MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 1st]” plus 7 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 1st]
- Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]
- Fora.tv: Free Video Lectures & Talks From Brilliant People
- Create & Manage Snapshot-Based Backups With Comodo Time Machine
- Hot Tech Deals [May 1st]
- Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual Giveaway Winners
- Top 7 Semantic Search Engines As An Alternative To Google Search
- Postbox Giveaway Winners
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 1st] Posted: 01 May 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. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun] Posted: 01 May 2010 07:31 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. We NEED Your Comments!!! Please do share your thoughts in article comments. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Fora.tv: Free Video Lectures & Talks From Brilliant People Posted: 01 May 2010 06:31 PM PDT
Recently I pointed out the best websites for finding free university courses online, many of which feature video lectures. Watching those certainly wouldn’t be a waste of time, but a chance to better yourself. You can also keep up with the news using a video service called 1Cast. But perhaps no website’s taught me more than Fora.tv. A collection of speeches and lectures from some of the world’s most influential thinkers, Fora.tv is a great site to check out when you want some intellectual stimulation.
Getting Started
When you get to the site you’ll see an assortment of current videos, which will typically reflect the issues dominating the news in recent weeks. Videos can range from short 5 minute interviews to the more common half-hour video lectures to talks as long as an hour. The content reflects a wide variety of philosophies and disciplines, and will sometimes even feature celebrities (such as this one with the Mythbuster guys). You might not always agree with what’s being said, but that’s part of the point: hearing points of views that differ from your own.
You can always check one of the recent videos out, but if none appeal to you don’t worry: there’s lots to see here. You can click one of the categories, including Economy, Environment, Politics, Science, Technology and Culture. Click one of these buttons and you’ll only see video lectures related to that field. And of course, if you’re looking for something in particular, you can always use the “search” bar right beside these categories. SourcesThe video lectures on Fora.tv come from a lot of different sources. Some come from top universities, some come from various political think tanks and others are released by the person speaking. If you want a complete list of the organizations who contribute videos to this impress project, check out Fora.tv’s partners page. You can even find videos from specific organizations. Boxee
Like the idea of watching video lectures, but wish you could do so on your TV? It’s perfectly possible. All you need is to set up Boxee, the ultimate media center, and you’re halfway there. Then you only need to head over the Boxee App Library (click “Apps,” then bring up the left-menu, then click “App Library“) and you’ll find the Fora.TV app. Click it, then click “Add to App Library” so you’ll have quick access to Fora.tv from your TV. Read more about Fora.tv on Boxee’s blog. ConclusionI love finding web video that not only entertains but also informs. The Internet offers endless amounts of information, so don’t try to use it to better yourself whenever possible! What do you think? Are the videos on Fora.tv informative, or is there a skew you’d like to point out? Do you prefer watching cartoons? Or is all web video just a waste of time? Commenting contributes to the conversation, so please join! Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| Create & Manage Snapshot-Based Backups With Comodo Time Machine Posted: 01 May 2010 03:31 PM PDT
So I started to hunt for a similar solution to backup data and files for Windows as that would be familiar territory for most of our readers. The search finally ended on Comodo Time Machine, which I have to admit is even better than Back In Time. Once downloaded and installed, fire it up and let’s see what CTM has to offer.
Using Comodo Time Machine to Backup Data and FilesIf you have invoked Time Machine for the first time you would of course want to create a snapshot first. Go ahead and choose the snapshot option and Time Machine sets to work. The first snapshot takes some time depending upon the amount of data it has to keep account of, subsequent snapshots should be quicker.
Once the snapshot has been created it will appear in the snapshot timeline, giving you a good indication of when you started using Comodo Time Machine, all the snapshots that you have created since then and the current state of the system as well. You can manage the snapshots from this very screen as well. You can quickly delete a snapshot, lock it (it cannot be deleted then) or unlock it. You can also right click on a snapshot and mount it to view what files and which version of files are present in the snapshot.
Another great feature of Comodo Time Machine is that you can schedule snapshot creation as well as restoring from a snapshot. Head over to the scheduled tasks tab and you can choose between either kind of scheduled task. You can also manage all the existing scheduled tasks from this screen.
Restoring your computer to a previous snapshot is just as easy, all you have to do is choose the appropriate snapshot from within the Restore System tab, click next, verify if it is indeed the snapshot you were looking for and click Reboot. Your computer will reboot and Comodo Time Machine will restore it back to the snapshot state. You will be able to view the changes the next time you log into your computer.
Comodo Time Machine also lets you recover individual files from a snapshot if you so please. You just have to enter a part of the filename and the snapshot you want to recover from and Comodo Time Machine will give you the very version contained within that particular snapshot. Of course you can visit the timeline view and mount individual snapshots and copy paste a single file as well.
In addition to all this you can also tweak certain aspects of the software via Settings. You can for example tell Comodo Time Machine to delete all snapshots that are x days old or to take a snapshot on every system startup and the likes. Comodo Time Machine is an excellent software if you favor the snapshot method to backup data and files. It is feature rich and works well and efficiently. Do you know of any other similar software? Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Posted: 01 May 2010 01:30 PM PDT
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| Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual Giveaway Winners Posted: 01 May 2010 12:00 PM PDT
Congratulations! More information on how to claim your prizes will be sent via email. If your email address is not accessible, we may send you a direct message on Twitter or Facebook. MakeUseOf would like to thank Betsy from O’Reilly Media for her generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Top 7 Semantic Search Engines As An Alternative To Google Search Posted: 01 May 2010 10:31 AM PDT
But there are other ways to search the web, using what are known as semantic search engines. Using a semantic search engine will ensure more relevant results based on the ability to understand the definition of the word or term that is being searched for, rather than on numbers. Semantic search engines are able to understand the context in which the words are being used, resulting in smart, relevant results.
