MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [April 16th]” plus 12 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [April 16th]
- Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]
- The 5 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Reading E-Books On The iPad With iBooks & Amazon Kindle [Mac]
- How To Set Up A Meebo Messenger Bar For Your Blog
- Websites To Find Abandoned Places & Old Ghost Towns
- Hot Tech Deals [April 16th]
- How To Write Your First Google Android Application
- How To Use Drop Caps To Enhance Your Text In Microsoft Word
- DaisyDisk Giveaway Winners: Round 4
- How To Stream Free RapidShare-Hosted Movies On Your Computer
- Free Up Your Time With Google Calendar, Blog & Status Updates
- McGruff SafeGuard – A Free Spy Software Download To Monitor Your Kids
| Cool Websites and Tools [April 16th] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:31 PM PDT
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. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:00 PM PDT
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.
Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 5 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 07:31 PM PDT
With MakeUseOf Answers you now have the chance to make some money, while helping to solve tech issues. Next week, the Best Answer of the Week will be rewarded with US$50. To qualify, please use a valid email address. The winner will be able to choose between PayPal credit or an Amazon voucher. To get you started, here are five questions we weren’t able to answer, yet.
Not a single nut you can crack? Don’t despair, there are new questions to be solved every day. Have a look at Latest Questions or Unanswered Questions or browse our Most Popular Questions. For regular updates, you can subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask us at MakeUseOf Answers! Free and no registration required. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reading E-Books On The iPad With iBooks & Amazon Kindle [Mac] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 06:31 PM PDT
On the launch day of the iPad, both Apple's e-reader, iBooks. and Amazon's Kindle for the iPad were ready for download. Both readers share similarities that will make avid e-book readers want to use both or similar iPad e-book applications coming online in the next few months. The purpose of this article is to introduce how to read ebooks on an iPad with free applications, and discuss some of the pros and cons of each.
Downloading BooksBoth Amazon and Apple allow users to download sample copies of their e-books. My decisions to purchase or not purchase an e-book has many times been influenced by reading a sample copy first.
In terms of the number of e-books available for download, Amazon of course has a much larger stock than Apple. So Apple allowing the Kindle app on its mobile devices is a wise decision. To browse Amazon e-books, you are linked from the Kindle iPad app to the online Kindle store, whereas with Apple's iBookstore you browse and purchase e-books in the iBook's application itself. You're not sent to a separate website. This experience is a little better than with iBookstore, but at this point the limited stock of books in the Apple store will send many customers to Amazon or elsewhere. Reading E-BooksSimple reading of e-books in both applications is pretty much the same as well. In both apps you tap on the right and left side of the iPad screen to “turn” pages. Each app includes a little animated feature in which if you “turn a page” slowly it replicates the look of turning a real paper book. This feature is not turned on, I think, by default in the Amazon reader. You can also change the font style and size of pages as you read, in both readers. Also very useful is the ability to dim the light of the backlit screen, which can be done in both apps. If you need to look up a word in the dictionary, each app has a tool for that.
Page LocationsThe most frustrating part of reading in both of these apps is getting lost when you turn too many pages. In iBooks you can move your finger across the bottom of each page to select a page number in a chapter. Also , the bottom-right side of each page tells you how many pages are left in each chapter. The Kindle reader is similar, but not as practical. The page numbering in the Kindle does not come close to the actual page numbering in the paper version of a book. The numbering can go into the thousands, when the paper version is actually say 296. And it only gives you the percentage of pages read in an e-book.
Both apps also include a table of contents tab, and a tab for getting back to the last page you were on before turning to the contents page. The large iPad screen makes for comfortable reading in both apps, though some readers may be uncomfortable with the bright back-light of the screen or possible glare when reading outdoors. Other users have complained about the iPad being too difficult to read out in direct sunlight. Making AnnotationsIf you're needing to make annotations in the books you read, both apps offer some basic tools in this area. They including highlighting, bookmarking, and in the case of the Kindle, note taking. With each of these tools you press down on the word where you want to start highlighting and drag your finger across to where you want to end the highlight. In the Kindle app you tap on the upper corner of a page to bookmark it, whereas with iBooks you must use the highlighter tool as a bookmarker. Ironically, the tool is called Bookmark, but what you're really doing is highlighting.
