MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [August 11th]” plus 9 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [August 11th]
- 3 Cool Tools To Find Out Who’s Tweeting Any Twitter Hashtag
- Who Invented the Pascal Program? [In Case You Were Wondering]
- 10 Apps To Turn iPhone Into Your Best Travel Companion
- Hot Tech Deals [Aug 11th]
- Remove Duplicate Files & Directories with Duplicate Cleaner
- 5 Free Tutorial Websites To Improve Your Google SketchUp & 3D Design Skills
- 15 System Preferences Items A New Mac User Should Adjust
- iReader – Instant Clutter-free Reading on Chrome & Firefox
- Let Your Friends Know When You’re Nearby Privately With Face2face
| Cool Websites and Tools [August 11th] Posted: 11 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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| 3 Cool Tools To Find Out Who’s Tweeting Any Twitter Hashtag Posted: 11 Aug 2010 06:30 PM PDT
The one thing I have found Twitter hashtags to be particularly useful is tracking conferences and participating in Twitter chats. Today’s tool overview will help you connect to those who uses a Twitter hashtag. Here are three awesome tools that allow to extract the user list by a particular hashtag. 1. SummarizrSummarizr is by far the coolest way to analyze any Twitter conversation by a username. It summarizes the following search types: a hashtag, keyword or Twitter account name. For any hashtag you submit, you will see the following statistics:
I especially like the “Top 10 conversations” part that lets you see who’s discussing the hashtag:
2. The ArchivistThe Archivist is a nice desktop application (Windows-only) that lets you run any search within Twitter database and lets you export the results to Excel. You can then use Excel columns to:
The tool is very easy to use. Just get it installed, run the search and Save the file to further update it with latest Tweets. After you search for any hashtag using the tool, you can use the View menus to see the pie chart visualizing the Tweeting users:
3. What the Hashtag?What the Hashtag? is the best-known of all; yet the most basic in terms of extracting Twitter users who Tweet a hashtag. It can only be used for popular hashtags; the great option of it is the ability to see “trending” hashtags: those that have got hot recently. For any hashtag you search, you can see the list of “Top contributors” (by the number of updates they tweeted containing that hashtag).
Bonus: Follow Those Who Tweet the HashtagSo if you are interested in learning who actually uses the Twitter hashtag, chances are you may want to follow all of them. This may come particularly in handy if you’ve, for example, been to a conference (or participated in chat) and now want to follow everyone involved in it. BlastFollow enables you to follow Twitter users who share your interests en masse. To use it, simply enter your hashtag. Then, click the “Get Users!” button. After a few seconds, you will see the number of users who tweeted with that hashtag recently. Mind that the tool doesn’t use the twitter OAuth and requires you to provide your Twitter login data, so mind your privacy! Also, be sure NOT to mass-follow popular hashtag users: if you follow too many people in bulk, your account may be suspended. Better use the tool to follow people who tweet tiny, internal hashtags which represent events, campaigns, family members, etc
Do you use Twitter hashtags? Please share your tools! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Who Invented the Pascal Program? [In Case You Were Wondering] Posted: 11 Aug 2010 04:30 PM PDT
Considering that Pascal died in 1662 and that the Pascal language was invented almost 300 years later, he can't possibly have created the language. Then who invented the Pascal programming language?
Pascal was created by Wirth as a language that could be used for teaching fundamental concepts that would work reliably and efficiently on the computers available in the 1970's. Pascal ended up being used for computer games, embedded systems and research projects, and was also used for the development of the Lisa, one of the early Apple (Macintosh) computers and one of its derivatives, Object Pascal, is still used today, in applications such as Skype.
Niklaus Wirth is the author of highly recognized books, such as “Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs” (1976) and has received ten honorary doctorates and was awarded the IEEE Emmanuel Piore Prize and the Turing Prize in 1984 among many others, but Wirth’s main contribution has always been the concept of creating productive software designed in an organized fashion and free of unnecessary clutter.
In his article named “A Plea for Lean Software” [PDF] which was written by Wirth in 1995, he explains some of the issues with software development and why it’s important to create clean, organized code by quoting two “laws” that he believes reflect the business:
Interesting ideas, considering the number of lines of code of some of the most used software today, seems to be growing larger even as the hardware grows smaller each day. For example:
He has stated that the only reason software has become large is because software vendors add features customers think they want, but never use. He was also a proponent of the idea that software should be completely understood by at least one person, and that having teams developing programs without any of them fully understanding its entirety caused a lot of unnecessary complexity and useless code.
