MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [July 15th]” plus 9 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [July 15th]
- MakeUseOf Team Spotlight [July 15th 2010]
- USB 3.0: Everything You Need To Know [Technology Explained]
- The Best Free Web Cams To Watch When You’re Bored
- Track Down and Recover Your Stolen Laptop with Prey
- SCUMMVM – A Point-And-Click Adventure Game Emulator
- How To Use ScribeFire To Write Quick Preformatted Blog Posts
- Combine All Your Bookmarklets Into One with Bookmarklet Combiner
- How To Create A Registration Form (and other forms) In Wordpress Using cformsII
- Use SMEStorage to Save OpenOffice Files In Google Docs Online
| Cool Websites and Tools [July 15th] Posted: 15 Jul 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. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| MakeUseOf Team Spotlight [July 15th 2010] Posted: 15 Jul 2010 07:30 PM PDT
In this edition of Spotlight, we will be profiling the work of Evan, Steve, Jackson and Ann. But don’t forget, our team loves feedback and conversation from the readers. If you would like to take part in that conversation, subscribe to their Twitter streams today.
If you would like to follow the MUO staff yourself on Twitter, check out this Twitter list, which is updated on a regular basis, as staff are hired or fired. From there, you can click through to each writer’s Twitter profile where you can subscribe to them for all their latest updates. Image Credit: Visualogist Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| USB 3.0: Everything You Need To Know [Technology Explained] Posted: 15 Jul 2010 06:30 PM PDT
USB technology has been under development since 1993. The first official definition, USB 1.0, was introduced in 1996. It provides a Low-Speed transfer rate of 1.5 Mbits/s for sub-channel keyboards and mice, and a Full-Speed channel at 12 Mbits/s. USB 2.0, which came in 2001, made a leap to Hi-Speed transfer rates of up to 480 Mbits/s. In 2010, USB 3.0 has finally hit the market. So what can you expect from USB 3.0 and how will it affect you?
USB 3.0 SpecificationsA number of changes have been implemented in USB 3.0 to satisfy the increased demands of external devices. Here is a quick USB technology overview:
The Good NewsNew technology is very exciting. But what does it mean? Will you still be able to use your old USB hardware? How will the new USB technology affect your everyday life? What are the benefits?
The Bad NewsI was tempted to report that there is no bad news, but that’s not true. Let’s say bad news is minimal.
Feel like you need more information? Computerworld has an excellent USB 3.0 review (USB 3.0: The new speed limit), including tests of currently available USB 3.0 hardware. Are you craving for even more in depth information? Check out this article at Tech Republic: 10 things you should know about USB 2.0 and 3.0. And have a look at Everything USB’s Super Speed USB 3.0 FAQ. Now aren’t you looking forward to switching to USB 3.0? And if you have already been using a USB 3.0 device, please let the rest of us know how it feels! Image credit: 09 Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| The Best Free Web Cams To Watch When You’re Bored Posted: 15 Jul 2010 04:31 PM PDT
In this article I will be sharing some of the best free web cams to watch to help you and your boredom. There are many type of web cams (nearly 2000 on Justin.tv alone) but I have chosen a few that should be interesting enough to keep your attention.
Watching AnimalsThe first of the animal cams I have to share is the puppy cam. Come on, who doesn’t like to watch cute puppies running around making us laugh? Check out this puppy for a few minutes: Shiba Inu Puppy Cam
If you aren’t a lover of all things puppy, you can watch the goats instead. True, they eat clothes but they also give us milk and cheese. Watch them frolic for a bit: Goats Live
Goats don’t get your goat? The webcam at the North American Bear Center may be the place for you. Watch long enough and see if one of the three resident bears decide to drop by for a visit: North American Bear Center Web Cam
Who knew they had penguins in Dublin? Apparently they do at the zoo. Oh, and they decided to install a free web cam to watch for all of our enjoyment. Watch them for a bit of penguin antics: Live Penguin Cam
You can only take watching penguins for so long, right? Switch to watching roaches… up close. Even though you have to refresh the page to get the image updated, watching these disgusting bugs could keep your attention until the next task of the day calls: Roach Cam
Watching other people.The next two cameras allow you to watch people as they enjoy food and drink from within coffee joints. Share a cup from your own computer, virtually. Check out the Northtown Coffee House. From the webcam you can watch as drinks are prepared and customers are waited upon. Now don’t you wish you were in line? Northtown Coffee House Web Cam
This webcam gives you the view from the outside looking longingly in. You can watch as people walk in and out enjoying their purchases. Check out Nicoletti’s Coffee Shop.