The highlighting tools work great in both apps, but the iBooks app includes a feature for going back and changing the color (to yellow, green, blue, pink, or purple) of a highlighted passage by simply pressing down on the highlight which will result in a pop-up menu of color selections.
Each app also includes a way to retrieve a list of your annotations. Other FeaturesWhere both applications really begin to differ are the unique features they offer. In the Kindle app, you have the preference of reading pages in black with white lettering, which can't be done in iBooks. iBooks, on the other hand, has a universal search field where you can type in a keyword and it gives you the results of each page on which the searched word appears. You can also press down on a word and do a search. The search can also includes queries in Google and Wikipedia. If you are reading a Kindle e-book on more than one device, Amazon has a syncing feature which updates to the furthest you've read in a selected book. If you sync between say your iPhone and the desktop version of the Kindle, it will also sync your highlights. But that does not occur if you sync between the iPad and the desktop version. Only the furthest pages read syncs.
Missing FeaturesNeither reader seem to handle indexes, which I guess is an issue with how e-books are published. There is also not a way to export or print out your annotations from each device; nor is there a way to copy and paste text from either e-books or your annotations. If Apple, Amazon, and other e-book stores are going to attract say students and the academic market, they will need to include these and other advanced features. I have no preference for one e-reader over the other. I think they both work great, though the iBooks is a tad bit more stylish in its execution, which is mainly a result of Apple building off of Amazon's previous versions of their e-reader app. I look forward to the growth of these apps. They may not ever stop me from reading paper books, but they certainly are helping to reduce the need for more bookshelf space in my house. So tell us about your e-book reading. What reader do you use? Have you tried either the Kindle or the iBook app on the iPad? Likes, dislikes? Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Set Up A Meebo Messenger Bar For Your Blog Posted: 16 Apr 2010 04:31 PM PDT
The Meebo Bar is a toolbar that sits at the bottom of the screen and enables users to share stories, receive live updates, and chat with others – all while using your site. It adds a level of social interaction to your site that your users can appreciate. In this article, I'm going to show you how to utilize the Meebo Bar and install it on your blog.
Step 1: Get the Meebo Messenger Bar
If you want to get the Meebo Bar for your website or blog, the first thing you need to do is download the bar from bar.meebo.com. Just click Get It Now and you are taken to a signup page. Enter in your credentials (i.e. username, password, email) and click Continue to go to the next page.
On the next page you are asked for your site's name and the URL. Fill in the information and click Continue one more time. Now you should be at the Meebo Messenger Dashboard. Here you can select which platform you would like to install the bar on. Your choices are TypePad, Wordpress (self hosted), Blogger, Movable Type, or Other.
Select the option that best describes your website and a set of instructions will unfold that will walk you through the installation. Depending on where you host your blog, these instructions will include anything from custom HTML, Javascript, or a downloadable plugin. Once you copy your code or install your plugin, click Next–>. Congratulations, the bar should be on your site. Now it's time to customize. Note: If you don't see your bar at first, don't worry. I've noticed that on a new blog the bar doesn't show up until you have at least one post or content up of some kind. Also, you can elect to make the bar only show up on your post pages instead of your home page. Step 2: Customize Your BarIf you click Go to my Button Settings, you are taken to the control panel. From here, you can customize your Meebo Messenger bar with all kinds of social icons, including Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, YouTube, and Flickr. Drag and drop the ones you want.
You can add a Digg button so people can digg your content and an RSS button so they can subscribe to your feed. Use a Meebo chat icon so users can IM their friends (or you!) from your site. You can even create custom buttons from the Overview page. Once you have your bar looking the way you want, you can press the Push settings to live bar button and your bar will update on your site with all your new settings. Step 3: Monitor Your Bar's StatsOnce you have your bar set up, you can monitor how it is being used from the Stats page on the dashboard. The page tracks shares by type, by intention, button clicks, clicks by referrers, and page views.