His development of Pascal was a testament to those beliefs. Pascal is still considered one of the most mathematical of computer languages. Its core is designed around focus on essentials, object oriented programming and keeping a simple core that is lightweight and easily understood. Did you know about Pascal? NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
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| 10 Apps To Turn iPhone Into Your Best Travel Companion Posted: 11 Aug 2010 02:31 PM PDT
While some people can just grab a backpack and go, others need careful preparations before they could even place one foot outside the door. But both types of travelers could use some additional help to enhance their traveling experience, and the iPhone could be one of the best travel companions. Maps & CompassThe days of paper maps and bulky compasses are over. Nowadays, we have digital maps and compasses built in into the latest generations of iPhones. While most iPhone users know that Maps can be used to search for locations and get directions, many are unfamiliar with the integration of the Compass feature with Maps. When you are trying to find directions using Maps, tap the little button at the bottom left of the screen. The icon will change from a small arrow into a flashlight and the map will rotate according to the direction of the Compass. This feature will help you find your destination faster and easier.
As a bonus, Maps can also show traffic for the area so you can plan your route better (please note that traffic information is not always available, especially in remote areas). Planning & OrganizingThere are many things that intertwine within a trip, starting from the traveling methods, places to stay, activities to do, up to all the little details that come along the way. Unless you deliberately want your trip to be an adventure which is full of surprises, a little planning and organizing would really help you on the road. There are many iPhone apps dedicated to helping users set up their travel as perfectly as possible before the actual event. These apps will help you with things like ticket reservations, hotel room booking, flight search, and recommendations for nearby eating places. Three such apps are TripDeck, TripIt and Kayak. They have more or less similar functions.
Help On The RoadAnd what about during the actual travel itself? There are also an abundant numbers of applications that can help you with that. Take Yelp, for example; this app can help you find useful places nearby, from restaurants to banks to drugstores. The app utilizes the iPhone’s built in GPS to find the user’s location and matches it with its databases. A few months back, Ryan did a review of Yelp.
Another similar app is Where.
Take Me To My Car takes a different approach in utilizing GPS to help users. As the name suggests, this app’s sole purpose is to help users locate their parked car. Most of us know that parking a car is far easier than finding it again later. Especially when you visit a huge vacation site. To solve the problem, all you’ve got to do is tap at the “Park Here” button when you park your car. And when you are ready to leave, tap “Get Directions” button and the app will help you locate your car and give you directions to its location.
Don’t forget another important element of every fun vacation: an internet connection. Finding Wi-fi hotspots would be less complicated if you have Wi-Fi finder apps such as WiFi Get Lite (the free version of WiFi Plus).
Another app called Lonely Planet will help you fit into a foreign environment by providing you with City Guides for major cities all over the world, and audio phrase books of many non-English languages to help you learn common phrases. While the app itself is free, you have to buy the City Guides and phrase books.
But the most important factor on every travel and vacation is actually doing it. All the help that you get from these tools would mean nothing if you do not enjoy your vacation. One way to do that is by making a travel journal. My Vacation Lite is the perfect app to do that.
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| Posted: 11 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
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| Remove Duplicate Files & Directories with Duplicate Cleaner Posted: 11 Aug 2010 12:31 PM PDT
After a while, I can’t remember whether or not I’ve already downloaded something. I must have three Wordpress installs buried away in my hard drive. You can find files and directories that you think may be the same, but how do you know that they’re truly duplicates?
We’ve covered a few tools at MUO for dealing with duplicate files, such as as the five utilities that Saikat covered, or the Auslogics finder that he also reviewed. An even more functional and effective tool that you can use to clean up duplicates is a freeware application is called Duplicate Cleaner. Track Down Space-Wasting DuplicatesWhen it comes to identifying duplicates, Duplicate Cleaner takes all of the guess work out of the equation. It sorts through volumes of files for you, identifies every single duplicate file, and then returns a list with every last duplicate group.