Miscellaneous Cams.Some people… I just don’t know. This guy decided to fill his house (and yards) with webcams. I am not sure why but it does make for some entertainment. Watch this guy’s house as his kids play in the living room, the table is set in the dining room, meals are prepared in the kitchen, and more.
Get your geek on and watch Chris Pirillo’s live webcam. Chris likes to keep his camera running 24×7, even when he’s not in the room. The chatroom is usually filled with some sort of geeky conversation. When he is there, you may catch him recording YouTube videos and stuff. Good for geeks.
I know that when choosing the best free web cams to watch when bored that the choices are relative to a person’s interests. This list contains a variety of types of live webcams to enjoy. This being said, you may have some webcams you find interesting. If you do, please share them with us. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Track Down and Recover Your Stolen Laptop with Prey Posted: 15 Jul 2010 02:30 PM PDT
Wish you had something like this for your laptop? You can, and it won’t cost you a dime. Open source program Prey can do this for your computer quickly and easily, giving you the location of your computer via your on-board GPS chip or by analyzing nearby WiFi networks. Not only that, it will show you screenshots of what the thief is using your computer for. And if you have a webcam, even take a picture of them before they realize it, before you recover your stolen laptop.
Setting UpSetting up Prey is simple. Just head over to the Prey download page and download the version of Prey your operating system needs. Install the program and you’ll be told how to launch the configuration tool on your platform. Fire up that tool and you’ll see something like this:
As you can see, you need to register. No problem; just go to Prey’s signup page and sign up. You’ll need to do the standard register, email, confirm process but don’t worry: it’s worth it. Once you are signed up you’ll get your API key; you’ll need this to configure Prey. You’ll also need a device key, which you can get easily by adding your computer to your Prey account online. Just click “Add a new device” and you’ll see some straight-forward steps. Complete this and you’ll have a device key. Go back to the Prey configuration tool and add this:
TrackingNow that you’re set up, you’re ready to track your laptop. By default Prey does nothing, but when your laptop goes missing you can log onto Prey’s website and activate your protection. Do this and you’ll receive an email as soon as the thief turns on your computer, linking you to a report so you can recover your stolen laptop.
Be sure to configure Prey online in order to get the most of it. For example, you can enable your webcam to get a picture of your thief, or turn on your computer’s GPS chip to give you a precise location. Explore your options. Find a full list of features over at PreyProject.com Conclusion: Useless? Not EntirelyYou might be wondering if this product is of any use if the laptop is reformatted, or stripped down and sold for parts. Well, not really. But many thieves aren’t all that smart; you’d be surprised how many will start up a stolen laptop without thinking about the possibility of such tracking software. It’s also possible that a thief will fire up your laptop in order to try to find private information about you. How ironic would it be, then, if you get private information about them in the process! So it won’t save your laptop under all circumstances, but it might help in some. The main thing to remember is that this tool doesn’t cost you a dime, so why not install it just for the peace of mind? You might well be glad you did someday. What do you think? Is a tool like this cool, or a mere gimmick? Would you install this, or can you not image a thief dumb enough to boot up a stolen laptop? And what I’m most interested in is this: have any of you successfully used this program to recover a stolen laptop? Please share your story if you have; we’re all ears! Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| SCUMMVM – A Point-And-Click Adventure Game Emulator Posted: 15 Jul 2010 12:31 PM PDT
SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Manic Mansion. It was brought to life by Lucas Arts as a platform for 2D point-and-click adventures and used for many highly acclaimed titles such as the aforementioned The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road. SCUMMVM is a video game emulator which provides a platform on which to play these classics – on nearly any system you can name.
The BasicsThe virtual machine (which makes up the VM in SCUMMVM) comes in over 40 different flavours including the obvious modern Windows, Linux and Mac versions. For gamers on the go there's an iPhone package as well as Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Symbian OS and Windows CE editions. It doesn't stop there however, and the developers have gone to great lengths to get the platform working on a homebrewed Nintendo Wii, GameCube and N64 as well as the Dreamcast and Amiga OS. Put it this way – if you own a fancy Samsung TV then there's even a version for that. I'm serious. I'm using SCUMMVM on Windows, but the process involved in getting your 2D adventures working is the same on any platform. You can download and install any of the versions from the official downloads page. Once you've fired up the video game emulator you will be presented with a list of games you have available and a couple of options. As you've not installed any games, the list will at first be empty.