This page can be very helpful if you want to test different buttons on your bar or want to see what arrangement works best for your blog. ConclusionIf set up properly, the Meebo Bar can be a great addition to your blog. Shares of your content are bound to go up if you give users an easy way to distribute your content. If you give them a reason to stick around, total time spent on your site should go up as well. Utilize the power of Meebo messenger chat on your website or blog! What do you think of the Meebo Bar? Will you be using it on your site? Do you use a different toolbar? Let us know in the comments! NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Websites To Find Abandoned Places & Old Ghost Towns Posted: 16 Apr 2010 02:31 PM PDT
One of our favorite local finds was an old jail “holding house” in the middle of the woods here. It was used in the 1940s as a place to hold prisoners before taking them to the “big house.” It is situated, literally, in the middle of nowhere in the woods. Sadly, graffiti (and not the awesome interesting kind) has taken over and beer bottles and drug paraphernalia litter the scene.
Finding Abandoned PlacesThe best website is Abandoned Places. They provide a picture wheel where you select a button to learn about a new spot. They feature locations from all over the world, and the writers do their homework. Each post has excellent historical information about the location, stunning photos, and, when possible, links to other information. The site is a little confusing to use at first, but just remember to click the round buttons in the photo wheel.
There are many stories about old ghost towns. They are all fascinating stories; they truly make you think about the fleeting nature of life. One example, Graffiti Palace, is “huge and similar to a village, with streets, parking spaces, a railway, hangars, workshops, and offices. There is a building with a kitchen, cafeteria, banquet room, restrooms, lockers, meeting rooms…apart from its size, the most striking feature of this site is the amount of beautiful graffiti! Not just senseless tagging, but real works of art!” The photography included in the post is amazingly detailed and worth a look.
The site provides excellent historical information, as well. This jail located in Brussels was used in World War II by the Germans. This jail is also part of a larger old ghost town that includes beautiful stately buildings. It is amazing that a government would spend so much money to create something so beautiful and then leave it abandoned.
Another great spot to learn history and see photos is Abandoned but Not Forgotten. Their site also puts a lot of heart and soul into providing historical information, but, sadly, there are few pictures. It is a site where anyone can post up an abandoned spot or add to a post that has already been created. Among its gems though, are leads to places that might be near you. For example, you can read about the town in Centralia, PA that is abandoned because of a coal fire burning under it. We lived fairly near this town when we were growing up and never ever heard about it!
There are a whole host of great posts that showcase abandoned places. DirJournal has an excellent post on abandoned places, and Daddu features a gorgeous photo display of the Poetry of Forgotten Places. WebUrbanist has great photos, as well (if you can stand all the trailers to get to the content!).
All Aboard Trains!Sadly, there are no sites that just focus on the historical nature of abandoned trains, although many sites offer up gorgeous pictures of abandoned trains. One post features abandoned trains from the Soviet Era. Urban75 also hosts a lot of beautiful photos. These photo sites don’t offer as much historical evidence as other sites, but they are fascinating. Are there any abandoned buildings or trains near you? Share them with us! Image Credits: Elephi Pelephi, Abandoned Places, Angela Parriott, WebUrbanist Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 16 Apr 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Write Your First Google Android Application Posted: 16 Apr 2010 12:31 PM PDT
Recently, Google announced that they are sending free Nexus One or Droid devices to developers with 3.5+ stars and 5,000+ downloads on their applications – making it that much more attractive to become a (good) Android developer.