Kngine
Kngine’s search results are divided into either web results, or image results. They are preceded by information about the search term, known as ‘Concepts.’ For example, searching for the iPhone 3GS will be preceded by the device’s specs. Searching for a film will be preceded by information about the film, links to trailers, reviews and quotes. Searching for a city will be preceded by information about the city, local attractions, events, weather and hotels. Kngine currently contains more than 8 million Concepts, and that is where the site’s strength lies.
You can quickly share results from Kngine on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Delicious and Kngine can be set as your default search engine if you are using Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. Hakia
Hakia’s search results are divided into Web, News, Blogs, Twitter, Image and Video, and can be re-listed according to relevance or date. Depending on the search term, results can also include an excerpt from its Wikipedia entry. They also have what are labeled ‘Credible’ results that come from trusted sources.
Each link is followed by a text excerpt, giving you an idea of what you would find in that search result. Hakia can also be added to the list of search engines included in your browser’s quick search bar. Kosmix
Kosmix has a start page which is more elaborate than the most of the other semantic search engines listed here – with popular content featured on its front page from Yahoo Buzz, Digg, YouTube, Fark, Flickr, and a ton of other sources, making it a hybrid aggregator and search engine, with results included from Google and Bing. Despite this, it is still considered a semantic search engine because it uses semantics in an attempt to link data from all over the web, giving you relevant search results. When it comes to the search results themselves, they are divided into Video, Web, News & Blogs, Images, Forums, Twitter, Amazon and Facebook. In the case of some results, such as searching for the iPhone 3GS, you will also find Fix-It and How-To Guides.
Kosmix is one of the few semantic search engines which does contain sponsored content, but that is a small price to pay for the wealth of information you can find all in one place. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a feature-rich semantic search engine, that gives you countless reasons to leave Google behind. Searches are divided into a classic search, information search, shopping and their own spin off from Google, “I’m feeling ducky.” If you search for a term that has more than one meaning, it will give you the chance to choose what you were originally looking for, with its disambiguation results. For example, searching for the term Apple will give you a long list of the possible meanings – including the fruit, the computer company, the bank and many others.
You can also set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine, and still get results from other search engines without ever leaving the page using their !bang feature. You can search any major site such as Google, YouTube, Amazon and eBay by preceding the search term with “!youtube” or “!google” and so forth – and you will automatically be taken to a list of search results from that service. It also works with keywords such as weather, images, and lyrics. A full list of the !bang keywords can be found here. DuckDuckGo features ‘Zero-click info,’ where like with Kngine, information about the search topic precedes the search results.
Other features on DuckDuckGo include category pages, keyboard shortcuts, customisations, and it can detect calculations, WolframAlpha conversions, colour codes and much more. Evri
Evri, like Kosmix, has an information rich landing page, with top news stories from around the web, which you can scroll through using the navigation at the top of the page. Search results can be filtered into Articles, Quotes, Images and Tweets, and can also be shared on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. You can either share the entire page of results, or one specific item from the list.
Signing up for an account gives you the added benefit of following specific information streams on certain results. However, not all search results can be followed. So while searching for “Barack Obama” can result in a stream that can be followed, searching for “Obama” alone does not give users the same option. Additional information about each search term will also be displayed on the page, but again, this is limited to certain results. Using the example of Barack Obama, additional information includes links to other world leaders, an excerpt from Wikipedia, and product results from Amazon.
If you don’t want to sign up for a new account, you can connect your Google, Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, Windows Live or Blogger accounts in order to sign in. Like DuckDuckGo, Evri has its own disambiguation results, in a sidebar, giving you the chance to choose a more specific and relevant term. Evri has a toolbar which supports Firefox and Internet Explorer, allowing you to easily search for and share content. They also provide users with a slick, free iPhone app [iTunes link] which is divided into 3 main tabs – Recent popular news, a search tab, and collected items. Searching for any given term will result in the option to view recent news, images, a profile page, and related items. It should be mentioned that if you want to use the follow feature on the iPhone app, you will have to create a new Evri account, as connecting to one of your existing accounts will not suffice.
Evri recently joined forces with Twine, so it will be interesting to see how these two services are brought together, in an attempt to provide even more relevant results. Powerset
The Microsoft-acquired search engine Powerset focuses on doing only one thing – and doing it really well. All search results on Powerset come from Wikipedia, making it the ultimate way to search Wikipedia, using semantics.
Search terms can be formulated as questions, which will be answered, or as simple terms, and results will be aggregated from all the relevant pages on Wikipedia. Truevert
Truevert presents an interesting twist on the semantic search engine, labelling itself as a ‘green search engine.’ All results are filtered and organized from one specific perspective – with the topic of environmental awareness in mind. Searching for any term will be put in the context of environmental concerns, so for example, searching for ‘meat,’ – the first page of results consists of meat in relation to climate change, organic options, and sustainable food.
Truevert’s front page features the latest news from popular environmental websites and blogs. If you’re interested in semantic search engines, you should also take a look at Stefan’s article about Juice, a Firefox addon whose results are also based entirely on semantics. Have you tried out a semantic search engine as an alternative to Google? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments. Image credit: Chris Chidsey Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| Posted: 01 May 2010 10:00 AM PDT
Congratulations! Watch your email inbox for more information on how to claim your prizes. Thank you for joining! Our next giveaway starts on Monday! We’ll be giving away free copies of SyncMate Expert. MakeUseOf would like to thank Sherman and Postbox for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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