Within the Options panel you can tweak graphics and audio settings, as well as MIDI emulation and theme settings. SCUMMVM can be run in full-screen or windowed mode (if you're trying to work), and has a handy "Aspect Ratio Correction" option for widescreen users. Available GamesThere are eight titles available for download from the SCUMMVM website which have been made available as freeware by their respective publishers. Quality free titles include Flight of the Amazon Queen which sees you stranded in the Amazon rainforest and the devilish Beneath a Steel Sky in which your character can die in the very first room.
All are available from the downloads page here.
SCUMMVM also includes support for many more adventure games, though in order to play these you are going to need an official copy of the game. eBay is a great place to find old games at bargain prices and once you've got your hands on a copy head over to the SCUMMVM game data file list to see what files you need to extract and play. MS-DOS and unsupported Windows versions make perfect candidates, simply copy and paste the relevant files to a new directory and point SCUMMVM to it.
Playing GamesPlaying games is quick and easy once you've added them to the list of installed titles. Folders containing game data files must be added one by one, using the Add Game button.
Navigate your way to the folder containing your game data files and click Choose. If everything's in order, SCUMM will pop-up a window like this:
Settings for your particular version will be automatically detected and added to the fields above, click OK to add the game to the list. Once a game has been added it will remain in the list until you remove it. You can now select a game and click Start to begin exploring some surprisingly engrossing 2D worlds.
ConclusionSCUMMVM sits alongside DOSBox as one of those well-intended freeware applications everyone loves. The simple interface means you'll be up and running in no time – even on your mobile device. The free games alone will keep you busy for hours, and it's easy to copy the files you need from game CDs or floppies. The developers have provided everything you need to get started on some funny adventure games. Have you tried a version of the SCUMMVM video game emulator? If you have any tips or favourite games, let us know in the comments. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| How To Use ScribeFire To Write Quick Preformatted Blog Posts Posted: 15 Jul 2010 11:31 AM PDT
For me, this feature is worth its weight in gold, because a lot of effort during writing a blog entry is spent correctly formatting my post with Google Ads and images. In this article, I’m going to configure ScribeFire to handle the formatting automatically. This way, all you have to do is pop open ScribeFire and whip together the content – all of the formatting and ad placement will be inserted automatically, and you don’t even have to think about it.
Setting Up ScribeFireYou can install the ScribeFire plugin for Firefox, Chrome or Safari – so hopefully you’re covered. You can either access ScribeFire from the Tools menu item, press F8, or you can click on the ScribeFire icon at either the top or bottom toolbar of your browser.
I’ve already covered all of the blogging features in my previous review of this software, so if you’re not sure how to use ScribeFire, make sure to check that out first. What I really want to focus on here is the setup section where you can pre-format posts when you click the “blog this” button for a particular webpage. You can access that feature by clicking on the setup button.
This opens up the page where you can develop your blog post template. In my case, I’m going to do two things – set up the Google Ad template, and I’m also going to incorporate a selected word from the webpage to insert and format the first images in the post.
The text in the template field above is the default template you’ll find after first installing ScribeFire. Basically it is set up to quote the URL ($U), page title ($T) and the text on the webpage that you’ve selected ($S). In my case, the template will insert a dynamic header image, content fields that you can fill out, and then the Google Ad alongside another image. Here is how that Google Ad setup looks on my existing blog (currently I have to copy and paste this every time I write a new entry).
These are the two elements you need to dynamically create with ScribeFire – the Google Ad and the image, which will change depending on your post. Since you can highlight text on a webpage and that becomes the $S variable in your ScribeFire template, you can exploit that and use it to generate a different image name in every template. Here is how that would look.
In the template you can link to images in your upload area using the $S variable, which lets you name your image by first highlighting a word on a webpage and clicking the ScriptFire “Blog this” link. In my example I’ve used $S_intro and $S_ad, so now if I highlight the word “computer,” the blog entry will automatically name the intro image “computer_intro.jpg” and the ad image “computer_ad.jpg” – all you need to do is upload images with those names and the post will display them properly. Here is what a ScriptFire post looks like after I highlight the word “Alerts” on a webpage and then click “Blog this”.