Before we get to how to write Google Android apps – first, a bit of overview. Android apps (much like almost any mobile app) are developed on a computer – PC or Mac (generally) – and then compiled and sent to the device for testing. If you don’t have an Android device yet, there are emulators that simulate an Android device on your computer, meaning that you can still develop an Android game or application without owning one. Step 1: Get EclipseFor this tutorial, I’m going to use Eclipse, because frankly it’s the easiest and most hassle-free development tool for Android right now. If you’re a NetBeans programmer, be my guest; but I’ll use Eclipse today. Download Eclipse IDE for Java Developers (PC or Mac, 92MB) Note: This is a .zip file; when you unzip it you will be able to run it wherever you unpacked it – there is no installer. I’d recommend that you put this in “C:\Program Files\” unless you plan on making it a portable application on a USB drive or something. Step 2: Download The Java JDKIf you don’t have it already, you need to download the Java JDK 6. If you currently have the JDK 5, you should be okay, but there’s really no reason not to update. Just install it by downloading and then running through the setup to get things going. I’d recommend that you just hit next–>next–>finish, rather than doing anything fancy. Once you get things working, you can mess around a bit. Step 3: Download The Android SDK ToolsNext, you’ll need to get the Android SDK Tools straight from Google. Unpack and install this to a directory you’ll remember – you need to reference this in the next few steps. Step 4: Configure Eclipse For Your AndroidStart Eclipse, and head to ‘Help>Install New Software‘. Hit “Add…” and for the name, type “Android” and set the link to “https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/” (if this doesn’t work, try it with http:// instead of https://).Click “OK” and the following should appear.
Select both of the resulting packages, and hit next – this will download the Android ADT (Android Development Tools). Go ahead and start the download to obtain these two packages. Restart Eclipse (it should prompt you to on completion of the downloads). We’re almost ready to start coding. Step 5: Configure The Android SDKNavigate to the folder you downloaded/unpacked the Android SDK to. In there, you’ll find a file named “SDK Setup.exe.” Start that file – the following dialogue should appear.
Don’t feel obligated to download every single thing. Could it hurt? Not really. For me, however, I only really want to program for Android 2.1 and 2.01, so those are the only API packages I bothered to get (someday I may pay for my folly, but not today). Either way, get what you want (and you do need to pick one) and hit install. The SDK manager will install it for a little while – go grab a snack. Step 6: Set Up Your Android Virtual Device (AVD)Now that you’ve finished yet another painful download, click over to “virtual devices” (still in the SDK Manager). We’re going to create an Android device that will test run your programs for you! Hit “New” to create a new Android device, and put in the specifications that you want it to have. In the screenshot below, you’ll see the options I wanted (that closely mimic that of my Motorola Droid).
Click “Create AVD” to–well–create your AVD. Select your AVD from the list, and hit “Start” to make sure that you do indeed have a working emulation of an Android phone. After a pretty lengthy start-up wait, it should look something like this.
Fool around with it and explore for a bit if you want, then close it up so we can get back to work. Step 7: Configure Eclipse AgainRemember that Android SDK we got earlier? We didn’t do anything with it. Now, it’s time to tell Eclipse where it is so Eclipse can use it as a resource. To do this, open Eclipse and navigate to Window>Preferences (or on Mac, Eclipse>Preferences) and select the Android tab. As shown below, browse to the location of your Android SDK and hit “Apply“.
Everything check out so far? Hit “OK” to save everything and let’s go program. Step 8: Create A New ProjectIt’s finally time to code some. Navigate to ‘File>New>Other…>Android>Android Project‘, and input a project name, as well as some other details. If you want, copy from my screenshot below. Some of the fields need explaining that simply doesn’t belong here, so if you want to know more specifically, please let me know and maybe I’ll write an article about it.
Hit “Finish” and the project will be created. Step 9: Input Your CodeIn the tree on the left, navigate to the “src” folder and expand everything. Go to the file with the name of your “Activity” (created in step 8, mine was HelloWorld) and double click it to see the contents. Presently, your code has all of the content in black (with some minor modifications depending on your settings). To make a working “Hello world” program, you need to add the text that is in bold red. Note that there are two bold red “blocks” of code, and you need to add both to make things work. //==========Start Code============ package com.android.helloandroid; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.widget.TextView; public class HelloAndroid extends Activity { /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); TextView tv = new TextView(this); tv.setText("Hello, Android"); setContentView(tv); } } //==========End Code============ I would love to explain all of the code, but that’s not exactly the point of this tutorial; the point is to get your feet off the ground. I know some/most of this is confusing; but it’s just how things are wired. Step 10: Run Your ProgramAbove your code, you’ll see a little green “Play” button (or navigate to ‘Run>Run‘). Click it.When a popup box asks you how to run the application, you’re going to tell it to run as an “Android Application”. It will prompt you to save changes; hit yes. Now you get to wait an eternity while your virtual device boots up. I’d recommend that you leave it open for the duration of your programming sprees, otherwise you’re going to spend more time watching the Android logo spin than you will watching your program freeze up. Just saying. Efficiency. After everything’s done loading, your application should upload and start automatically. Which means that right after you “unlock” the device, you’ll be greeted with your first Android program.I only captured the top half of the screen because the rest of it is black.
