MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [August 23rd]” plus 10 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [August 23rd]
- MakeUseOf Team Spotlight [August 23rd 2010]
- 5 Free Operating Systems You Maybe Never Realized Existed
- How To Make Your Own Subtitles With Any Text Editor & Aegisub
- Hot Tech Deals [Aug 23rd]
- Get An Invite To The New Digg Here!
- How To Shoot Your Own Promotional Marketing Video From Start To Finish
- 10 Best Websites For Free Audio Books
- 7 Twitter Archetypes You Just Love To Hate
- What Is An API & What Are They Good For? [Technology Explained]
- Surf the Web Anonymously With IP Privacy [MakeUseOf Giveaway]
| Cool Websites and Tools [August 23rd] Posted: 23 Aug 2010 09:00 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.
    
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| MakeUseOf Team Spotlight [August 23rd 2010] Posted: 23 Aug 2010 08:00 PM PDT
In this edition of Spotlight, we will be profiling the work of Evan, Steve, Jackson and Angela. 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 Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| 5 Free Operating Systems You Maybe Never Realized Existed Posted: 23 Aug 2010 07:45 PM PDT
Even if you're firmly based in the Microsoft or Apple camp, taking a walk on the wild side and installing a secondary computer operating system can still be worth the effort. After all, variety is the spice of life. Here are just a few of the lesser-known free options that might just be worth a go, if you're that way inclined. FreespireAnother Linux-based operating system, Freespire uses the popular Ubuntu (version 7.04) at its core and stamps its own mark on the open source OS. With the popular KDE suite at hand, users of Windows and Mac OS will feel right at home finding their way around.
Freespire adds the power of the CNR Plugin, allowing fast and easy one-click installs of popular software suites including some commercial ventures. There are enhanced "modified" versions of programs you're probably already using (like Firefox and Thunderbird) to make life on the free side that little bit sweeter. This freeware open source effort also comes complete with on-demand proprietary codecs (including one for Windows Media files) and a whole host of proprietary drivers for your wireless, graphics card and more. For a powerful, ready-to-go Linux distribution with a difference Freespire does the job quite nicely. Google's ChromiumIf you only use your netbook for the net (which probably makes sense) then Google's Chromium might be just what you need. The lightning fast startup time means you'll be checking email, social media and wasting time online before Windows has even reached its login screen. Best of all you can run it straight from a USB stick, making it ultra-portable between PCs. We’ve shown you how, right here.
The current official builds can be a bit of a hassle to get going on a lot of computers, but a nice guy by the name of Hexxeh has compiled his own build called Flow which adds vastly improved hardware support. Check out our how-to for a complete set of instructions. That old laptop sitting in a cupboard might find a new lease of life with the help of Chromium and its web apps. PC-BSDMany of you will have heard of BSD, one of the many UNIX-based operating systems floating around the web. Often favoured for its secure and reliable nature, the team at PC-BSD have aimed high and developed a user-friendly version aimed at the "casual" user. The idea behind PC-BSD is to provide users with a complete desktop operating system that doesn't require resource-intensive protection against viruses and spyware. In today's computing world, many of us dream of such a charm.
The release runs FreeBSD at its core, and expands on this with unparalleled ease-of-use. Self-installing software packages make adding extras a breeze, and the desktop can be sexed-up with fancy 3D effects and transitions. The team behind this OS just wants you to enjoy more of the time you spend at your PC, and less time worrying about it. HaikuInspired by BeOS (and implementing certain features and bits of code from the old operating system) Haiku is an open source operating system aimed at personal computing. This makes it extremely user-friendly, as the primary audience are average users like you or me, looking for a way to get our daily computer needs tended to.
What makes Haiku different to other UNIX-based operating systems (specifically Linux) is its vision to provide a unified experience, rather than using multiple layers of software that can often over-complicate the computer operating system. Haiku does not use the Linux kernel but a custom-built one which has been designed for responsiveness. Couple this with a threaded design for increased performance on multi-core processors, and the whole package begins to look quite appealing. JolicloudNetbook owners listen up! This might be the one you've been waiting for. A simple operating system, aimed at armchair surfers who live for the web.
Incorporating a quick and easy one-click-install method for over 700 of the web's most popular services, Jolicloud enables you to surf, chat, listen, watch and connect from a clean and attractive interface. Plus with Jolicloud's Stream feature staying in contact and sharing fascinating finds with your social networks is easy. You can synchronize your Jolicloud across as many devices as you like, and if you've not got your netbook with you simply log in with a HTML5-compliant browser to manage your account. Jolicloud might just be what your netbook's been missing, check out our full article here. ConclusionYou're not going to get the compatibility of a Windows or Mac OS install with many of the above, but if you don't really need everything under the sun running on your machine then one of these (or even a few of these) might be for you. Even if you do use another primary OS, try partitioning or one of the many Live CD/USB releases. You might be surprised! Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| How To Make Your Own Subtitles With Any Text Editor & Aegisub Posted: 23 Aug 2010 02:31 PM PDT
It’s actually not that hard to manually put subtitles into your videos. It often just takes a bit of time, but soon enough, you’ll be able to translate videos to improve accessibility (especially when subtitles in your language aren’t available on the Web), or when you just want to be funny (like some of the English-subtitled Hitler spoofs on the iPad).