There is no need to enter this code every time you write up a blog entry. The images and Google Ad code is automatically generated, and all you have to do is write your post. Here I’ve uploaded the files with the proper names into my blog’s media section.
Once I fill out the fields in the blog post template for the content, it’s just a matter of publishing and everything is properly formatted automatically. It’s one of the fastest and easiest methods to write up a well-formatted blog entry with the click of a button. Here’s the blog post after publication from ScribeFire.
Now that the template is set up properly, creating a new post is just a three step process. First, highlight a word on any webpage that you’d like to name the images and click “Blog this” in the ScribeFire menu. Second, upload the images with the correct names to your upload area. Finally, fill in the content fields with your writing. No need to worry about formatting, just write! If you wanted to, you could get creative using the title and URL variables as part of your template – maybe you could create a generic introduction that mentioned the link and title for that web page. However you configure your template, it will save you a lot of time in adding new content to your blog whenever the motivation strikes you. Have you ever tried using the “Blog this” feature of ScribeFire? What’s your opinion of it? Has it saved you time with your blogging efforts? Share your insight in the comments section below. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| Combine All Your Bookmarklets Into One with Bookmarklet Combiner Posted: 15 Jul 2010 10:31 AM PDT
However, one serious problem with bookmarklets is the amount of space they take up. It’s OK if you have only a couple of bookmarklets lying around on your toolbar, but if you are a power user, you probably have tons of bookmarklets cramming up the entire width of your toolbar, thereby denying you from using the toolbar for other purposes.
What you need to do next is fetch the exact URL/code for each of the bookmarklets that you want to combine. You can do this in one of two ways.
In the example below, I’ve used all the bookmarklets that I normally use and pasted them into the Bookmarklet Combiner.
Next, you will want to select how you want to combine bookmarklets. Again, you have two options.
Now that you know how to combine your bookmarklets, go ahead and have fun reducing all the clutter in your bookmarks toolbar. And if you come up with some particularly nice ways to combine bookmarklets, do share the URL with us in the comments. Image Credit : Flickr. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| How To Create A Registration Form (and other forms) In Wordpress Using cformsII Posted: 15 Jul 2010 09:30 AM PDT
But cformsII is no ordinary form creator. You can customize it and create anything from a simple contact form to multi-page forms to a tell-a-friend form. So when one of my colleagues asked me to help him create an online registration form for a regional competition his company is holding, cformsII automatically popped into my mind. (This plugin might also be one of the alternative answers to this question)
Downloading And InstallingLet’s start with the installation process. You can’t use the Wordpress built-in plugin search to find cformsII. You have to go to their site to download the plugin.
Then go to your Wordpress blog and click “Add New” sub menu under “Plugins“.
In the “Install Plugins” page, click the “Upload” link, click “Choose File” and browse for the downloaded plugin, and finally click “Install Now“.
You’ll got new new menu on the site.
Building New FormsThis plugin comes with one basic form which can be adjusted easily to fit users’ need. To begin, you can easily change the name of the form.
Then you can edit the name and type of each field of the form. Adding new lines is also as simple as telling cformsII how many and where to put the new fields. Just make sure that you’ve already planned about how many fields that you need in your form and the function of each one.
There’s the “Admin Actions” pane on the right side of the screen. You can use it to add new forms or duplicate the current form. But the most important function of this pane is the “Update Settings” button. Don’t forget to click this button every time you made changes to your form to save the changes.
The easiest way to modify each form field is to use the “Input Field Settings“. You can open the window by clicking the box in the middle of every field. (While the other boxes after the “Type” options are the delete button)
For example, you want to create checkbox with multiple choices, you can choose “Multiple Checkbox” from the drop down “Type” options, click the “Input Field Settings” button, then define each checkbox choices.
By combining text inputs and checkboxes, we can create almost any kind of form. And one of the field types is “File Upload Box” which allows people to upload small file such as copy of payment receipt.
You can also create as many forms as you need using “Add new form” or “Duplicate current form” actions. Other SettingsAside for the form creation, there are other settings that you can adjust within the “Form Settings” menu. If you are only creating a simple form – like Submission Form – you can just leave everything as it is with the default value. But to make sure, you might want to check the email options to confirm that the email address where the submitted form will be sent is correct.