That’s it, congratulations! The task can be a bit daunting at first; and definitely confusing, but if you stick with it you won’t be disappointed. If you step back and think about it, we only did a few really major things, the rest was just the process of connecting the pieces to make everything work. Do you want to become an Android developer? Have you ever written an Android app, and if so, what did it do? As always I love getting feedback in the comments section. As someone who answered yes to the first question, I’m in the process of learning to adequately code for my Android device, so do you have any websites or pointers that would help me or a fellow Android newbie out? Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Use Drop Caps To Enhance Your Text In Microsoft Word Posted: 16 Apr 2010 11:31 AM PDT
The thumbnail alongside is from a piece of text that’s more than 550 years old. Today, drop caps are well entrenched in desktop publishing and web design. Cascading Style Sheets is the way with HTML. WordPress even has a plug-in for drop caps.
The style of a drop cap varies with the document. A professional document does well with a minimalistic styled drop cap using cleaner fonts. A more casual document and you can let your creative juices flow with your choice of formatting. This post is about creating drop caps in MS Word. There are a few creative ways you can format or embed drop caps in MS Word to enhance the text. And they are all drop dead easy. Add A Text Drop Cap In A Word DocumentMS Word 2007 comes with a Drop Cap button that makes inserting a drop a 2 click process. Click anywhere on the paragraph or block of text which you want to begin with the drop cap. On the Ribbon, select the Insert Tab. From the Text group, click on Drop Cap and you will get three options to choose from.
For Dropped and In Margin, the drop cap 'drops' by three lines as a default.
The default drop of three lines can be changed by clicking on Drop Cap Options and entering new figures. You can also tweak the Distance from text that adjoins it. The first letter that turns into a drop cap is positioned within a text box.
You can use any of the text formatting features to change the look. For example, you can change the color, size, or add a text effect. You can also use more than one letter for your drop cap. Place your cursor beside the drop cap letter and type the next letters. But that doesn’t look so good.
Add A Stylish Font As A Drop Cap In A Word DocumentDrop caps can be visually enhanced by using elegant fonts. For instance, Vivaldi or Old English Text, both should be on your system's list of installed fonts.
You can also check out capital fonts from sites which allow downloads of free fonts. Check out 5 Excellent Sources To Download Free Text Fonts. Or Google for drop cap fonts. Some sites keep a small selection of drop cap fonts in their lineup. I found a few at Dafont.com and FontTemple.com. Add An Image As A Drop Cap In A Word DocumentSmall image files can also be embedded as drop caps. They are visually more striking than text drop caps because they bring a more intricate and colorful look. You can make your own graphic file or use the ones that are readily available with Microsoft. Office Online has a good collection of letter cliparts. You can go straight from the Clip Art panel by clicking on the Organize Clips link. You can search the Clip Art gallery with keywords like letters or alphabets. For instance, type in 'W' when you are searching the letter W. Most of the single letter clip arts are located under Symbols in the Clip Art and Media Categories.
Drag the chosen clip art from the Clip Organizer to the drop cap location in your document. Drag the corner handles to resize the letter around the surrounding text. Keeping the SHIFT key pressed while dragging the handles, maintains the proportion of the letter.
MS Word's wrapping commands now come into the picture. Select the clip art letter, and then click Format on the Picture Tools menu. Select Text Wrapping in the Arrange group and click on Square.
You can do the same by right clicking the image and choosing the option under Text Wrapping. You can also tweak the look slightly by horizontally aligning it to the text (Text Wrapping – More Layout Options).
