Tuesday, April 13, 2010

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [April 12th]” plus 10 more

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [April 12th]” plus 10 more

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Cool Websites and Tools [April 12th]

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 08:31 PM PDT


Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

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Contacts – There are thousands of desktop and cloud-based apps that let you manage your list of contacts. However, what can be better than managing them through the tool you use the most – your browser. Mozilla has just introduced an experimental add-on that lets you manage contacts from within your Firefox browser. Read more: Contacts: Brings Address Book To Firefox.

 

SleepingTime – With some people tweeting hundreds of times a day, you sometimes wonder if they ever go to sleep. Now there is a tool that can help you confirm this. SleepingTime is a simple tool that tells you when any Twitter user probably sleeps. Read more: SleepingTime: Find Out When Your Twitter Friends Sleep.

 

 

Firefox Address Bar Size – Let's face it, one of the most important components in any browser is the address bar where you type the URL. If you often make mistakes because the address bar font size is too small, you'll love this Firefox add-on. It simply increases the Firefox address bar font size so you can read the text easily. Read more: Easily Increase Firefox Address Bar Font Size.

 

 

MySalaryWiki – In order to know if you're getting the salary you deserve, it is critical to compare yourself with other people who have similar skill sets. MySalaryWiki lets you search salary information based on many factors such as location, job area and personal background. Read more: MySalaryWiki: Search & Compare Salaries Around the World.

 

 

JoeBox – There are lots of anti-virus apps available to detect malware on your computer but sometimes they give you a false alarm. To save yourself from that, you can use JoeBox to scan file or script for malware. Read more: JoeBox: Scan File For Malware In An Online Sandbox.

 

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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.

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Top 10 Most Downloaded Desktop Enhancement Applications [Movers & Shakers]

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 07:30 PM PDT


It's time once again for our featured Movers and Shakers post. Each week, we take one software category and list the top ten most downloaded apps. This week, we are looking at Desktop Enhancements. These are the apps that can be used to spruce up your desktop and add functionality to your computer's desktop.

1. ObjectDock

Weighing in at first place, raking in 8,483,908 downloads of all time and 37,383 downloads this week is ObjectDock. ObjectDock is a launch bar. It is very stylish and adds a lot of customization settings, including skins. There are a lot of features in ObjectDock like improved quick launch icons and easily accessible information for running apps.

2. Fences

Fences allows you to easily organize your icons to help de-clutter your desktop. It allows for grouping objects together and drawing virtual fences around them – hence the name. You can customize the color schemes used and much more.

3. CursorFX

Add 3-dimensional icons and pointers to your XP, Vista or Windows 7 machines.

4. VistaGlazz

VistaGlazz allows for you to change the features of your Vista system that used to be unreachable. You can customize your glass effects and much more easily and without fear!

5. LogonStudio

Logon Studio allows you to modify your start up and shutdown screens within your Windows XP operating system. It comes with 30 cool replaceable screens for you to use.
  1. Alarm Clock Now you can wake up to a different alarm every day with Alarm Clock. It is an older application but still cviable. It uses MP3s or WAV files for the alarms.
  2. Winstep Nexus Dock An awesome dock that provides live reflections and very fast access to your favorite applications.
  3. Screen Print & Capture 32 A screen capture application that allows you to specify what you want to capture. This is great for creating tutorials or user guides.
  4. RocketDockThis is another docking application but it offers animation to pretty up your desktop. You can add your dock to any of the four edges of your monitor. It can also be set to auto hide or stay on the screen permanently. Rocket Dock has a huge community and user base that are always creating new applications and uses for this application!
  5. Free Desktop Clock will spruce up your Windows System clock. It adds skins and lots of other options like transparent backgrounds and the ability to sync it up with a list of atomic clock servers.

You can also check out our very own Tina's post on Docks – The 6 best friends of your Windows Taskbar.

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The Best 12 Free Wordpress Themes With Built-In Ad Space

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 06:30 PM PDT


The blogosphere is a big place. There are over 100 million blogs on the Internet. For those of you who have found a way to stand out from the crowd, or those who intend to, you may consider monetizing your blog to earn some profit for all of the information you’ve shared with the world.

The most common way to earn money is by placing advertisements on your site. In this article, I’ll share 12 clean and free Wordpress themes with ad space built-in. These themes are listed in no particular order. If you need help changing your blog theme, we can show you how.