There are two other settings that you might want to adjust: the “Global Settings“,
And the “Form Styling” where you can pick the appearance of your form(s) from the pre-made templates, and edit the CSS if you want to.
Choose one of the styles and click the “Select Style” button, and you can see a preview of what your form will look like.
Last but not the least, “Help” is always there to guide you through the difficult times.
Inserting The FormYou can insert the form into your blog post, pages and even as a widget. All you have to do is to click the cformsII button;
And pick the form that you want to insert.
If you want to use the widget, go to the “Appearance – Widgets” menu then drag and drop the cforms widget to the Widgets area.
And here’s an example of the published form.
What’s Going On Behind The Curtain?What will happen after somebody clicks “Submit“? The content of the filled form will be emailed to the owner of the blog (or to another preferred address). The plugin comes with its own mailing system called PHPMailer.
In a normal WP environment, you do not need to configure anything. Just leave it be and it will work. But if your web hosting provider doesn’t support the native PHP “mail()” command, you can configure cformsII to utilize external SMTP server such as GMail. You can configure the settings under “Global Settings – Mail Server Settings” menu. And as for the mail address(es) where cformsII should send the filled forms to, is configurable under “Forms Setting – Admin Email Message Options” menu.
A registration form is just one application of the many possibilities provided by the powerful cformsII. So if you ever need to add forms to your Wordpress blog, you can try cformsII and modify it to your needs. Do you use forms in your blog? What kind of forms are they? What plugin do you use? Please share your experiences using the comment section below. Image credit: Cameron Nordholm Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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| Use SMEStorage to Save OpenOffice Files In Google Docs Online Posted: 15 Jul 2010 08:30 AM PDT
OpenOffice, the popular free office suite, is able to solve this problem through the extensions made available for it. One of these extensions is made by a company called SMEStorage, which specializes in “mutli-cloud data access.” SMEStorage has the ability to use Google Documents as an online document/file storage, making it easy to access OpenOffice files with multiple computers.
Setting Up SMEStorageBefore you can use SMEStorage, you will need to set it up. This take a little more effort than, say, installing a Firefox extension. You will first need to download the MultiCloud File Manager extension from the OpenOffice.org extension repository and install it. You then must go to the SMEStorage website and register an account with them. At the SMEStorage front page, select “I Want to Use Google Docs.”
Once you have registered, you need to open the MultiCloud File Manager extension in OpenOffice.org. There is a new set of icons in the upper left of the suite. Click on the folder icon furthest to the left.
When you open the extension, you will be asked to enter your login information. This is the username and password that you just created when you registered on the SMEStorage website. Once you have entered that information, click OK. The extension will begin the process of trying to connect to Google Documents.
You will be presented with a second login screen once a connection is established – this is verifying your login information to Google Documents. Enter your information again and press OK. The SMEStorage extension will finish importing your Google Documents information. Browsing and Creating Google Documents
The browser that displays your Google Documents displays as a tree. Your documents will be located under All Files –> My Google Docs files. To open a file, you simply need to double-click on it. A status window will appear while SMEStorage downloads the information, and the file will then open in OpenOffice.org. You can edit the document as you would normally, but to save the document you must use the new save icon that was added to OpenOffice.org by the extension. It is next to the new folder icon that was used to open the SMEStorage extension initially. You will be asked if you want to encrypt on the upload or not. This can be handy if you are on an open wireless hotspot and you want to make sure the document is secure. Otherwise, it isn’t usually required. LimitationsSMEStorage is a great way to sync up files, but it should be noted that SMEStorage isn’t perfect. SMEStorage uses Google Documents as a storage medium and only a storage medium. The files that you save into Google Documents can not be edited while in Google Documents. This is not a problem, of course, if you have OpenOffice installed on your machines, but it is a unfortunate limitation of this extension. This is apparently to due to some conflict in the way Google Documents handles documents uploaded by third party programs. You can get around this problem by downloading a document to your computer and then uploading to back to Google Documents with the option to convert the file to the Google Documents format selected. ConclusionIf you like to use OpenOffice.org and you want to sync files between multiple computers this is an excellent way to do it. SMEStorage provides an excellent service for OpenOffice.org users, and the extension’s integration into OpenOffice.org is smooth. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles
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MakeUseOf Team Spotlight is our occasional feature where we profile the work of our writers outside of MakeUseOf. We have some very talented employees who like to spread their talents all around the web and it’s only right that we should recognise and showcase those talents.
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