Subtle use of drop caps can really help to jazz up your documents. We have talked about its use in MS Word, but drop caps are part of every type of document that gets written or designed. That's quite an impact for a single letter that's also so easy to put into a document. Check out some great examples in Jessica Hische's blog – Daily Drop Cap. Do you use drop caps? If you haven't so far, then let this article help to start you off. Drop a few comments below. The text in the screenshots are taken from the free and downloadable MUO Guide on How To Create Professional Reports and Documents. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons We NEED Your Comments!!! Please do share your thoughts in article comments. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DaisyDisk Giveaway Winners: Round 4 Posted: 16 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT
Congratulations! Watch your email inbox for more information on how to claim your prizes. The last 4 winners will be announced at the same time tomorrow — if you feel your luck running out, use the 25% discount code “MAKEUSEOF” at DaisyDisk’s online store checkout. 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. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Stream Free RapidShare-Hosted Movies On Your Computer Posted: 16 Apr 2010 10:31 AM PDT
The problems with video streaming always boils down to quality. Not all movies free streaming movies offer enjoyable resolutions, especially when you live outside the U.S. and are deprived of Hulu and the like. As a RapidShare user, I recently went looking for a streaming platform. After all, movies can be uploaded in splendid quality, and downloaded only partly, if necessary. This tutorial details how. Unfortunately, due to all the restrictions, this technique doesn’t work for free RapidShare accounts.
Be sure to inform yourself of copyright laws in your country. Downloading copyrighted material can be illegal and punishable by law. Doing so will be at your own risk. Step One – Install The DivX Web PlayerThe application we’re going to use, RapidWareX, streams RapidShare movies with the DivX web player; an incredible and equally famous video platform. To save us a bit of trouble later, download and install the DivX web player on your computer. Step Two – Install RapidWareXNext, we’re going to download and install RapidWareX. Essentially a fully-fledged RapidShare downloader, this application can be used for other purposes than just a streaming intermediary. In this article, we’re only going to discuss the latter aspect.
Because the RapidWareX application is merely a single EXE file, you just need to unzip it to the right folder, and optionally add a quick start shortcut manually. In the application, add your account details under Settings, and press Update. Apart from the green checkmark, RapidWareX will also show you how many megabytes you’ve got left. Remembering your details will eliminate this step in future occasions. Step Three – Start The RapidWareX StreamTo launch a RapidShare streaming session, fire up the application and go to the Add Links tab. In the second big text field, add your RapidShare link(s) and press the streaming button as indicated in the screenshot below. RapidWareX supports the following formats:
You can use FilesTube (recommended) or an alternative RapidShare search engine. Using FilesTube’s advanced search, you can omit results from other file sharing sites, and even specify the file type.
Your primary browser will launch with a final verification of the input link(s). In case Auto Detect doesn’t provide the right results, here you can also specify the link type manually.
A final button gets you your video, in all its glory. The DivX web player gets you the same resolution as you would’ve had with a finished download. Of course, you can also switch to full screen, or even make the video pop out of your browser in a separate window.
With less than a few minutes effort, you can start watching a video from RapidShare as soon as you’ve got the link. Do you know any other cool video streaming alternatives? Let us know in the comments section below. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free Up Your Time With Google Calendar, Blog & Status Updates Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:31 AM PDT
This post will help you configure each of those many services into one central automated posting “bot” controlled by your Google Calendar “dashboard.” Plug Google Calendar Into Your Social NetworksEvery time you schedule an event, you can tell Google Calendar to send you a reminder. This reminder includes a subject line that reads “Reminder: <Update Title>” and a date and time. The email itself includes the description that you write when you set up a recurring event. Normally the description is optional – but for what we’re going to use these recurring events for, it’s critical because it makes up what the post is going to say.
