MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [August 6th]” plus 8 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [August 6th]
- The 5 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Burrrn – A Free Utility For Burning Audio CDs From FLAC, OGG & MP3 & More
- Hot Tech Deals [Aug 6th]
- Twist Your Mind With The Best Optical Illusions On The Web
- 3 Google Chrome Extensions To Make Great Screenshots
- Five New Safari 5.0 Extensions You Should Definitely Check Out
- The 10 Best HighDef Video Podcasts For Geeks
- Automatically Turn Off Your Computer With Shutdown Timer [Windows]
| Cool Websites and Tools [August 6th] Posted: 06 Aug 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. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
    
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| The 5 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 06 Aug 2010 06:31 PM PDT
To qualify for the contest, just answer questions using your eMail address, Disqus, or Facebook account. All excellent answers are considered. Now for the best questions from the past week:
More mind boggling questions can be found on MakeUseOf Answers. Browse by Latest Questions, Unanswered Questions or Most Popular Questions. For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask your question at MakeUseOf Answers! Free, no signup, no spam. Promised! Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| Burrrn – A Free Utility For Burning Audio CDs From FLAC, OGG & MP3 & More Posted: 06 Aug 2010 04:31 PM PDT
FLAC files are compressed by 30-50% of their original size, as opposed to the average 80% compression used by the MP3 format which makes it perfect for archiving.
I've read some pretty long-winded guides for getting albums in the FLAC format onto shiny disc. Most of them entail converting the FLAC to WAV format and then burning WAV data with your choice of CD creation software. I've even seen a couple that suggest converting to MP3 and doing it that way. Somewhat defeats the point of a lossless audio format, really. Burrrn is a breath of fresh air if you want to get the job done in no time. You can grab the installer from the download section, it only weighs in at a tiny 2MB. Upon first start you'll be asked to set a couple of parameters, including which burner to use. If you're a fan of virtual drives, make sure you pick the right burner here!
Did I mention just how many formats Burrrn is compatible with? As well as the obscure FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and CUE sheets there is support for MP3, AAC and APE audio amongst others. You can change which decoders are to be used on the Decoders tab, though Burrrn has already assigned some for you.
There is also built-in support for Replay Gain, designed to normalize the CD you are about to burn by adjusting the volume of each track so that it is in line with the rest of the album. You can tweak settings related to Replay Gain on the final tab in the settings window.
The GUI is clear and easy to get along with. Everything you need to get going is contained within the main window, so changing writing speed and applying ReplayGain is simple. You can even hit the On Top button to keep Burrrn in the foreground whilst you're building a mix.
Utilising a simple drag and drop interface, creating a playlist is easy. Simply drag the files you want across and Burrrn will attempt to read any tag information it finds. You can make adjustments to titles after you have added your files, useful if you're not the keenest of taggers. As you can see below, Burrrn has detected the tags within the FLAC files on the left and amended each field accordingly:
Those of you with single MP3 files that rely on a CUE sheet (often used for live mixes and recordings) will be pleased to know by simply dragging the CUE sheet into burn individual tracks will be created – just make sure the MP3 file is in the same directory and named accordingly.
You can also use multiple filetypes to create a mix, so bring your FLACs, WAVs, OGGs and MP3s together for one big party on the same CD. ConclusionAs it stands, Burrrn is still my number one choice when I need to burn an audio CD. I started using it for FLAC and gradually became sick of Nero's resource-intensive way of doing things so I switched completely. If you've been looking for a better way to burn FLAC, CUE or OGG to CD, then look no further than Burrrn. Do you have any tips for burning FLAC to CD? Is there another application you have found works better? Have you recently ditched Nero or other paid software for freeware? Let us know in the comments! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Posted: 06 Aug 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated. Keep reading to find out today’s Hot Tech Deals.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| Twist Your Mind With The Best Optical Illusions On The Web Posted: 06 Aug 2010 12:31 PM PDT
The following websites will open up to you the mystifying world of optical illusions. Be warned, however: once you begin to bend your brain and seek to understand them, you’ll probably find it too fun to stop.
Websites With Optical Illusion CollectionsA lot of optical illusion websites have been left largely alone for years and even have page designs that are real flashbacks to the early days of the internet. Mighty Optical Illusions is one of the only sites with illusions I could find that is regularly updated to this day.
Be sure to check out the categories on the right to sort the illusions into the ones you really want to see. There are 3D chalk drawings, impossible objects, scary illusons, and much more.
Elsewhere on the web you’ll find Michael Bach’s website, which has tons of cool illusions.
One of the neatest things about the site is that most of the illusions are interactive. This one, for example, allows you to change how blurred or in focus the faces are, which alters which one looks angry.