FREEmium

Wordpress themes with ad space

FREEmium is an excellent theme that’s just as good as many commercial themes. It was designed by Paul Kadysz and coded by Dariusz Siedlecki. It has built-in support for 125×125 ads that are displayed in the upper-right corner of the site by default, which is a good "hot spot" for advertisements.

Check out the demo or read more details.

Simple Balance 2.2

Wordpress themes with ad space

Developed by Alex Cristache, Simple Balance is a great 3-column Wordpress theme with a nice setup for ad space too. Using the theme’s native options, you can tell it to use 125×125 banners or replace them with a 250×250 Google Adsense square. You can easily choose from a couple locations of the ads as well, without any coding required on your part.

Check out the demo or read more details.

GameZine

Wordpress themes with ad space

GameZine is developed by Jinsona Designs and is a great magazine-style theme for gaming sites, or any other site for the matter. The theme was designed with Adsense and 125×125 ads in mind. With its grungy blue design and Javascript effects, it’s sure to impress your readers.

Check out the demo or read more details.

ZinePress

free wordpress adsense ready themes

ZinePress is another magazine-style design with built-in 125×125 square ads support. Created by Andrew Lindstrom, ZinePress is a beautiful and calm tan design that’s definitely pleasing to the eyes. It’s very customizable and even works nicely on old browsers, such as IE 6.

Check out the demo or read more details.

Small Magazine

free wordpress adsense ready themes

I see Small Magazine as an ideal layout for a news site, with its clean style, built in Flickr support and grid layout. It has native support for 125×125 image ads and 250×250 Google Adsense spots.

Check out the preview image or read more details.

Masagana

free wordpress adsense ready themes

With its clean blue header and freshly styled design, Masagana is worth a look. The theme comes Adsense and 125×125 ad blocks ready to go. It has many nice features enabled by default, such as gravatar support and threaded comments. There’s also a nice Javascript header for featured articles on the home page.

Check out the demo or read more details.

Firebug

free wordpress themes

The Firebug theme uses colors in one of the best ways I’ve ever seen on a blog design. Not only that, but it’s packed with features like Gravatar comments, 125×125 banner ads, and support for widgets. If you’re looking for a theme that really stands out, be sure to not pass this one up.

Check out the demo or read more details.

Timeline Digest

free wordpress themes

Timeline Digest by Dezzain Studio is so good that it could easily be a premium theme. Luckily for us, we can have it for free. The theme was built with ads in mind and has plenty of places for 125×125, 728×90, and 300×250 ads. One of the more unique features of the theme is the post styling, which helps you make important messages stand out to your readers.

Check out the demo or read more details.

CSS Gallery

free wordpress themes

If you’re running a blog that is focused on photography, take a look at the CSS Gallery theme. It’s a slick and clean theme with nice highlighting and star rankings of photos. Comes with built-in tagging, Google Adsense and 125×125 ad support.

Check out the demo or read more details.

Blue Green Harmony

For a pleasant nature-colored theme design, check out Blue Green Harmony. With its minimalist design, fast load time and integrated ad-management features, I see this as a great design for many types of sites, particularly gardening or vegetarian recipes.

Check out the demo or read more details.

DailyPress

DailyPress is an excellent theme with its color choice and 3-column layout. This is an ideal theme for delivering daily tidbits to your readers. Tabbed content makes for easy browsing. It comes ready for widgets, banner ads, 125×125 ads and more.

Check out the demo or read more details.

Typebased

Designed by Armono Wibowo, Typebased is one of the most polished themes on this list. It has the type of design that just "pops" off the screen and makes the whole blog more interesting. Comes with built-in ad management, stylish drop-down menus and Flickr photo sidebar.

Check out the demo or read more details.

How About You?

Do you plan to use any of these themes? Or do you have a great suggestion of any Wordpress themes with ad space that we left off our list? If so, please leave a comment below!

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Online Resources to Help You Learn More About Apple’s Time Machine

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT


In a recent MakeUseOf article, Apple’s Time Machine was listed as one of the top free applications for Mac users. Not only is it free, but it’s probably one of the best and easiest methods for backing up data on your Mac.

While the ultimate free backup tool for Mac backup is an application like Carbon Copy Cloner, Apple Time Machine comes installed with Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. Apple has made setting Time Machine about as easy as frying a two eggs in a skillet. So there's little excuse for not setting it up.

When you attach a large external drive to your Mac, you will be asked if you want to set up Time Machine to run on that drive. From there, it will take you through the process of set up.

apple time machine

Though Time Machine is pretty easy to set up, the purpose of this article it to direct to other resources that will help you understand various problems and other information that you might need to know for Time Machine to run effectively on your Mac.

Time Machine 101

The first place to look is the source itself. Check out Apple’s Mac 101 document on Time Machine. It includes a summary of how to set up Time Machine, how to set preferences, how to select and restore files from within the application, and how to transfer your current hard drive to a new hard drive. The instructions are very clear and concise.

apple time machine

Apple Time Machine Video

I couldn’t locate the original video about Time Machine on Apple’s site, but here's copy of it on YouTube. Though it doesn't tell you how to troubleshoot the program, it gives you an introduction to its capabilities.

Troubleshooting Time Machine

For the most part, Apple Time Machine should work fine on a well-running Mac and external drive. But as with other computer programs, there will often be times when you need to troubleshoot problems with the application, or when you have particular needs beyond a basic Mac setup.

The Apple discussion board includes two very good documents, one for Frequently Asked Questions and the other for troubleshooting issues.

apple time machine

The FAQ document covers a list of 25 questions, such as "How big a drive do I need for Time Machine?" to "How do I restore my entire system?" Although the document is lengthy, you should check it out before asking a similar listed question on the discussion board.

apple time machine backup

Similarly, the Troubleshooting document includes solutions for problems pertaining to when backups fail, when the Select Disk button doesn't work, and various error messages.

These documents also link you to useful free third-party resources that work with Time Machine, such as an application called Time Tracker, which shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.).

If you're wanting to back up multiple computers with Time Machine, writer Joe Kissell explains how to do so in this Macworld article.

I have been running Time Machine for over year now and have not had too many problems, except for occasionally not remembering to reboot the external drive that Time Machine is saving backups to. When the drive is not running, of course, Time Machine can't perform backups, and sometimes it fails to notify you when backups were not done. So it's important to keep the Time Machine icon running in your Mac's menu bar, so you can check to make sure it's running on a regular basis.

apple time machine backup

Also, remember to try to use an external drive large enough to include some of your most precious media files stored in say iPhoto, iTunes, and your documents folder. The rule is always to have files backed up in at least two places, so an application like Carbon Copy Cloner, which backs up your entire internal disk drive is another essential resource.

Let us know about your experiences with Time Machine. Have you ever needed to restore files from it? Has it ever failed on you? What recommendations do you have for using it?

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10 Websites to Discover Hot Domains You Wouldn’t Have Thought About

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 02:30 PM PDT


Do you spend a lot of time conducting a domain name search for your spanking new idea for a website? Or does the domain name come to you like a ‘Eureka’ moment in the shower? Either way, you are off to a good start.

Why is choosing a good domain name important?

Choosing a good domain name starts with memory and ends with search engine optimization; somewhere in between lies branding. Take your most favored sites – I bet most of them have easy-to-remember names. Most of them also can be easily typed into the address bar with less chances of a typo. Good domain names are also unique and descriptive. Great domain names, of course, become brands of their own.

So, how do you choose domain names?


When picking domain names, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critically important. It is a detailed topic; let's just say that a fitting domain name is the first green light for visitor traffic.

Let’s start by brainstorming on paper. But if your brain is not shifting gears, there are a host of domain name search websites that can help to crank it up. I am not suggesting that you rely on them, but domain name generators take your keywords and can come up with unique word combinations that you wouldn't have thought about. A lot of them also allow you to lookup the names with the Domain Registrars to see if they are available.

A single domain name search website can give you lots of word combinations to play around with. Let me give you a few more to keep you occupied till you get the right domain name.

  1. NXdom

    domain name search

    NXdom has indexed millions of DNS records of expired and unused domain names. You can search by prefix and suffix, and sort the results by length, readability, and popularity. The advanced options help you refine the results by giving you five more criteria to filter the results.

    Read more about it in our archives.

  2. Nameboy

    domain name search

    Nameboy is a popular domain name search tool that bases its results on a primary word and a secondary word. Nameboy says that its intelligent engine creates name variations from the sound and meaning of the keyword. The feature that I like is that it immediately color codes the results depending on the availability status of the domain name.

  3. Namestation

    domain name search

    Namestation comes with a slick interface. With just a few clicks you can enter your suggested keywords and combine them with prefixes and suffixes. Set a minimum and maximum word length and get your domain name results. The application also lets you combine keywords with hundreds of categorized wordlists for a search engine friendly domain name.

  4. 123finder.com

    domain lookup

    123finder gives you four variations of for domain name discovery. The applications are pretty self explanatory – Simple Domain Search, Advanced Domain Search, Instant Domain Search, and Keywords from URL. The Keywords from URL tool extracts registered and available domain names from a given URL.

  5. Domize

    domain lookup

    Domize has a Power Search feature which can search a large combination of terms by entering a comma-separated list of words, letters or numbers. As special functions, it can also list out synonyms or derivatives of a supplied word based on a misspelling. Other functions include listing out words that rhyme with the one you enter. In short, the Power Search feature set gives you many options to play around with a word and whatever can be derived from it.

  6. Domain Exposer

    domain lookup

    Fill in a keyword and mix it with other word lists to get a combo domain name. You can decide on starting string of characters and also on an ending one. Also, you can set the position of your keyword relative to the chosen group of common words.

  7. Wordoid

    domain search

    Wordoid has a unique way of generating name ideas. Firstly, it can make up words that sound natural, almost natural or hardly natural. Secondly, it can do that in five languages – English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. You can also optionally put your own word somewhere in the Wordoid and limit the unique name to a set number of characters.

  8. PCNames

    domain search

    PCNames is a site which is being updated again after a period of dormancy. It has an AJAX based search engine that displays search results as you type. But what are worth keeping an eye on are the domain tools that you can access from the Tools link at the bottom. As soon as the site gets updated, the tools can be quite handy.

  9. Domain Pigeon

    domain search

    Domain Pigeon is a name index which lists available domain and Twitter names which you can register if they are available. You can apply some sorting options like dates and popularity. Domain Pigeon lists only .com names.

    Read more about it in our archives.

  10. DomainTools

    domain search

    Though this site will help you less with a cool name, Domain Tools is a collection of useful tools and domain related search engines that will help you find information behind certain domain names. They have a Whois search that reveals records about the party who registered the domain, a Suggestions search to help you find similar domain names, and a Domain Search which shows you what TLDs of a domain name are available.

    Read more about it in our archives.

These ten picks are certainly not that's all out there. They are just the proverbial tip of the domain name searching iceberg. A few more that we have covered before:

And do check out the one that came before this – 6 Domain Generators To Find That Killer Domain Name

Did these websites help you get around through the domain naming brainstorming sessions? Let us know if you got your cool 'n hot domain name you wouldn't have thought up with the pen and paper way.

Image credit: Thomas Hawk

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How to Print From Your iPhone for Free in Three Easy Steps

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 12:30 PM PDT


Are you one of those people who’ve asked, “Can I print from my iphone?”  There were some rather optimistic rumours that one of the features of the new iPhone OS 4.0 would include the ability to print from your iPhone. Now that we know that isn’t the case – we will just have to make do with what’s already available in the App Store. There are several free options when it comes to printing from your iPhone, but none is easier to set up and use than ActivePrint Traveler.

ActivePrint Traveler [iTunes link] does away with any concerns with what kind of router you have, what kind of network you are on, or how your printer is set up. All it takes is three easy steps. First, install the app on your iPhone. Second, register for a free account on your iPhone. Third, install a small module on your computer running Windows XP/Vista, and log in with your registered account.

can i print from my iphone

Unfortunately, the desktop application is only available for Windows, but that said, Mac users can always install it using Virtual Box. During testing, WineBottler did not work with this application.

Unlike other apps in the iTunes App Store that enable printing from your iPhone, you don’t need to be connected to the same network as the printer in order to get the job done — meaning that ActivePrint Traveler works on Edge, 3G and WiFi.

Printing from the free version of ActivePrint Traveler application does of course have its limitations. You can only print text that appears in the app’s inbuilt note pad. If you want to print text from an email, a web page, or your note app, simply copy and paste the text into ActivePrint Traveler, choose how many copies you want to print and hit Send Print Job.

The print job will automatically be queued in the ActivePrint desktop application that you have registered on your computer. With ActivePrint Traveler, you can print up to 50 copies of any given document at a time, and can choose between the Portrait and Landscape settings.

can i print from my iphone

Launching the Windows application, you will be able to retrieve your print queue, and print all the documents you have lined up.

can i print from my iphone

True to its name, ActivePrint Traveler can be used from anywhere as the desktop application can be installed on a USB flash drive, giving you the ability to print from your iPhone on the go, as long as there is a Windows machine at your disposal. Installing the program to a USB flash drive is no different to installing it to your Windows machine. When unzipping the file, navigate to the USB flash drive as the location to unzip the file, and it will automatically install.

print from iphone

Upgrading to the $3.99 Pro version will give you the ability to print from your contacts, photos and web pages using the inbuilt browser. There is also a paid version of ActivePrint available for Windows Mobile, while the Blackberry and Android versions are in the works, with no word of whether or not they will be free.

What method do you use to print from your mobile device when you're on the go? Let us know in the comments.

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How to Use Delicious to Completely Organize Your Student Life

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 11:30 AM PDT


Have you ever finished a course and later wondered what was the name of that book you wanted to get around to reading? Can’t recall the brilliant tips you were given? Wish you could still find your readings? Can’t remember the tutor’s name anymore? Wish you knew what books other people had referenced in their assignments? Would love to do a refresher course and see what they teach new students these days? Well, it doesn’t have to be like this. You can keep track of it all – easily.

Don’t think this guide is just for students in formal education. Every day worldwide, many people are self-educating for current jobs or career changes. People also take short courses, seek out mentorships or sometimes employers offer some other form of education. Whatever your level or mode of study, this method of using Delicious bookmarking will put you well ahead of your peers and keep your valuable lessons easily accessible for the rest of your life.


Delicious is a fabulous web application which doesn’t get nearly enough attention. It is versatile, free and extremely powerful once you start using it effectively. Here’s a step-by-step guide to using Delicious bookmarking to keep track of everything you and your classmates ever needed to know for your studies.

Simple steps to using Delicious Bookmarking for study

delicioius bookmarking

  1. Sign up. If you haven’t used Delicious before, sign up and import your old browser bookmarks.

    delicioius bookmarking

  2. Tag everything. Think of a tag for your course and memorable tags for each class, topic and typical essay topics. These will be used across many classes. Also note your class codes and use the code as a tag for anything relevant to that class.
  3. Bundle it up. Create a Delicious tag bundle that includes all the relevant tags for your course, including the class code tags.

    delicioius bookmarking

Note that for each tag, you can view everything that has ever been tagged by using http://delicious.com/tag/yourtag. This means you can see everything your classmates, tutors and lecturers have tagged with the class code too – and not just during your course. After your course is finished, there will still be people using this course tag – especially if you train your lecturers and tutors to suggest it to future classes. This means you can continue to be informed of useful articles, books, journals and quotes relevant to your qualifications long after you are finished your studies.

It’s quite worthwhile taking your time to introduce this system to your classmates, tutors and lecturers. The more people using it the better.

What should you bookmark?

Ideally, you should bookmark anything directly relevant to your course or class that either you or a classmate might be pleased to find one day. Always add information about why it was relevant. For example, “Tutor said this was a perfect example of poor website design”.

Start with reading your course material. Bookmark the following:

  • URLs given to you in class notes.
  • If books are mentioned (as required texts or extra readings), find the book in Google Books and bookmark the link (along with any reasons why it was cited). Ensure you note which pages were given to you as readings and why.
  • Follow any links your tutors and lecturers give about themselves. Try to bookmark their website, Twitter or other public information which tells you a little about them, how they got where they are and what their focus is. This helps you to understand them better, understand what you need to focus on in your assignments and also to note what other career options might be available for you. It’s also a great way to remind yourself of the important names down the track for networking, your CV or other reasons.
  • Link to journals and extracts of relevant articles.
  • Read class forums and bookmark any links your classmates suggest is relevant.
  • Bookmark links to professional organisations and future career paths mentioned in your course.

Don’t forget to use the class code tag and any relevant tags to indicate class topic, course topic, section in coursework, related essays, etc.

It’s easy to do this step at the very beginning of each class, before the assignment deadlines start looming. You’ll appreciate it down the track as you’ll have everything at your fingertips and an overall grasp of your class before you get stuck into it.

Building on your records

After the basic coursework links are bookmarked, it’s time to build on this and add your own links. You might like to keep some of the following private until after your assignments are handed in (so no one else in your class uses your best articles).

  • For every weekly topic of each class, search for relevant articles and guides. Make sure everything that is taught in your class is bookmarked for later (found in various places online, not just in your course material). This keeps track of everything you learned in the class, plus it gives you a good start for essay bibliographies.
  • When you search for items relevant to your essays, bookmark them also.
  • If anyone is having difficulty with certain points in your class, find and bookmark relevant websites which answer their questions.

When you’re reading these articles properly, take a little extra time to note the things you will want to use in essays or find again later. Add this extra information to your Delicious description. For example, add complete quotations with appropriate referencing details. When you’re writing essays further down the track you will pat yourself on the back. Especially in your final year, when you can easily spot the quote you need from a bookmark of a first-year reading.

How to keep track of all the tags?

The Delicious tag bundle is a great start to keeping track of all the tags. With everything collected, you can see all the relevant tags clearly.

You can also get “meta” and save the bookmark for http://delicious.com/tag/yourtag so that you’ll never forget that everyone else’s bookmarks are easy to find too.

RSS is an excellent way to access your Delicious bookmarks. Remember two simple things:

  1. It’s possible to subscribe to an RSS feed of the class tag (that everyone is contributing to). Go to http://delicious.com/tag/yourtag and subscribe to the feed using the RSS icon.
  2. You can subscribe to a private RSS feed of either your class tag or your entire course Delicious bundle. This way, you’ll get all the private bookmarks too. To do this, look at the very bottom of each page and click on “Private RSS Feed”.

Also, see these other great MakeUseOf articles on Delicious:

Now you are well aware of how easily you can keep track of all your study notes in Delicious, you should have a great headstart in your next course. Don’t forget to teach your classmates and lecturers. Share your success stories here!

Image Credit: Lcrward

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Hot Tech Deals [April 12th]

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT


If you’re in the market for a new computer, laptop, mobile phone, games and other accessories; don’t waste your time searching online. We’ve taken the liberty of locating the best deals tech deals and unifying them into a single post for your convenience.

For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.

  1. HP AMD Dual Core 1.6GHz 13″ LED Laptop for $500 after rebate
  2. Lenovo IdeaPad Atom 1.83GHz 10″ LED Netbook Tablet for $499
  3. Refurb Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 15″ Laptop for $970 + $10 shipping
  4. T-Mobile: Free $25 refill card with select prepaid phones + free shipping
  5. Net10: Free 300 minutes + 60-day trial on new phones
  6. Sharp AQUOS Blu-ray Disc Player w/ BD-Live for $100
  7. Samsung CLP-315W Wireless Color Laser Printer for $125

Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set

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How to Create a Claymation or Stop-motion Video

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 10:30 AM PDT


Need a cool project for school? Have oodles of free time? Try your skills at creating a video with claymation or stopmotion!

Claymation is an animation technique used with clay figures.  Basically, each movement is a new “shot” and the “shots” are connected together at the end to make a movie. Famous claymation cartoons like Gumby and Wallace and Gromit have made the artistic form popular.

Stopmotion is the original animation technique used to create cartoons.  You can use any kind of toy (legos, for example).  This technique was replaced by computer animation. Old cartoons used this technique to replace drawings and cells.  There is no clay involved.

how to create a claymation

Ingredients

  • 5 cups of patience
  • A detailed storyboard
  • Clay (for claymation) or toys (for stopmotion)
  • Backdrop for scene
  • Digital camera
  • 6 more cups of patience
  • Lots of time
  • Movie-making software (free or commercial)

Step 1: Plan, Plan, Plan

There is a really good reason that old cartoons are short. They take a long time to create. So, if you need a quick project for school, learning how to create a claymation and stopmotion are not your best bets.

how to create a claymation

Think about it.  To have your character raise her hand, it can take about 30 positions.  If you want your character to raise her hand, wave, jump for joy, and run away, you might need hundreds of positions! If you add in another character, like a puppy, you need even more pictures.

So, before you get started, plan which form you will use (clay or toys), plan for a lot of time, and plan to do a lot of laborious work. The end result is worth it!

Step 2: Create a Story Board

Every good movie starts with a story board. A story board maps out every single scene (including audio and special effects) within a movie. There are all sorts of fancy ones you can pay to own, or you can find a lot of good free ones online.

how to create a claymation

For claymation and stopmotion, you want to make sure that you document every single movement that you will need shots for to create the exact movement of each scene. One excellent resource is offered free by Atomic Learning; you can watch free tutorials on Storyboarding and download free software to create one. Pizza by the Slice has some nice free storyboard downloads, as well.