As you can see, there’s a description field at the bottom of the event update, which you can use to enter text for anything you’d like to do – whether it’s to post a blog update, post to Twitter, or post to Facebook. Obviously, just setting up an event like this in Google Calendar won’t post the updates for you, but in this article I’m going to show you how you can plug Google Calendar into other services that let you blog, Tweet or Facebook straight from automated Google Calendar events. You don’t have to use the services I suggest below, but the only requirement is that the third-party service you use must accept incoming emails to trigger an automatic status update or post. Plug Google Calendar Into Your BlogThe first approach is to use automated event reminders to post updates to your blog for you. The first step of enabling this feature is to enable email posting on your blog. Since Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform, I’ll cover how to configure Wordpress for this. Just go into the “Writing” section in your Settings – at the bottom you’ll see an area that lets you set up a POP3 email account that the blog will check. Any new incoming mail to that account will post to your blog – so set up a unique Gmail email account just for this purpose.
Configure the blog’s POP3 settings in the blog configuration as shown above and you’re good to go. Now, think of the situation you’ve created – you have an email address that will immediately post to your blog when receiving emails, and you have Google Calendar that will automatically send reminder emails to your email address you’ve configured with Google Calendar. All you have left is to connect the two – and you’ve got yourself a free autoblogging service. For those of you who don’t know how, I’ll show you how to connect the two with email filtering in the last section of this article. For those of you who want a little more functionality with your email-to-blog updates, I highly recommend Postie, a Wordpress plugin that I wrote about recently.
Postie lets you manipulate the incoming emails. So, if you really want to make the incoming emails from Google Calendar look good – I’d highly suggest the Postie plugin. Setup is a breeze, as you can see above. Connect Google Calendar With FacebookNow, if you are very popular on Facebook, and a lot of people come to your profile to check out the latest buzz or the newest projects that you’re working on, then you know that after a while there are a lot of people who depend on you for that news. When you go a week or more without posting updates, you have a lot of disappointed and disgruntled followers (many of whom may stop following your work). Now, what if you could set up a bi-weekly recurring Google Calendar update that fires off an standard Facebook post, like “Well, it’s Thursday and I’m just doing my morning reading of some interesting Google News” – and then include a URL link to Google News, or any other web page you like. The key here would be to make recurring updates far enough apart so that it’s not obvious it’s automated – and linking to a website (even one of your own) that is updated frequently would keep the information fresh. There are lots of methods you can use to autopost incoming emails to your Facebook status, but in my opinion one of the best is Posterous. Tim wrote about the service a bit, as did Jimmy a while back. However, the specific service within Posterous we want is the ability to autopost to Facebook.
Posterous lets you send post updates to a number of services, depending how you configure the account, and all you have to do is fire off your update to post@<your_account>.posterous.com and it gets automatically posted. So, once again, you have a special email for updating Facebook, and you have Google Calendar reminders. All you need is to set up your incoming filter to forward your Calendar reminders to your posterous email address – and you now have a Facebook autoblogging service. Connect Google Calendar With TwitterOf course – there’s also Twitter. Again, you could choose a number of email-to-Twitter services (we’ve covered a lot of them here at MUO) – but by far my favorite is the Twittermail feature at TwitterCounter.
As with most email-to-Twitter services, setting up an incoming email address that automatically posts to Twitter is really easy. Here, I’ve set up an address with @twittermail.com where I can forward specific Google Calendar reminders to, and the body of those emails will get automatically posted to my Twitter account. Automate All of Your Posts!Now that you’ve got special email accounts set up that will automatically post to your blog, Twitter or Facebook accounts – all you have to do is set up the email filters of your Google Calendar email account. Once you’ve set them up, these filters will appropriate forward the reminder emails to your services without any effort on your part.
Above, I’ve created a weekly email that I’ll send out every Thursday at 7:20 a.m. (reminder emails go out 10 minutes before the event). This recurring event will fire off a reminder email to my main Gmail account.
Next, go into your email account (in my case Gmail) and set up a new filter. Incoming emails from Google Calendar will always come from “calendar-notification@google.com“. But you also want to identify which service to send it to. For example, above I want all of my daily agenda emails posted to my blog, so I identify any Calendar emails with that subject as part of my filter.
