free to take a look at some of the other interesting features that Java Galaxy has to offer, such as sample interview questions for java developers, or a practice test for the SCJP exam. Java2sJava2s is a relatively popular resource for Java developers because it contains a useful database of example code for different aspects of the Java language. An aspiring coder would be hard pressed to find something java related that isn’t contained somewhere in the Java2s website. One valuable resource that the site offers is a very structured Java Tutorial section which especially centers on file I/O and Swing, but has a section on almost everything. Caution; this site doesn’t have any eye candy or pretty flashing lights that many websites today thrive off of–you can expect a practical, organized java resource and nothing else. While the site is not 100% dedicated to program source codes, I decided to include it because it still offers a large amount of code, but in a structured and ordered manner that I found extremely helpful. Java DB
Learning Java can be an extremely daunting process, especially if you’re preparing for the SCJP exam or something to that effect (if you are, I feel your pain). I often find that one of the best ways you can gain an understanding of something is by jumping headlong into it. Learn from other people, get your hands dirty, ask questions and make mistakes (I certainly do). Hopefully this article gave you a few resources to use in learning Java or getting a feel for its practical uses. If you have a site to add to this list, let me know in the comments section and I might add it to the article. 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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| Get Your Inspiration Online To Change Your Life in 2010 Posted: 27 Dec 2009 03:30 PM PST
Have you made your New Year’s resolutions, yet? This year you can make your pledges for an entire decade, rather than just one lousy year. Think big and think positive. It’s time to change your life. If you are not sure what to do with your life or how to pursue your goals, look around. There are plenty of things to give you inspiration. They can support you in making meaningful New Year’s resolutions. But try not to cram everything into a single year. Take your time and focus on what’s most important now. Start with Yourself
Large stones first. They represent the important things in your life: family, health, friends, passions. If everything was lost and only these remained, your life would still be complete. Pebbles fit into the holes between. These are all other things that matter: your job, possessions, responsibilities. Sand fills up the remaining space. It’s the small stuff, which mainly fits into two categories: errands and maintenance. Imagine you started with the sand, there would be no room left for the things that matter. The essence is to pick the right priorities. Life is about joy and happiness. What does that mean for you? Is your jar full of sand and pebbles? Is there room for improvements? Finally, you’ll find that no matter how full your jar is, there is always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend. Turn to PeopleThe best way to find inspiration is to watch people. Who do you admire, why do you admire them, what can you learn from them? The internet is a fantastic resource. People all over willingly share their success stories or what matters to them. This is where you can learn and find ideas for your own life. Here are some examples: TED – Ideas worth spreading
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. These three fields were the subject of a conference, which gave rise to many more conferences around the world and the TED website, which features videos talks from people with great ideas. You will find talks from Richard St. John about success, Daniel Libeskind about architecture, Stephen Hawking about the universe, Al Gore about the climate crisis, and many more. World of Inspiration
Nothing expresses universal truths and human wisdom better than a good quote. At World of Inspiration you can browse quotations by category. Discover wise thoughts that have been made long before your time. TIME Magazine’s 25 Best Blogs 2009
Blogs are possibly the best resource for inspiration because this is where people share their stories, skills, and secrets on a regular basis. Find teachers, role models, critics, poets, or geeks. Witness how they grow and benefit from their experience. Earlier this year I wrote an article about 5 Websites To Help You Become a Happier Person. Among them were three blogs: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, Think Simple Now by a group of writers, and Zen Habits by Leo Babauta. After all, Happiness is what we strive for in anything we do. Return to YourselfHaving gathered inspiration and ideas, it’s time to imagine the life you would love to live. And then change your life. ONE. STEP. AT. A. TIME.
Man In The Mirror (1988) What do you anticipate for your jar in 2010? Will you be doing something exciting, something challenging, something entirely new? Please share in the comments! *I appreciate your geeky comments. Please keep it friendly. Image credits: artM, LazySunday Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| Auto-Tag Delicious Bookmarks and Share Them Easily On Twitter With Faviki Posted: 27 Dec 2009 01:30 PM PST
In this article, let us see why Faviki is an attractive social bookmarking service which makes bookmarking easier, uses smarter tags, and integrates with Delicious as well as Twitter. What are Semantic Tags?If you browse the "Avatar" tag in Delicious, you will find that some bookmarks refer to Avatar the movie, while others refer to Avatar as used in Twitter and Clip Art. In other words, Delicious does not know exactly what you mean when you give an "Avatar" tag to a bookmark. Whereas on Wikipedia, you can see the disambiguation page for Avatar, which shows that Avatar may be a tag that can be used for the 2009 movie, as well as for several other films, graphical representations of people, games, books, and more. Faviki is a social bookmarking service that uses Wikipedia-style semantic tags, so your tag specifies exactly what you mean when you bookmark something. This open standard format is called Common Tags. Why Use Faviki?
Using the BookmarkletGo to the Faviki bookmarklet page to install it in your browser. When you are on a web page you want to bookmark, click the bookmarklet. It shows you suggested tags for that bookmark. You are free to choose from the suggested tags and add your own by typing and selecting from the auto-complete list.
Along with tagging, Faviki also allows you to enter additional information about the bookmark. Click the "edit bookmark >" link to go to a page where you can add your own notes and copy text from the webpage to add to your bookmark. This makes it easy for your friends to discover exactly why you thought the page worth bookmarking. Semantic Tagging At WorkSuppose I am bookmarking Susan's article at MakeUseOf on Fedora 12. As Wikipedia shows, Fedora can mean many different things – the Linux OS, a 1978 film, or even a KGB agent! When I type "Fedora" in the tagging box of the bookmarklet, I can choose precisely what I mean:
Auto Save to Delicious, Auto Share on TwitterGo to the Edit Profile page and enter your Delicious and Twitter account information.
You can enable auto save to Delicious and auto sharing on Twitter. You can also specify how tags with spaces, like "Google Chrome", are handled. Importing Delicious BookmarksYou can import all your existing precious collection of bookmarks from Delicious. Faviki will help convert your existing tags into semantic Common Tags. Go to Import from the top menu to add your Delicious account information. After you're done, click Import Bookmarks to start the import process. Faviki will now import your Delicious bookmarks, analyze your custom tags, and suggest equivalent Common Tags. Here is how Faviki displayed suggestions for my import:
The rows shaded in dark are the tags that you need to correct because Faviki could not find their meaning. In order to clarify what I meant with my "Films" tag, I enter "movie" and click search. Faviki presents a drop-down of search results from Wikipedia, from which I choose the correct meaning – "Film", in this case.
Also, you can see in the above example that my "windows" tag was actually ambiguous since it could have easily meant windows in our homes. Faviki automatically suggested the correct semantic tag in this case – "Microsoft Windows". What this means is that my MS Windows bookmarks are now easily searchable and shareable with other users interested in MS Windows. Other users who may be searching for home windows will not see these bookmarks. Review all the dark rows and correct tags as necessary. You can click the "+" sign to expand a row and show all the bookmarks with that tag. When you are done, click the Save and initiate import button. Be patient, the importing can take a long time, and you will be notified by email. Meanwhile, you can continue using Faviki for your new bookmarks! Does Faviki's ability to use semantic tags appeal to you? Do you look forward to giving a whole new meaning to your bookmark collection? Share your thoughts in the comments! Related posts
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| Geeking-Out Your Windows Desktop The Non-Geeky Way With Rainmeter Posted: 27 Dec 2009 11:30 AM PST
This “less geeky version of GeekTool” for Windows allows its users to add and display a variety of modules on the desktop such as a clock, the date, CPU load, RSS feeds, and currently playing song; as well as customizable shortcuts to installed applications. Even though this is considered “less geeky” in the sense that customization doesn’t involve tinkering with scripts and codes, first-time users might feel overwhelmed by everything. There are so many things that you can do in in the Rainmeter that you might not know where to start. But let’s sort things out one by one, shall we?
Upon installation, you’ll see the Enigma Home menu.
This is where you can gain access to Rainmeter’s settings including The PDF Instruction, Skin Manager, Theme Manager, and Configuration. This Home menu can be accessed anytime by double-clicking on Rainmeter’s Sidebar or Taskbar. As the names suggests, Sidebars are located at the sides of the screen, while Taksbars are at the top and bottom. The number of available sidebars and taskbars will depend on which Rainmeter theme that you use.
Click on the Theme icon in the Home menu to open the Rainmeter Theme Manager. There are four default themes that come with the installer: Enigma, Enigma Preview, Lightning Sunset, and Wing Firefox. You could also change the theme quickly via the right click menu. If you have a big display, you might want to try Enigma Preview as this theme gives the most information about your system, but it is also the most crowded.
As for the coolest, I personally think that the clock from Wing Firefox theme is awesome. You can show this clock in any theme by right clicking on the bars and choose: Configs > Arcs > Arcs.ini (or Dark Arcs.ini).
All of the themes work best with a dark background/wallpaper. The transparency of the bars and the white letters make the information difficult to read with a light background. If you really love your bright background, you can adjust the transparency by right-clicking on the taskbar/sidebar and choose Skin Menu > Transparency > (the percentage of transparency). The lower the number, the darker the bars will be. Please note that you have to do the adjustment for each and every bar individually.
But all the serious stuff are in the Configuration menu. This is the place where you input all the necessary information to display on the sidebars, such as Yahoo Weather code for your place, the account information for your GMail and Twitter, RSS feeds, Application paths and labels, and whole lot of other information.
Go through the items one by one, enter the correct information, and click Set. After you’ve finished, don’t forget to save the settings. You don’t need to fill in all the information, but the more information you provide the better. Another things that you can adjust is the position of the elements. Right-click on a bar and make sure that the option Draggable is checked.
Then you can freely drag and drop each and every element of the bars – including the bars themselves – to any position that you prefer. If you want them to align neatly with the screen edges, don’t forget to click on “Snap to Edges” You can show/hide any element in any theme by right-clicking the bars and going to the “Configs” menu. Go above and beyondEven though everything described above is enough to start using Rainmeter, there is still a whole lot more that you can tinker with (and we haven’t even touched the Skin!). Refer to the Instructions.pdf for more information. If you feel a little adventurous, why not dive deeper and try to edit the Settings. Right click on one of the bars and choose “Edit Settings“.
Then Rainmeter.ini will show up – opened with Notepad – ready to be edited. Just be sure that you know what you are doing.
Do you know other alternative to Rainmeter? Share using the comments below. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| Battleswarm – When Shooters and Real-Time Strategy Collide Posted: 27 Dec 2009 09:30 AM PST
Apart from begetting new genres, like the Wii’s casual gaming experience, we’re seeing combinations of old genres. Examples are all but common nowadays; FPS with RPG, Hack ‘n Slash with MMO. Last week, thanks to an Adblock Plus meltdown, I learned about Battleswarm. A an online war strategy game that not only proved the joy of in-browser advertising, but has created a daring and exciting new gaming genre. Battleswarm: Field of HonorWith Battleswarm: Field of Honor, Reality Gap goes boldly where no developers have threaded before. Instead of adding role playing aspects to ‘just another game’, Reality Gap wholly mixes two dominant gaming genres. Battleswarm is what you get when Massive Multiplayer Shooters and Real Time Strategy collide. Imagine the thrill of blasting bullets at an intelligent horde. A hive entity set out to crush you. On the other side, imagine putting your strategical inferiority to the test, by marching out against numerous sentient enemies. You have the high ground and the multitude, they have independence and superior weaponry. It’s a battle between genres. FPS/TPS – Rambo Gone WildIf you’ve got a preference for raw adrenaline and a rain of bullets, you should join the human side. With heavy armor and futuristic weaponry, you’ll find yourself residing somewhere in between Unreal Tournament and Gears of War. When facing a strong enemy, team play is as important as character level.
A soldier’s life is simple. Blast those bugs back to hell. A filled clip is your philosophy, and with the numbers of ‘em, you better make good use of it. You start off with a simple gun, but don’t become too attached to it. Before long, you’ll be able to heavily expand your arsenal. The game offers chip slots – upgrade possibilities for both your skills and weaponry – and character leveling. RTS – For We Are ManyGamers who prefer the high ground, a complete overview and the cunning of real time online war strategy games need to join the bugs. Even with a legion of bugs at your disposal, you’ll still need tactics over numbers to take down those barbarian gunners. Apart from directing the battlefield, you’ll need to build and enhance hives, begetting bigger numbers and better skills. Like the humans, bugs can level up and gain precious items in battle. (People who’ve read Ender’s Game will soon notice the similarities – bugs vs. buggers)
There are several game types, including hive-defence and capture the flag. At the time being, the balance often tilts towards the FPS/TPS side. Winning with strategy is not a small challenge, but certainly a worthy and enjoyable one. Playtime vs. Micro TransactionsNo matter what games, there are always bills to be paid. Most free games tend to make use of a micro-transaction system, as does Battleswarm. Items – chips and weapons – can be traded in-between battles for virtual gold. This in-game currency can either be gained through game-play, or traded with real-life money. This gives an advantage to people willing to spend money – but luckily does not exclude the all-free gamer.
In short, Battleswarm deploys an excitingly simple, yet daring new concept. It’s a clash of raw action and cunning strategy. Oh, and it’s free. Challenging gameplay and nice grafics for a price of zero. Nothing much of a story, but that’s no biggy. Have you played the game yet? Tell us what you think! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| 3 Types of Notes You Can Send to Evernote From Your Cell Phone via SMS Posted: 27 Dec 2009 07:30 AM PST
Personally, I like using my cell phone. Cell phones are great, especially when in network calling is unlimited and you have unlimited text messaging! This brings me to the next point. When I was checking out Evernote for the first time, I was noticing that there was no advertised way that the service works directly with SMS (short message services). The only option they share is via some channel through your Twitter account. Hmm, not exactly the workaround I was looking for. Well, since I figured out you can text an email address, this has become a non issue (Aibek also wrote a post about sending email to SMS, well it goes the other way too)! In fact, I’m not totally sure why they have never mentioned this on Evernote’s site! If I can text a note to my Gmail address, why can’t I text a note directly to the personalized email address Evernote has given me? Well, I tried it and it works! You CAN send notes to your Evernote account via SMS! Without Twitter! Since this is possible, and very easy to do, I have begun to send three different types of notes to my Evernote account via SMS. 1. Jot a thought (just a text note)
Some people carry around a small notepad and pen. I tried that the other day but I can’t seem to remember it whenever I go someplace. Well, my cell phone is ALWAYS on me, no matter what! Trusty trusty cell phone! This first one is obvious. Has an idea about some project you are working on just popped into your head while driving down the road? Pull over and text your Evernote account! 2. A voice recording (if your phone allows it)
Some people would prefer to send themselves a voice message. There are ways to send voice messages to Evernote, and even have them transcribed. However, what if you don’t have time to dial the number and go through all the rigmarole? I’m not sure about your phone but mine has an easy to find featured called “my sounds.” Here I can easily and quickly record messages to myself (I’m sure there are other uses but this is how I use it). You can either send the sound file immediately, or you have the option of just quickly saving it for sending when you have more time. Either way, Evernote WILL accept a sound file (I tested it and it did for me at least). 3. A picture message
Well Evernote’s site says that you can take pictures of all sorts of things that you want to remember and they are right. In fact, they say that Evernote can even recognize text within your pictures and it’ll come up in searches! I haven’t tested this extensively yet but that is what they claim. Either way, instead of uploading pictures when you get to a computer, why not take them with your cell phone and send them immediately? A bit off topic, but I actually text pictures from my cell phone to my make-shift photo blog on Posterous! There you have it… you CAN send notes to Evernote via SMS! How do YOU make use of Evernote? Let us know in the comments. Image credits: MorgueFile.com 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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Over the summer the company I worked for sent me to a “Java Programming Boot Camp” held by Sun Microsystems in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The expectation for that course was that it would make me an entry level Java developer–after all, this was Sun’s general summary of the course. What I learned that summer was that you can’t just shell out a few thousand dollars to speed learn a computer language. It requires time, effort, and LOT of trial and error.
A valuable database full of Java programs, Planet Source Code boasts one of the largest Java code databases I’ve seen on the internet. Within the website, you’ll find the source code for thousands of Java applications, games, and utilities. Some of the categories on Planet Source Code even include programs dealing with security, data structure, and applets–to name a few.
Java Galaxy is another internet database with hundreds of applications and games complete with free source codes for your learning pleasure. The difference between Java Galaxy and some of the other source code databases in this article is that Java Galaxy source codes are smaller and simpler–the programs aren’t as complex. I would recommend that if you’re a new Java programmer looking for simple examples, you check this site out before the others.
Java DB provides access to a database of Java programming tips and example Java code for certain problems. The site’s layout is relatively simple and convenient as far as content management goes. Code examples and tutorials are separated into small box-categories on the home page, and there is a Google site search box for accessing quicker, more targeted results. Also on this site is an excellent free 
2010 is just around the corner and it’s that time of year when it just feels good to clean up, clear out, and start something new. This year it’s even more exciting as we’re entering a new decade*.
You have probably seen this illustration before. It’s been going around in chain letters for many years. The story is a little different each time, but the essence remains the same: Your life is like a jar. You have a limited capacity, so use it wisely.
Faviki is a unique social bookmarking service that uses semantic tags based on structured information from Wikipedia. What does that mean, why does it matter, and why should you use another social bookmarking service if you already have hundreds of bookmarks in 
After reading the article about 
In an attempt to keep our ADD at bay, game developers are looking for new ways to raise, and hold the gamer’s attention.
I am a late adopter, new user of 
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