Step 3: Build your clay models (or gather toys)

Clay is really fun to play with, but you will need to remember a few specific things…models that are too small are hard to work with when you have to change poses (a lot).  Large clay figures often fall over. Try to work with action figure sizes. Use wire inside the clay to keep the parts together (like a skeleton). This will make life so much easier when you change the poses.

stop motion animation

If you are working with toys, be sure all the parts work and that they can stand independently.  Also, be sure the toys aren’t too small or too big. Wes Fryer’s stopmotion camp has some great photos if you would like to see some examples.

Step 4: Start Snapping!

Remember this golden rule for both claymation and stopmotion: each new position needs a new photo. Even if it is just slight, a new photo needs to be taken. For example, if you blink, you might think it is just eye open, eye shut. But, if you really think about a blink, your eyelid is open, closes a quarter, a half, three-quarters, is fully closed, opens 3 quarters, half, a quarter and opens fully. That equals 9 shots (though you can save time and use the duplicates twice so long as no other part of the body is moving).

stop motion animation

Remember, you can never run out of digital film. Take lots of shots so you don’t have to go back and redo an entire movement. Get every possible angle you might need while the figure is in position.

Step 5: Load Images into Movie Program

Mac and PC users can use programs specific to the platform, but I find that Picasa’s movie maker works really well and is easy for my kids to manipulate.

stop motion animation

Simply load in the pics, set the flip speed to the lowest setting, and presto!

But, remember to load all of the pictures in order. If you want more polish, use Photoshop or Gimp to clear photo blemishes and trim edges.

Mac users can try using FrameByFrame or iMovie to create stopmotion videos. Windows users may try Windows Movie Maker or VirtualDub to export the sequential images as a video file.

Why Bother?

Claymation and stopmotion teach patience, attention to detail, photography and communication skills. Creating a movie from a lot of hard work is rewarding, as well!

Check out this final stopmotion video by Bang-yao Liu, a student at Savannah College of Art and Design. You can see how the movie was made here (Thanks to Cindy Lane for the lead!).

Have you made claymation or stopmotion videos?  If they are kid-friendly, please post the URL in the comments box!

More Resources: Kevin Hodgson has a great page devoted to using stopmotion in the classroom.

Images by Statico, Wesley Fryer, Chris Campbell, Leo Reynolds, Joriel “Joz” Jimenez, Capt Kodak

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How To Set Up An FTP Site With An Easy Front End [Windows]

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT


We have covered FTP (File Transfer Protocol) in the past, pointing you towards the best FTP clients, letting you know about the basic FTP commands and how to use them among other things.

Today let’s venture into the wild a bit and see how to set up an FTP site for yourself, which is just another way of saying that the configured computer will be able to serve files to other people who possess the valid credentials.


There are a couple of situations where learning how to set up an FTP site can be useful:

  • If you want to share some files and allow other people to be able to read them or read/write them.
  • If you want to access certain files remotely.
  • If you are configuring a webserver that needs FTP access to create and modify files.

In short it allows you to access your files from a remote location while giving you greater power and control over who can access the files and with what permissions.

Let us now quickly get to the business side of things and start with some configuration. Please note that I am using IIS 7 on Windows 7, the steps would apply to earlier versions of Windows as well with the occasional obvious changes here and there.

Step 1: First off, open up Control Panel then Programs and then click on “Turn Windows features On or Off

how to set up an FTP site

Step 2: We need to enable (install in other Windows versions) Internet Information Services and in the detail view check FTP Server. Click OK and Windows will do the rest. If you are using an older version of Windows you might need to insert your Windows disc.

how to set up an FTP site

Step 3: Once IIS and FTP server are enabled, we need to tweak a few settings, so go ahead and open up Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > IIS Manager.

Step 4: In the left pane, Right Click on Sites and choose New FTP Site. Choose a name for your site and the directory that will serve as the root FTP folder.

how to set up an FTP site

Step 5: Click Next and you can now configure the IP Address and SSL settings according to your needs. If you have a static IP, put it in here, otherwise leave it as it is. Again if you want to enable SSL, it can be done from here on in.

how do i set up an ftp server

Step 6: This step involves setting up “Authentication and Authorization“. You can choose to allow Anonymous FTP (meaning that anyone would be able to access files) or you can choose to give access to selected users or to a user group. Next choose the permissions that will be available to these users and click Finish.

how do i set up an ftp server

Connecting to the FTP site

At this point, you have successfully learned how to set up an FTP site. You should now be able to connect to your newly created FTP site using your favorite FTP client. To connect, users would need to point their FTP clients to a hostname or IP address. Depending upon how you configured the site above and whether you have a static IP or not, you can provide them with a static IP or hostname if you have one (that is the easiest). Folks with a dynamic IP address can look into dyndns, which would give you a hostname that would resolve to the current IP address of your FTP site.

how do i set up an ftp server

If you enabled authentication and disallowed anonymous connection, users would also need a username and password to access files. By default, the Windows account credentials for any given user should do the job.

You can also provide the users with an easy front end and save them the trouble of using an FTP client. To do so, you can look into Oliver, which is a simple web-based FTP front end. Users can then access all the files in your FTP directory by simply pointing their web browsers onto Oliver’s location. Keep in mind that Oliver is written in PHP, so you would need PHP installed on your computer and working in conjunction with IIS. Alternatively, you can download and install XAMPP, which includes FileZilla that will let you serve files as well.

Do you use FTP?  If so, what are your favorite applications to get the most out of FTP?

Image Credit: Eric Kilby

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Rediscover Your Disk Usage with DaisyDisk for Mac [MakeUseOf Giveaway]

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 08:30 AM PDT


DaisyDisk is a sensational visual application for those of us that like to keep track of what we are storing, how much we are storing, and where we are storing files on our machines.

This week, we are giving away 20 free copies of DaisyDisk worth $400 to some very lucky winners. In addition to the 20 copies, we also have a 25% discount code for those who are looking to purchase the app themselves. Both the giveaway and the discount code offer expires on Saturday so you can decide which route you wish to take.


I am really captivated by the simplicity of the program and the colorful display.  Below is the only screen you will see when you boot up the program indicating what is available to be scanned.

Once you select a drive, the scan process takes about a minute depending on how many files you have in the drive.

After DaisyDisk scans your drive, you get a colorful graphic that illustrates where your computer is storing files and what types of files are being stored.  In the example below, I can see that “User” (me) uses the most space.  If I shared the computer with a coworker or with my children or spouse, I could see which one of us used more space.

If I click on “User,” I can drill down to see how the space is being used. Space usage is symbolised by the area being taken up — the larger a section, the more space is occupied. Not surprisingly, music takes up most of the space.  If I want to return to the previous level, I can simply click on the center black circle to go back one layer at a time.

If I want to continue drilling down, I can see that all of my music is housed in the iTunes folder.

If I want to break down music according to artist or theme, I can drill down another level. Of course, this all depends on your iTunes organisational structure since DaisyDisk only takes the folder size into account.

You can keep drilling down until you have exhausted the search.  While it is great to know that these files exist, DaisyDisk also helps you clean them up.  Simply right click on an item and choose “Preview”  from the menu to first check what the file is.

Then return to DaisyDisk, select “Show in Finder” and it will take you right to where the file is stored. If you don’t need it, trash it.

DaisyDisk allows you to visualise what takes up the biggest amount of space, and helps guide you to delete large unwanted files.

How do I win a copy?

It’s simple. Just follow the steps.


STEP 1
Join our Facebook page by clicking on the Become a Fan button on the left. If you can’t see the fanbox, click on this link.

If you’re already a fan, skip this step.


OR follow us on Twitter

STEP 2

Share this post with your friends by clicking on the Share and/or retweet buttons on the left.

STEP 3
In the comments section below, fill in your name, email address, paste the link to your Facebook/Twitter profile in the URL field and tell us why you’d like to win.

Make sure to enter your real email address so that we can contact you if you win!


This DaisyDisk giveaway begins now and will end on Friday at 2100hrs PST. From tomorrow onwards, we will be announcing 4 random winners each day — so you’ll know if you managed to secure a copy! The last 4 winners will be announced on Saturday.

If you feel your luck running out, you can purchase DaisyDisk at a discounted rate. Use the promotional code “MAKEUSEOF” at DaisyDisk’s online store checkout and get 25% off the $20 retail price (or click on this link to have the entire process completed automatically). Code expires on the 17th of April.

MakeUseOf would like to thank Oleg from DaisyDisk for his generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email.

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