The next part of the filter is what you want Gmail to do with that incoming Calendar reminder or update. I always tell it to skip the Inbox in order to keep my mailbox clean. Then, just forward it to the appropriate email that you’ve set up in the first part of this article. In this case I’m forwarding it to the email I configured in the Postie Wordpress plugin that will autopost to my Wordpress blog. By connecting together Google Calendar, your email filtering service and the various autoblogging email accounts that you can set up for all of your social networks – you can create a powerful and effective scheduling system for automatically posting to your various blogs and microblogs. There are Twitter, Facebook and Blog scheduling services out there, but who needs yet another account when you can do it all from your existing Google Calendar? Would you ever consider setting up such an automated service? What email-to-post services do you prefer, and is there any part of this process that you would customize for your own purposes? Share your insight in the comments section below! Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| McGruff SafeGuard – A Free Spy Software Download To Monitor Your Kids Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:31 AM PDT
Today I will be showing you a free spy software download put out by the same people who brought you the McGruff crime dog from the 1980's. Do you remember him? He had the slogan "Help us take a bite out of crime!"
To start we will need to create an account.
After creating a "parent" account using the form above we can move on to install the free spy software download on the computer your little one uses. We need to select the types of alarms you want installed. They include: bullying (being bullied or your child being the bully), sexual terminology, curse words, alcohol and drug talk, loneliness or suicide watch words, violence and strangers talking to them. You can see the full list below:
Now we need to physically install the software. Don't worry if you are not in front of their PC. You can click No to the following question and have the link emailed to you so that you can install it on their machine. If you are on their machine click yes and continue.
Go ahead and click OK on the next screen to install.
It will take a few minutes for the software to check your built in firewall and security software for compatibility. They might give you recommendations on how to deal with them. For me I was good to go.
Select the first option and then point it to the account we created at the beginning.
When you are finished hit next. That will take you to this screen telling you that a McGruff icon will appear on the child's computer. If you click on the button labeled why it will tell you how important it is to talk to your children about Internet safety but there will also be a button to remove the icon from there, for the sneakier of MakeUseOf readers.
Now you can view how many unique websites have been looked at on this machine. You also have the option to view the websites browsed to, prior to the installation, by hitting the show details button. You can see what mine looks like below:
The next check box will not allow your children to view inappropriate websites. I skipped this step as I want her to have free range but also be able to see what choices she is making. This will help me guide her in understanding the World Wide Web.
Next up we see the notification screen. This is where you can set up how you want your snooping data statistics delivered. You can have it emailed to you or view it online (or both). You can also be alerted instantly via email to “dangerous browsing activity”.
Here is a quick glimpse of my control panel and how much data it actually aggregates and gives you access to.
How do you keep your little ones safe online? Do you always watch them while they use the computer? How young is too young to be left alone online? Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 
Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf 
Do you enjoy helping people?
As an avid reader of books, I'm finding the experience of reading e-books on the 9.7" screen of the iPad worth at least half the price of the device, especially after having read about five e-books on the Kindle version for the iPhone.
Earlier this week, I gave you 
Our family loves hunting for treasures. We mostly meet our needs through 
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.
The Android Market is taking off. In March, over 9,000 applications hit the Android market, doubling the amount added the previous month, impressing Android users everywhere. Given the huge amount of new Android phones coming out this year, it doesn’t seem like things are going to level off anytime soon.
A drop cap is the first letter of a paragraph that's of a much bigger size than the rest that follow. The letter formatting is such that the letter 'drops down' to cover the few lines following the first one. Drop caps have been extensively used, from the early days of printing to the advent of web publishing.
Streaming free movies is becoming more of a valid alternative to ‘real’ downloads. Instead of having to wait for an entire download to finish, you can just keep pace and tag along.
I have to admit that I’ve fallen in love with Google Calendar ever since my responsibilities exploded to include writing for six blogs, researching, editing and online management of remote staff. It’s not just the fact that Google Calendar time management has completely transformed my daily schedule into one that is more streamlined, with a morning “to-do” report and scheduled reminders throughout the day, but also because of the power that the automated event reminders provide you to automatically do some of those mundane tasks for you – including a few you’d never expect.
I have used 
| You are subscribed to email updates from MakeUseOf.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment