MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 21st]” plus 10 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 21st]
- The 5 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]
- 4 Great Ways To Embed Twitter Tweets Onto Your Blog With Blackbird
- Create Exciting GPS Adventure Games With Wherigo
- Hot Tech Deals [May 21st]
- 4 Awesome Free iPad Music Apps To Play With
- How To Recycle and Reuse Document Scraps In MS Office [Windows XP]
- Check.in To Multiple GPS Tracker Apps At Once [Android, iPhone, iPad]
- Practice Mobile Stock Market Trading With Market Millionaire
- Use PenyuLocker To Lock Or Encrypt A Windows Folder
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 21st] Posted: 21 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. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| The 5 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 21 May 2010 06:31 PM PDT
This round of our Best Answer of the Week contest was won by Bill for his answer to this question: “Can you recommend a free web hosting service?“. Thank you very much for the creative answer and congratulations! In addition to the cash, Bill wins a copy of Symantec’s Backup Exec System Recovery.
Without questions there can’t be answers. And we love to see them pour in! Here are 5 of the best questions from the past two weeks:
Care for more? Go ahead and browse MakeUseOf Answers by Latest Questions, Unanswered Questions or Most Popular Questions. For regular updates, subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask us at MakeUseOf Answers! Free and no strings attached. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun] Posted: 21 May 2010 05:31 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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| 4 Great Ways To Embed Twitter Tweets Onto Your Blog With Blackbird Posted: 21 May 2010 04:31 PM PDT
Earlier this month, Robin Sloan – who works for Twitter – developed a hack for Twitter Media that potentially makes it much easier to embed Twitter updates into your website or blog. Blackbird Pie, as it’s called, allows users to submit the URLs of specific tweets so it can give you HTML code to embed onto your blog. Whether this will be a feature added to Twitter in the future has yet to be seen, but the process is much simpler than the traditional copy & paste.
1. Bake A Tweet With Blackbird Pie
Blackbird Pie can be found on the Twitter Media page. To generate an embeddable tweet, all you need to do is paste the URL of a single tweet in the box and click Bake it.
Once you do this, a box appears showing you how the tweet will look on your site, as well as another box with the HTML code. The page does indicate that the embed is not guaranteed to work on your blog platform or site because it is a newly developed feature. However, I have tested it on Wordpress and it was successful. If you’re familiar with HTML/CSS, you could also tweak the code to get your tweet looking the way you want. 2. Try The Publitweet Blackbird BookmarkletAn alternative to Blackbird Pie, Publitweet has developed a dynamic bookmarklet for embedding your tweets that they claim is easier to use than Twitter Media’s version.
To use the bookmarklet, simply go to this page and drag the link up to your bookmark bar.
Once the link is placed, navigate to the URL of the tweet you would like to copy. When you’re on the page, just click the bookmark link and a box will appear with your HTML code. All you have to do now is paste the code to your blog and your tweet will be embedded into your post. Publitweet also has a script that allows you make your embedded tweets embeddable themselves so others can place them on their site. You can find the script here. 3. Install The Wordpress PluginIf you’re using Wordpress and would like to use the embeddable tweet feature, Themergency has a Twitter Blackbird Pie Wordpress plugin just for you. Just download the plugin and install it the way you would any other extension on Wordpress and you’ll be generating embeddable tweets in no time. [Note]: When using the plugin, your fonts and backgrounds from Twitter are kept intact, whereas methods previously mentioned may alter your text to match the rest of the font on your blog. 4. The Blackbird For Chrome Extension
If you’re more familiar with (or simply like to use) Google Chrome extensions over all else, there is one for Blackbird. You can find the extension on this page. Just click Install and you’re done. This extension is very minimalist and is in the form of a little blackbird that sits up in your URL box that appears whenever you are on a single tweet’s URL page.
When on such a page just click the bird and a drop-down box appears with your tweet and the HTML code, very similar to the original Twitter Blackbird Pie page. ConclusionWhat do you think of this new hack/feature? Are you going to be embedding tweets into your blog posts more often now? Should Twitter implement this into the site? Leave your thoughts, ideas, concerns, and opinions below in the comments section! Image Credit: *clairity* Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| Create Exciting GPS Adventure Games With Wherigo Posted: 21 May 2010 02:31 PM PDT
Since that time, I have found a site that makes it possible to create fun outdoor GPS games an easy task. It’s called Wherigo and it’s created by the same folks who came up with Geocaching.com.
In this article I will be walking you through what it is and how to create your own outdoor adventure game. What Is Whereigo?Whereigo is a set of tools that enable you to create GPS-enabled adventures, tours and games set in the real world. You can mark real locations and allow players to interact with virtual media and characters to “reintroduce the adventure game genre” (their words not mine) and make it happen not on the video screen but in real places. According to the site, some of the ways it is being used are to create walking (or driving) city tours, neighborhood-wide scavenger hunts, and even interactive physical adventures. They have what are called cartridges (stolen from the term used for video game cartridges) that are the files that contain all of the information (and media) included in an adventure. They have a tool you can download called the “Wherigo Builder” that allows you to create your own GPS adventures or games. How Do I Create My Own Whereigo Adventure Or Game?Whereigo.com has a great step-by-step tutorial describing exactly how to make your own GPS games or adventures so I won’t go into all of the details. I can, however, lead you through the first few steps, show you where to go to download the Wherigo Builder, and list a few tools that will make creating your game or adventure a little bit easier. First, head over to Wherigo.com and click on the “Download Builder” link in the sidebar.
This will bring you to a sign-in screen. Notice that if you are already registered on the Geocaching.com website that you are automatically registered here too. If you are not a registered member, go ahead and register because it’s free. When you download the Builder, you will be asked to accept the terms and to recognize that the program is still in the Alpha stage of development so there may be some glitches along the way.
After installing the Builder, you are ready to learn how to start creating. Begin by clicking on the “Build” link along the top of the site (link). On this page you are given links to resources for builders. Pay special attention to reading everything on this page, going to the FAQ page and reading that, and then go to the Wherigo Builder Tutorial.
The tutorial is a very cool flash-based learning tool that allows you to actually click and interact each step of the way. It will show you how to learn the basic parts of a cartridge (remember that’s the file the players will need that contains all of the zones and media, etc.), how to create interactions between players and objects, and how to use player input to make things more interesting. The tutorial even includes a zip file containing a test cartridge so you can do it along with the lessons. There are some tools that may make creating GPS games and adventures easier. Two come to mind immediately. First, try using Google Earth to help you find GPS coordinates. If that doesn’t suite your fancy, try using geocoder.us which allows you to enter an address and it’ll give you the GPS coordinates.
Once you get the basics down, creating Wherigo games and adventures isn’t really all that hard. You can also play games that others have made and uploaded to the Wherigo website. Now, with the tools given to you, if there isn’t one in your area, you can change that. Here’s a screenshot of the beginning of a game created which I retrieved from a Whereigo promotional YouTube video (here):
Have you ever played or created Wherigo games? What do you think of them? What other tools can you think of that allow you to make GPS games in real life places? Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Posted: 21 May 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Read on for 4 more hot deals.
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| 4 Awesome Free iPad Music Apps To Play With Posted: 21 May 2010 12:31 PM PDT
I have previously reviewed a few art apps for the iPad. In this review I would like to share a handful of free iPad music apps that can be enjoyed by adults and kids alike. I have to admit up front that I have no experience with playing a musical instrument, but nearly all of these apps I share can be used and learned by anyone with little or no music background.
Shiny Drum (iTunes Store Link)Out of the five iPad music apps under review, I would say – for me at least – that Shiny Drum is one of the easiest to use. Even if you're all thumbs when it comes to playing an instrument you’ll probably be able to tap out a rhythmic beat with this app. Shiny Drum includes over a dozen electronic percussion sounds (“patches”) that you select from to tap beats with your fingers. Shiny Drum is an ad-supported app, and unfortunately the changing ads sit in the upper middle of the app and can be a little obtrusive. However, the generous collections of patches make this a great free app. A pro version might include a way to record and save beats.
Beatwave (iTunes Store Link)Beatwave is another app that requires no music ability. It’s a visual kaleidoscopic of beats and other techno sounds in which you move your fingers over a moving grid to create a musical pattern. You actually don’t have full control of the music produced, but you can save the patterns you create and change the tempo, sounds and tones. The fun of this iPad music app is simply experimenting with creating various patterns and seeing how you can use the other controls to create something pleasant to listen to.
Soundrop Free (iTunes Store Link)Similar to Beatwave, Soundrop is another tactile app that creates xylophone-like tapping sounds based on how you to draw lines that . As with Beatwave, the fun of this app is experimenting with the various creations you make based how you draw the handles and add to them. You can actually the change the tempo and speed of the sounds based on how large or small you draw the lines. And you might not notice when first using the “instrument” that you can move the source of the digital points to anywhere on the canvas. It does not have to remain in the default position.
Virtuoso (iTunes Store Link)For those with piano skills, Virtuoso contains two digital pianos that seems to require two hands to play. I don’t have piano skills, but because the app includes labels for the keys, which can be turned off, this might be a useful app for those wanting to learn chords and practice using them.
Nearly anyone can have fun with these iPad music apps, and because they are free there’s little reason to not download them and give them a try. Let us know about free music creation apps, that you have fun with on your iPad. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| How To Recycle and Reuse Document Scraps In MS Office [Windows XP] Posted: 21 May 2010 11:31 AM PDT
Nothing earth shaking in that definition, but in terms of everyday usability we see it all around. A phone number tagged to a piece of paper and left lying around, a to-do list stuck with a fridge magnet, etc. Scraps are time savers aren't they. But did you know that you can create quick scraps in MS Office documents too? Document scraps are as old as Microsoft itself. They have been around since the calmer days of Microsoft Office 6.0. That makes how to create a document scrap, a 17 year old tip. The tip may be dated, but it's a fact that a lot among the present generation of computer users don't know about this. It's just one of the things we have seen Microsoft Office to be capable of.
As this how-to unfolds, you will see that as a tip it's not fancy, but it is pretty useful. As it is fast and simple, let me show you how to create a document scrap and then we can get into the meat of how to reuse document scraps. A Quick Scrap in Time Saves Nine
I couldn't resist a bit of a twist to the old saying. But similarly, a document scrap does save time. So, let get into some scraps.
What Can Be Done With These Scraps?As a verb, 'scrap' also means to get rid of. Not here, because we can put scraps to some really time saving uses. As Reusable Document Objects:
Any part of text, a drawing, or an Excel table that you plan to reuse can be kept as a scrap and dragged and dropped into a target document in the desired location. Instead of opening another Office document and saving the information, you can just keep it as a scrap file on the desktop. For instance, I regularly use it to insert a block of text taken from Word into Outlook. You can of course use a clipboard management utility to save multiple texts, but with scraps you use what you natively have instead of installing an extra software. In terms of sheer convenience in MS Word itself, Quick Parts is something that's a closer alternative. As A Sticky Notepad To Quickly Jot Down Some Text:
You don't need to explicitly save scraps. So scraps can be used as a homebrew sticky by using something like WordPad. Open WordPad and from the View menu, uncheck the Toolbar, Format Bar, Ruler, and Status Bar to make it clutter free. Write your note and create your scrap on the desktop. Close WordPad (you don't need to save the file). Hereon, you can quickly jot down text and use it as a no frills sticky. WordPad is ideal because most of us hardly use it for anything. It also opens faster than MS Word. As Quick Printable Lists:Scraps are documents after all, just with another name. So, they can be printed like normal documents. That's handy because you can use it to print anything from impromptu web clippings to your shopping list. For instance, I use it to print out vocabulary lessons containing five new French words I am learning each day. What Are Document Scraps Actually?A document scrap is just a scrap file that's created when any content is dragged or pasted on the desktop from MS Word, MS Excel, and WordPad. It is an OLE file that is saved in the Windows\Desktop subfolder with a .shs extension. If you delete the scrap icon, the folder is also automatically deleted. Document scraps cannot be opened by Word, Excel, or WordPad from the File menu. But they can be dragged and dropped into these programs. Otherwise, it can be handled like an ordinary file – move it around from one location to another or rename it. The scrap can be dragged and dropped between Word, Excel, and WordPad. Because Outlook uses Word as its editor, it can be also be used. A scrap, drag and dropped between applications follows the page setup of the target document. One scrap can be dropped into another open scrap and thus combined. I am sure, if you have a unique use for a document, you can use a scrap for the purpose. Were you aware of scraps? If so, how do you use it? NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Check.in To Multiple GPS Tracker Apps At Once [Android, iPhone, iPad] Posted: 21 May 2010 10:31 AM PDT
For those of you that are new to the concept, a quick explanation. Most phones come equipped with GPS functionality these days. And otherwise with a slightly more approximative location-derivation system. In a nutshell, your smart phone is probably able to deduce its location.
There’s only one problem. There are too many alternatives. Sure, each has its advantages, but it proves severely disadvantageous to have your contacts spread out over a large number of networks, and to triple post your own location every time. That’s where Check.in takes the stage. Check.in Combines The Most Popular Geo-Based ServicesCheck.in is a new Android, iPhone and iPad application, developed by the guys at BrightKite. More specifically, it’s a web-tool that works on each of the said devices. Developed with HTML5 it offers a number of technical advantages. Light and universally accessible, but first and foremost, you don’t even need to download and install it. Just point your web browser to m.check.in and start using it. Account creation and application usage is further explained in the next paragraph. The application has support for the most popular geo-based gps tracker applications. More specifically, Brightkite, Foursquare, Gowalla, whrrl and TriOut. In one go, you can check into all these services at once, instead of having to do it five times. It also allows you to publish your location updates on Facebook and Twitter on a service-by-service basis. This means, for example, that you can allow Gowalla specifically to post its updates to Facebook as well. Signing Up For A Check.in AccountAs specified before, the application doesn’t require any download or installation on your mobile device, and it’s entirely free to use. Setting it up is fairly easy as well. To start, go to m.check.in and press the Register button.
There, you need to pick a login name and password. You can pick any name you want, but pairing it with a valid email address will allow you to recover your password in the future as well. Since that’ll be the only use of your email, it doesn’t require verification, and you can start using Check.in right away.
Once logged in, you can start adding your accounts. For each, you’ll need to supply login data, and specify if you want the application to share updates on Twitter and Facebook. It’s probably advised not to do this for every single application. That’s it. Check.in can now help you to find nearby locations, and post status updates to each of the services at once. You’ll also still be receiving your Mayorships and Points that you’d gain from normal usage! Do you have any other tips for users with multiple geo-tagging accounts? Let us hear your thoughts on the issue 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
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| Practice Mobile Stock Market Trading With Market Millionaire Posted: 21 May 2010 09:31 AM PDT
Here at MUO, you’ll find a lot of articles about making good stock market choices with websites like Stock Lamp, or the UpDown trading simulator that David reviewed. Well, now I’d like to present a popular mobile phone stock trading multiplayer game called Market Millionaire, created by Chicken Brick Studios.
In this article I’ll give you a preview of what the Market Millionaire mobile phone stock trading game looks like on the Android, but keep in mind that you can also download the iPhone version from the Chicken Brick Studios website. Investing Like A High RollerEveryone starts out on Market Millionaire on the same footing. You have $100,000 to spend, and many thousands of stocks to choose from. Choose wisely, and you’ll increase your cash value and race up the rankings. Choose poorly, and you’ll lose your shirt. Failing miserably is doubly embarrassing because this game is a huge social network of other investor enthusiasts who are competing against you.
From the main page, you’ll see your current cash value, the value of the assets (stocks) that you own, and your current position in the rankings. You can start moving up quickly enough by simply buying a few stocks. Don’t buy aimlessly. Click on the magnifying glass “search” menu option and type in a company name or stock symbol to look up companies that you know and admire, and would want to invest in.
This mobile game extracts the latest market data and display it to you in both numerical and chart format. You’ll see the current value, the daily change, daily high and low and a variety of other stock information. Does the stock trend look promising? Should you buy it? This is also the screen where you’ll sell the stock if you own any. Personally, I didn’t really like the look of Google, so I dove into researching health care investments and came across a stock that looked promising, so I clicked on “Buy.”
The buy screen is extremely simple. Simply type in the number of units you want to buy (or use the slider to quickly allot a percentage of your overall budget). The app automatically calculates the total cost of the trade or sale, and displays it as an addition or subtraction under your current balance. Once you’ve added a number of stock investments to your portfolio, your main page will look a bit different. Now, you have all of your purchases displayed on the main window.
Keep a close eye on these values every day so that you can react quickly to a profile by selling the stock and adding the profit to your cash balance. Or, if you see a loss, you can either hang tight or cut your losses and sell the stock. This main screen is your overview for the whole game – and it’s where you’ll go to obsessively check your current progress in the game!
Clicking on the trophy menu option at the lower right takes you to your area of the leaderboard. Yes, being number 25,000 may feel a little bit disheartening, but have no fear – before long you’ll be racing up the charts with your superior insight and your market intuition. Make just a few good trades and you’ll see your rank start to climb. Keep at it every day, playing the game with your mobile phone while you’re waiting in the waiting room or while you’re on the train, and before you know it you’ll be rising to the very top of the chart.
A tip for success – keep an eye on the green line. While this is by no means expert trading advice, one of the simplest ways to tip the odds a bit in your favor is to look for stocks with a current value that’s well enough below the projected earnings. As you can see above, CVH is projected to reach about 21.5, and today’s value is just a bit below that projects – so I purchased a bit of the stock. Obviously, you’d want to look for stocks with more of a profit margin – a wider gap between today’s value and the projected value – but this isn’t always an easy task. Spend enough time searching though, and you’ll find them. One more tip – if you want to beat the leaders, you have to understand what they are doing to maintain such a high level of success. As you browse the leaderboard, click on any player’s name and you can see all of their purchasing activity – all stock purchases and sales. By observing the techniques of the leaders, you might recognize a helpful pattern or stock choice that could help you with making the right stock decisions.
As you buy and sell your way up the rankings and grow your cash value each month – once you attain stunning financial success – you’ll need to ask yourself one important question. If you can trade this successfully in the virtual world, then why couldn’t you do it in the real world? Play this exciting and popular mobile game and experience the fun world of networked competitive games from your mobile phone. After a while, you won’t be able to stop checking your current balances, and you may very well prove to yourself that you do have what it takes to become a successful stock market investor. Do you know of any other cool multiplayer mobile games like this one? Do you use any other apps to simulate the mobile phone stock trading experience? Share your insight or feedback in the comments section below. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Use PenyuLocker To Lock Or Encrypt A Windows Folder Posted: 21 May 2010 08:31 AM PDT
Once encrypted you will need to reopen the application and enter your password to unlock the folder so that you will be able to read it again.Let's check out how it works. First you will need to download the freeware to encrypt folders, which you can do from here. The installer is 854KB and uses practically no memory when in use.
Click on the start installation button and Penyulocker will start to install. Once installed, you can now open the application from your start menu. When you start the application you will see a simple interface that will allow you to lock or unlock folders at will.
Simply navigate to the folder you want to lock and click the big lock button at the bottom. I drilled down into my C:\ drive and chose a folder as you can see below:
Then after clicking on the lock button, I am prompted for a password like so:
Type in a password that you will remember. The harder the password the better the encryption – but, if you forget your password, you are screwed! This is the folder I decided to encrypt:
So now let's see what we have accomplished. By browsing on over to my C:\ drive I can see that the flash folder has been turned into a recycle bin and my files cannot be opened.
You will see the file names that are in your real recycle bin but that is it. Go ahead and try to open the folder. You will see the files listed as if they are in the recycle bin – emptying them, restoring them or doing anything to them will not affect your files. So when I attempt to open that folder this is what I see:
I emptied the recycle bin and then the folder was empty. Now I will try to restore access to the folder by going back into the application and double clicking on the folder like so:
Then click on Unlock and enter your password:
Sometimes the application comes back and tells you to double click on the folder, but it is already unlocked. By navigating to the folder from Windows we will see that it is back to normal and all the files are accessible again. You can lock multiple folders at the same time regardless of contents. Do you have another tool that does this easily? What kinds of data are you encrypting? We would love to hear about it in the comments. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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I 
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