The other great thing about the site is that Michael Bach is a vision scientist and professor of neurobiophysics, so he often provides interesting explanations of how the illusions work. And if you want to turn off the eyes that follow your cursor around on the main page, there’s a button in the top left. Autostereograms (a.k.a. Magic Eye)Perhaps you recall the popular Magic Eye images from the ’90s. Back then you had to purchase Magic Eye books to attempt to see really cool 3D optical illusions. But now there are lots available right on the internet – so you can give yourself a headache for free!
To start you off, Eyetricks has a huge gallery of autostereograms.
To see the three-dimensional images, most instructions tell you to try to look “through” the image and into the distance. For me, it seems to work if I cross my eyes just slightly. If it doesn’t work for you, you can try getting closer to the image or printing it out. It will probably take some effort at first, but once you’re successful, it should get easier. Create Your Own Autostereograms!Easy stereogram builder has a simple editor that lets you create your own completely custom autostereograms.
For a background, you can choose a pattern, random dots, or upload your own image. For your “mask” (the image that will appear in 3D), you can choose from the many available masks, type in some text that will appear in 3D, or upload your own black-and-white image. If you just want more 3D images to look at, check out the site’s gallery of user-submitted stereograms. Do you know of any other great websites with optical illusions? What are your favorite illusions? Image Credit: Mattox Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| 3 Google Chrome Extensions To Make Great Screenshots Posted: 06 Aug 2010 11:31 AM PDT
An in-browser application solves this problem. With the three Chrome extensions discussed below, you can snap and annotate screen snapshots without ever leaving your browser. With one of these tools, you can even take screenshots from your desktop and other applications!
Awesome ScreenshotAwesome Screenshot is one of the best in-browser screen snapshot alternatives, and one I’m rather fond of using myself. You can choose to capture the entire webpage, or just the part that’s currently visible in your browser. By resizing your browser window, you can actually dynamically crop your screenshots before they’re taken!
Once you’ve snapped (part) of a webpage, you can use the extension for some basic editing, ideal for bloggers and amateur annotations. Resize or further crop your screenshot, and improve the image quality or compress for the web. Annotations consist of basic circles, rectangles, lines, freeform and text on top of the photo. More importantly, the special blur tool allows you to make parts of the screenshot inedible, fast. It also allows you to upload the resulting screen snapshot instantly, but users should be forewarned that Pict.com is a rather unstable image host, and images might not be kept online. For that purpose, it’s advised to also store your images locally or upload them to a trustworthy image host yourself. In short, a lightweight screenshot and annotating tool, ideal for bloggers and amateur sharing. LightShot (Windows only)This might be considered a more heavyweight alternative to Awesome Screenshot. After clicking the icon in the browser bar, you can select any visible part on your screen to snap a picture. Although it’s not possible to snap an entire webpage, this tool also allows you to take screenshots of your desktop or other applications. The only real downside is that that it’s only supported on Windows.
The extension also allows you to annotate those screenshots, but is not limited to that aspect. For that matter, the embedded image editor is far more advanced than the default image editor on Windows, with support for layers and filters. When you’re done, save the image to your desktop or upload it to the LightShot server. For Windows, LightShot is by far the most advanced screenshot tool available as a Chrome extension. If you regularly need heavy editing while working with screen snapshot, LightShot will the the extension of choice. Webpage ScreenshotThis was the original screenshot application for Google Chrome, and the first that allowed for full-page screenshots with automated scrolling. To that extent, the extension is rather simple, and a far lighter alternative to Awesome Screenshot or LightShot.
Clicking the toolbar button will snap the visible area, or take a full-page screenshot of the website, optionally by interval. Afterwards, you have the ability to further crop the image, apply basic annotation and share it online. Do you have first-hand experience with these extensions, or do you know of any other great Google Chrome screenshot tools? Let us know in the comments section below! NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
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| Five New Safari 5.0 Extensions You Should Definitely Check Out Posted: 06 Aug 2010 10:31 AM PDT
There are several dozen extensions available for the new 5.0.1 update. If you download too many they can easily clutter your Safari toolbar. Sometimes after adding an extension you might decide to get rid of it. There are two ways to do that:
A quicker method for getting rid of extensions all together is to simply right or control-click on the extension's icon and select Remove Item, which will delete it from the extensions library.
You can also re-arrange extensions by right or control-clicking on the toolbar and selecting Customize Toolbar. After the window drops down, you can move icons to the left or right of the URL and Search fields. Now let's turn our attention to an handful of handy new extensions for Safari 5.0.. These extensions can be downloaded from Apple's Safari Extension Library. Clicking the download button for an extension automatically installs it in the Safari extensions library, found in Safari's Preferences. However, in my experience so far, extensions might not always work right out of the box. You may have to quit and restart Safari in order for extensions to kick in. Awesome ScreenshotDiggo Inc's Awesome Screenshot enables you to capture, annotate, and share screenshots from within the browser. It's somewhat similar to Diggo's bookmarking and annotation website and browser plug-in, but with Awesome Screenshot, you can save the screenshots and annotations as PNG files.
If you want to annotate and capture parts of a webpage, it seems better to annotate and then crop the section you want to save. If you try to annotate after you make the crop the annotations don’t act right. One unique feature of Awesome Screenshot is that you can select and upload a screenshot to Diigo's server. In turn a link will be created so that you can share it on one of numerous web services, including Twitter, Yahoo Mail and Gmail.
There are a few disadvantages however to using Awesome Screenshot. When you activate the extension, you must close out the webpage in order to quit the extension for that page. There's no cancel button to get out of the extension. While there's an Undo button in the extension's toolbar, you can't select and move around annotations after you use them. So you need to be pretty precise about where you want extensions to be made. Despite these shortcomings, Awesome Screenshot is a useful extension for what it does. SnapperA similar extension to Awesome Screenshot is Snapper. It takes a screenshot of only the visible part of a webpage, not the entire page. So you need to re-size your browser window to capture the part that you want. There's no annotation features in Snapper. It creates a JPG file of the capture which can be dragged to your Finder.
While Snapper is not feature rich as Awesome Screenshot, it's quick and doesn’t require you to select and draw a box to make screenshots. Three Handy YouTube ExtensionsA Cleaner YouTubeIf you're an avid watcher of YouTube videos, you definitely might want to check out A Cleaner YouTube 1.1. When activated, this extension removes all the typical YouTube distractions so you can focus just on the downloaded video. When you download and install the extension, there's no toolbar button for it. It kicks in and works the next time you open a YouTube video. The outcome looks like this:
The only way you can turn it off though is by disabling it in the Extensions preferences of Safari. Turn Off The LightsA similar YouTube extension to the one above is Turn Off the Lights. It allows you to darken an entire webpage – most useful for when you're watching a video. This extension might be the better of the two because you can activate and deactivate it in the toolbar.
YouTubeWide 2.0And finally there's YouTubeWide. While there's nothing unique about watching YouTube videos in wide screen, this little extension automates the the viewing so that every YouTube video watch automatically downloads in wide view. It's another extension that you enable and disable in Safari Preferences.
Well, that's it for this round of Safari extensions. We'll be looking for and writing about others that seem unique or handy for users. In the meantime, which ones are your favourites? Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| The 10 Best HighDef Video Podcasts For Geeks Posted: 06 Aug 2010 09:31 AM PDT
In the past, podcasts were something you would listen to, like a mini radio-broadcast over the Internet. Now, there are some high-quality free video podcasts out there and you can even watch them in high definition. Awesome. In this article, I am going to show you some of the best free video podcasts for geeks that you can watch in HD. I’ll also show you my favorite program for downloading and keeping track of your podcasts so you don’t miss out on anything.
Miro – An Amazing Open-Source Video PlayerMiro is still the hands-down champ when it comes to downloading, watching, and keeping track of your video podcasts. It can also be used to download torrents and manage your video collection, but that’s not why we’re here. Besides, uTorrent and VLC Player are still the champs in those respective categories. I use Miro all the time. In fact, it just pushed out a major update last week I believe. Anyway, I really like Miro’s layout, settings (it can automatically download new episodes for you), and its guide for finding new shows. There are thousands of free HD video shows for you to download on the Miro Guide. I’d spend more time on this app, but we have some shows to get to. If you want to learn more about Miro, watch this video: Watching Podcasts In HDI should mention that a lot of the free video podcasts listed here can also be seen on YouTube, as well as various other ways on the Internet, so if you are on somebody else’s computer and would like to watch one of your favorite shows, you don’t need to install any applications if you don’t want to. In no particular order, here are some of the best HD podcasts for geeks: GeekBeat.TV HD
This is probably a good place to start. GeekBeat.TV, starring Cali Lewis, is a show about tech news, gadgets, research, and anything/everything having to do with the latest technology. New episodes are posted almost every day and – like a few other shows on this list – is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest trends. TEDTalks (HD)
It’s pretty likely that you’ve heard of TED before, but in case you haven’t, TED stands for ‘Technology, Entertainment, Design’ and is a conference that hosts some of the world’s smartest and most innovative people. Now you can view videos of these geniuses in HD. Updates are pretty frequent, usually daily. Diggnation (HD)
Diggnation needs no introduction, but I’ll give you one anyway. Featuring hosts Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) and Alex Albrecht (The Totally Rad Show), Diggnation offers an entertaining look at the top weekly stories on Digg. Diggnation is a Revision3 podcast. If you enjoy it, you should also check out The Totally Rad Show (mentioned previously), The Digg Reel, and Scam School (all in HD). Hak 5 (HD MP4)
Also from Revision3, Hak 5 features a band of IT ninjas, security professionals, and hardcore gamers. They take on hacking in the old-school sense, covering everything from network security to do-it-yourself (DIY) modding. You can learn a lot from this tech show. Tekzilla (HD)
This is the last podcast from Revision3, I promise. Tekzilla is another awesome tech show that features product reviews, computer help, and tech tips on everything you can think of. They also feature a lot of DIY projects. CNET.TV Loaded HD
Next up on the list is CNET.TV Loaded HD. With CNET you generally know what you’re getting. This show covers all of the latest products that are out, focusing on features and reviews of the latest technology that’s available. New episodes are posted almost every weekday. Doctype the show
“Doctype is the show for people who make websites.” This is a very interesting podcast that can teach you a lot about web design. They show you how to do cool things with CSS, Javascript, JQuery, HTML – you name it. Mac App Guide (HD video)
The Mac fan-boys (and fan-girls) among us should like this podcast. On the Mac App Guide, hundreds of amazing, free applications for the Mac OS X are covered and reviewed. They feature apps you never knew existed. Ubunter
New to Linux or just looking for some tutorials on how to use Ubuntu or other open-source software? Ubunter is the podcast for you. This podcast shows you how to do some pretty interesting stuff with your version of Linux. MAKE Magazine
Rounding up this list, MAKE is a quarterly publication from O’Reilly, and it features “life-hacking” technology. If you like to tinker with, disassemble, recreate, or invent new uses for technology, you’ll find this DIY series interesting and useful. ConclusionThere are plenty of other great free video podcasts out there also. There are podcasts on GIMP, eco-living, Internet memes, video games, outer space, and even HD video itself. Suffice it to say, there’s something for everybody. Be careful, because once you start looking for and watching podcasts you might wake up and find out it’s next year already. What are your favorite online shows? Can you watch them in HD? Leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Automatically Turn Off Your Computer With Shutdown Timer [Windows] Posted: 06 Aug 2010 08:31 AM PDT
The problem is that these options are not very flexible. For example, let’s say you’re downloading a big game from Steam. You know it will take a few hours for it to be complete, and you’re leaving for work. You don’t want your computer to run all day idle, but you want to be able to download the file.
The Basics Of Shutdown TimerDespite the name, Shutdown Timer is not just for shutting down your computer. There are actually seven different states that you can place your computer into: shutdown, restart, logoff, lock, hibernate, standby, and screen standby. The state that you want to place your computer into can be selected using the drop down menu in the upper right hand corner.
When your computer meets the conditions that you specify in Shutdown Timer it will automatically go into the state you selected. Be warned, the Shutdown Timer auto shutdown software will most likely ignore any programs you have running at the time the conditions are met. In other words, you don’t want to be working on something important when the conditions are met because you might lose any work you haven’t saved. Setting ConditionsShutdown Timer’s activation is based on certain conditions set by the user. The most basic conditions that can be set are the time conditions. These fit the program’s name well – you set a timer, and the computer shuts down when the time is up. The time based conditions can be accessed in the Options section of the program. Before you can set a condition you must first click the Activate checkbox in the upper right hand corner. Once you’ve done this, you can edit the information. For example, let’s say you want to set your computer to shut down in ten minutes. You will first click the Activate checkbox. Then you will edit the number field so that it is set at 10 minutes. Once that is complete you must click the big Activate button in the lower left. Ta-da! Your timer is set. It will count down until the time is up, at which point your computer will go into the state you’ve selected.
The Date section does the same thing, but instead of setting a timer that counts down you set a specific date and time. This is more useful if you need to schedule a shutdown that will be a day or two away. Processor activity can also be used to schedule a shutdown. There are two conditions available. One activates the state you selected if your computer’s processor activity is above or below a certain threshold for a specified period of time. This is useful if you run processor intensive programs that take hours to complete an operation. You can also set a condition based on temperature that the auto shutdown software will use to shut down. This can be used to prevent processor overheating. Overclockers will find this particularly handy when experimenting with voltage settings.
There is only one condition based on memory, and it works like the processor condition. You can set Shutdown Timer to place your computer into a selected state if memory usage is above or below a certain point for a specified period of time.
Finally, you have the ability to set a condition based on network activity. You can select the network adapter that will be monitored (you can only have on selected at a time), and once network activity reaches a certain point your computer will be placed in the selected state. The most obvious use for this is downloading – consider the example of downloading a game from Steam that was brought up earlier. The settings here could tell your computer to automatically shutdown after the download was complete.
ConclusionThis auto shutdown program is immensely useful if you’re concerned about your computer sitting around at idle and consuming power when it doesn’t need to. It can also be used as a sort of protection program – for example, you might set it to shutdown if processor activity or network becomes too high while you’re away, as this might indicate a Trojan Horse attack. In fact, the usefulness of Shutdown Timer is probably limited only by your imagination. What kind of conditions do you want to use it for? Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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