The first step is to add all of the directories that you want to search through. In my own situation, it’s my laptop that’s the problem. I keep downloading lots of images and files to the Documents and Pictures folders. Just select each folder, one at a time, and click the blue arrow to add those directories into the “Search Paths” column. On the right side of the screen you can fine-tune the search criteria.
An alternative search is the “Audio Search” for audio files only – this is particularly useful if you have an insanely huge music file collection that’s a completely mess. Find duplicate music files within select directories, or you could even search your entire computer.
In my case, I’ve added the three folders where I always download files – downloads, pictures and documents. The next step is to let the software do its magic. It took Duplicate Cleaner just over 14 minutes to scan the entire three directories. I was astonished to learn that in two years I’ve accumulated over 35,000 files. The duplicate files represent 547.28 MB of wasted disk space.
The software splits up the resulting listings into two tabs – all searched files and the duplicate results. Managing Your Duplicate FilesAt first, I doubted that the software was really identifying duplicates. I had a lot of image files that had completely different file names, yet the software claimed they were duplicates. Luckily, all you have to do is right click on any file to open it. Sure enough, the images were exactly the same.
The software performs this same comparison with music files, video files and even executibles using what’s called the “MD5 Hash Algorithm”. The software comes with its own file preview utility, so even if you run it on a PC without any image app, you can view the images right inside Duplicate Cleaner.
Along with the file name, the results display the source path of the file, the file size, when it was last modified, and the group number. One clear giveaway that should tell you the software is working correctly is when the duplicate files always have identical file sizes.
The real question, once you’ve identified all of these problem files consuming your precious hard drive space, is what to do with them? You can select all of the duplicates that you want to delete, and when you click on “Remove Selected,” you will be provided with different options – delete the files, move them to a new folder, or, better yet, if you don’t really want to remove the duplicate file at its source location, you can create a “hard link” that is linked to the original file, and the duplicate is still deleted.
You can also fine tune exactly which duplicates are automatically chosen for deletion based on things like the age of the file, or in the case of audio – the one with the highest sample or bit rates.
Even if you don’t think you need such an application, you should give it a shot. I really didn’t think I had much wasted space, so I was shocked to find over 13,000 duplicate files in just three directories. Just imagine if you search your entire computer. Do you have your own technique to prevent the duplicate file mess? How do you clean up your hard drive from this kind of wasted space? Share your own techniques in the comments section below. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| 5 Free Tutorial Websites To Improve Your Google SketchUp & 3D Design Skills Posted: 11 Aug 2010 11:31 AM PDT
Google SketchUp is the comparatively easy to use 3D drawing software for creating, modifying, and sharing 3D models. Along with tools like Building Maker, you can be God and creator on Google Earth. Ryan recently introduced us to the software.
Then you can model for the Google contests. But to get there you need to get on the SketchUp learning curve. Maybe these free Google SketchUp tutorial resources can help to put you on it. Google SketchUp Training
It's always best to go to the guys who made it in the first place. Especially, if they have all the information that takes you from a newbie to an expert. You can opt for instructor-led, hands on training classes at authorized training centers. But when we are talking 'free', you should point your mouse at the Video Tutorials section and the Self Paced Tutorials that let you learn SketchUp at your own pace. The self-paced Google Sketchup tutorials are downloadable SKP files of 3D models which open up in SketchUp and help you recreate it through a series of steps. Start with the Introduction to SketchUp file. Then there are 61 video tutorial files arranged according to your skill levels. You can also subscribe to Google's Official SketchUp Video Channel on YouTube for more video uploads. Then there's the SketchUp Help Forum to help you get unstuck from any SketchUp problems. SketchUcation
If Google is home, then Sketchucation.com is the Mecca. Beginners, hobbyists, SketchUp aces, all make this a happening meeting place. The website is not only about SketchUp educational information, but also discussions, interviews, trends, and downloads. The SketchUp tutorial index is marked clearly for beginners, intermediates, and advanced users. As you get into each stage, you can also narrow down your learning by other categories like Author, Level, Application, and Type. All the chatter on SketchUcation is captured in its Community Forum. Go-2-School
Go2School hosts online private training classes and webinars for SketchUp learners. These are not free but a SketchUp user can join the site's community as a free member and take part in the discussions. Also of value is The SketchUp Show on YouTube which takes you through tips and tricks for using SketchUp. Google SketchUp for Dummies
You have to buy the book from the stores, but you can help yourself to quite a few SketchUp video tutorials on the author's YouTube channel. The videos accompany the instructions in the book, but on their own too they can take you through the concepts as they have voiceovers. There are about 62 videos in all; videos are also arranged according to the chapters in the book. SketchUpArtists
If you are plateauing on the SketchUp learning curve, check out this tutorial website for SketchUp professionals. In their own words it's a tutorial site for the benefit of professional SketchUp users and CG artists. The tips, tricks, and tutorials cover different aspects of post-processing and much of the software used along with SketchUp. For instance, the knowledgebase shows the creative punch when SketchUp is used with other 3D rendering software like Autodesk 3D Studio Max, and even Photoshop. These five websites will put you on the right track to master Google SketchUp. Google SketchUp is an easy tool to learn technically, its creativity that will take you to the next plane. If you really get into Google SketchUp, here's a wonderful list of resources that's like the Who's Who on the 3D design tool. Let us know about your SketchUp learning adventures and any great tutorial websites we may have missed. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| 15 System Preferences Items A New Mac User Should Adjust Posted: 11 Aug 2010 10:31 AM PDT
The items I will cover are found in the Snow Leopard version of System Preferences. I'm not going to cover each section of System Preferences or some of its more self-explanatory items. I will cover some of the hidden and useful items that you may want to change or adjust.
Application LauncherOne of the elementary items that every Mac user should know about is selecting applications that you want automatically launched when your computer is booted. To do this, open Accounts (in System Preferences, of course) and click on the Login Items button. Click the + button to add applications you want to automatically launch when your computer boots. Later, if you find that your computer is taking too long to start up, you might want to cut back your number of login items.
Also, you can add apps to your login by right- or Control-clicking on an application in the dock and selecting Options>Open at Login.
Recent ItemsWhen you need to access recently opened items, there's no need to go hunting for them in folders. You can click on the Apple icon in the far left of the menu bar and select Recent Items where you will find a list of documents, applications, and Servers you have used.
You can control the number of items that show up on that list by going into System Preferences and clicking on Appearance. Near the bottom, you can select the numbers of recent items you want listed.
Password ProtectIf your computer is accessible to other people on a regular basis, you might want to password protect it. Select Security>General and click on Require password. The password will be the same one you use for your account. After the time you set, your computer will log out and will require a password to log back into your account.
CDs & DVDsClicking on CDs & DVDs in System Preferences, you can set what you want to happen when you insert a disk into your computer. For example, by default, you might want iTunes to open each time you insert a blank CD, because you typically burn songs to a disk. Or maybe when you insert a photo CD you want Photoshop to open instead of iPhoto.
Keyboard ShortcutsThere are a whole slew of items and controls under Keyboard. In this area you can add, change, and delete keyboard shortcuts for nearly all the applications on your computer. Click Keyboard Shortcuts and then select Application Shortcuts. It's there you can select an existing application and change or delete corresponding shortcut keys. You can also add shortcut keys to menu items of any application. Read this article to find out more.
Limit Spotlight SearchesYou can do what is called a Spotlight search of everything that is saved on your Mac hard drive, but you might only want certain places to be searched. After clicking Spotlight in System Preferences, you can click off items that you don't want search results from, such as iCal events or fonts. You can also drag the order in which you want results to appear.
Active Screen CornersYou paid a hefty price for your Mac, so learn to use every inch of it. Click on Exposé & Spaces. Under the Exposé tab, you can assign a few actions to the four different corners of your computer screen. If, for example, you want to quickly put your computer to sleep without using a keyboard shortcut, you can arrange to activate it simply by putting your cursor in an assigned corner. You will also notice that there's another set of pull-down buttons for you to assign F-stop keys to perform various actions.
And by the way, if you don't use Dashboard anymore – very few of us do – you can use its assigned F12 key for something else. So click on the pull-down button and assign no key to it. Default Sound SettingsIf you're using a couple of sound outputs, for your external speakers and headphones, you can set the default for the level of sound. Click on Sound and then select Output. Select the sound device and then adjust output volume to your liking. For instance, you might want the headphone volume lower than the speaker volume. Now whenever you select a volume output device, it will be at the volume level you set.
In the next part of this article, we're going to go over a few advanced items in the Mac System Preferences. Let us know if you have any questions concerning this part of your Mac. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| iReader – Instant Clutter-free Reading on Chrome & Firefox Posted: 11 Aug 2010 09:31 AM PDT
It’s with this in mind that I recently profiled Readability, something I called a way to quickly and easily add Safari’s ‘Reader’ Function to Chrome and Firefox. You, the readers, seemed to generally like the way Readability cut through the crap and gave you only the article you wanted. You pointed out, however, that you wished the service could restore the page to normal more easily and also load multiple pages at once. Well, I found an extension that does both those things.
Using iReaderSay you found an interesting article on a cluttered page. In circumstances like this iReader will appear in your address bar in the form of a simple icon. Click this icon and your article will be isolated from the clutter and presented to you on a clean white slate. Like this:
It really doesn’t need to be more complicated than that: a cluttered page turns into an isolated article. There are a few more features, however, for those who like a little complexity. Features
Hover over the button bit of the article and you’ll see this bar. From here you can:
You can also configure iReader, if you want.
Options include setting the opacity of the blackness that covers the clutter, whether you want to email articles from Gmail or your system-wide default email application, how you want the article to look and even whether you want to enable smooth scrolling. As you configure the look of iReader a handy preview page will show you what your changes will look like, allowing you to customize your reading to your heart’s content. Find the ExtensionWant to get started with iReader? Download iReader for Chrome and Firefox, being sure to enable installation from that source when prompted to. ConclusionLike I said, once you install the extension you’ll find the readability icon appearing on any website featuring an article. Simply click it and iReader will take care of the rest. I’ve noticed that, on some particularly cluttered sites, that this can take a while. Rest assured: it’s worth it. I’ve been using iReader instead of Readability since I discovered it. What do you think? Is one product better than the other, and if so why? Is the entire idea of a reader plugin for a browser useless? I know you have an opinion and a keyboard, so put them together. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| Let Your Friends Know When You’re Nearby Privately With Face2face Posted: 11 Aug 2010 08:31 AM PDT
face2face is a location-aware smartphone app that solves the problems of privacy and safety that have become synonymous with social networking. By using general proximity – never the precise location – face2face keeps you connected but private. It shares only information between friends who are near each other and no one else.
Starting Out With face2faceThe first step is downloading the app on face2face’s website. This application supports multiple mobile devices. You can download the face2face app on the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, with a j2me version coming soon for Java devices.
You start off by signing into your social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or LinkedIn. This allows the application to gather the friends and connections you would want to locate or share your connection with.
After you’ve logged in and linked your accounts, you can view your social profiles, list of friends, and status updates. On the main screen you have several options, including inviting/requesting friends, searching who’s nearby, viewing notifications and feeds, and sending instant messages. The face2face application tells you when your friend is around the corner, but they don’t tell you what coffee shop they’re in. “We make coincidences happen”, says the face2face team, “finding the connections you'd otherwise miss, without sacrificing privacy”. Locating & Connecting With FriendsMost location services are too open. They’re too quick to share information, and the more you use them, the more you’re putting yourself out there. By using proximity instead of precise location, you can locate your friends while remaining protected.
When you link your social networking accounts to face2face, all of your friends – and friends of friends (LinkedIn) – are added to your contact list. Once they are on your list, you can request their location or contact information like their phone number, or you can send them a message.
If you are near each other, you will be able to see each other on the app. When your friends can see you, you can always see them, so there is no “stalking”. With all of your networks in one place, you can chat with or meet friends across social platforms and different types of phones. ConclusionIn conclusion, face2face is one of the better geo-location apps out there when taking privacy into account. The face2face application allows you to maintain a socially active lifestyle and still be able to locate your contacts when they are close. If you enjoy accessing your social networks and are looking for a secure way to enhance that experience on your phone, face2face might be for you. Privacy is always a big concern with applications that broadcast your position over GPS. The costs sometimes outweigh the benefits when you’re comparing letting your friends see your location versus the rest of the world being able to see it. The proximity feature is what makes face2face attractive to me, as it allows you to bump into your friends when you’re out with a little ‘help’ in finding them. What do you think about location-based apps and privacy? Is face2face a step in the right direction, or are apps like Foursquare getting better at maintaining privacy? Leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below! NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
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