Making Basic Subtitles In A Text EditorFor this article, we’ll be using the built-in Notepad text editor in Windows to make basic subtitles with no additional color or font customization. Open Notepad and save your file with the .srt extension and is in UTF-8 (especially if you’re inputting special characters).
We will go over how to create subtitles in the SubRip (.srt) format, which follows this easy-to-learn pattern:
After you’re done, you can view the subtitles in any major media player as long as your video and the subtitle have the same names but different file extensions of course and are located in the same folder. This is known as softsubbing, which leaves the raw video file intact.
You can also upload the srt files to your videos already on Youtube as captions.
Making Better-Looking Subtitles In AegisubMaybe you’re interested in more professional-looking subtitles or captions. In the world of open-source anything, Aegisub is a cross-platform subtitle editor that’s chock-full of advanced features for just this task. Available as a portable application, the program provides seemingly endless options to customize the font, size, color and position of the subtitles. It also lets you more easily visualize where you might put the subtitles.
That’s pretty much it. Be warned: Subtitling a whole clip can be very time-consuming. Once you’re done though, it can be rewarding to see your subtitled video in :
Of course, if you’d rather just download these and watch them with your videos, there are some very useful subtitle search engines, as well as automatic subtitle-searching-and-downloading software, such as Sublight (for Windows) and FileBot (cross-platform and open-source). Do you usually add your own subtitles or do you just prefer to download them? Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| Posted: 23 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 NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
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| Get An Invite To The New Digg Here! Posted: 23 Aug 2010 12:35 PM PDT
Everyone is talking about the new Digg these days. As mentioned on TechCrunch, the “beta invites for it are so sought-after that even Bill Cosby had to personally ask founder Kevin Rose for one on Twitter the other day”. So here’s how you can get an invite: Step 1 :Digg only gives out 5 invites per person so some of us here at MakeUseOf has got together and pooled together their invites just for you. Remember, each link only allows in 5 people. So you have to be quick! When you enter the new Digg for the first time, you are asked who you would like to follow (you can do this later and skip it for now). Or select something and click Next. Step 2 :Once you got in, please share your invites link in the comments below with everyone else. Below we have only 45 invites, the rest will hopefully come from you.
Step 3 :Go to http://new.digg.com/makeuseof and make sure to follow MakeUseOf.com
Invite links:
Looking forward to see your invite links in the comments! Newest comments appear first. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| How To Shoot Your Own Promotional Marketing Video From Start To Finish Posted: 23 Aug 2010 12:30 PM PDT
Now, Internet videos are a useful tool businesses. While the idea of using video as a marketing tool is not new, in the age of YouTube most people are now accustomed to seeing ordinary people talk about themselves — sharing their knowledge and expertise, or creating their own short form ”reality TV” show. The benefit of these self-promotions is that potential customers get to hear from you — the business owner — not an attractive/distracting actor/model. You could also use this same technique for announcing new products and services. A promotional video is great for nearly any type of business owner; including attorneys, accountants, web designers, physicians, realtors, dentists, mechanics, restaurant owners, and contractors.
How To Create a Promotional VideoIf you have a video camera, a tripod, and access to some editing software, such as iMovie for Mac or Movie Maker 2 for Windows, you can create a video yourself or find someone in your local area with the equipment and knowledge to help you do it. Step 1: Prepare and ScriptThe contents of a 1-2 minute promotional video should be very clear and direct. If you as a business owner regularly attend networking socials or meetings where you are asked to explain your business in one minute or less, then you probably have what is needed to write a script. So basically you might write a script that includes:
Even if you can talk about your business without a written script, it's a good idea to write it just so that you can tighten it up and see how long it will be when speak in front of the camera. Tip: About 140 to 150 typed words equals a minute’s worth of speaking. Step 2: Cutaway ShotsYou can easily create a promotional video in which viewers only see you talking, but an even better video includes what is called cutaway shots. These brief shots illustrate what you're talking about in presentation. So if you're a web designer, you might include cutaway shots of samples of your work, and/or you working at your computer. After you complete your script, look for places where you can incorporate, if possible, cutaway shots. These shots will be taken after you record your presentation. They are later edited into your video (step 4). Step 3: Shooting Your PresentationAs someone who has shot lots of videos, I can guarantee you that your video will look a lot better if you put the camera on a tripod. You have no doubt seen those horrible videos on YouTube where the camera is constantly moving, making the content very difficult to watch. Secondly, it's a good idea that your video be shot in a well-lit room. You don't need expensive lighting equipment. Just make sure the white balance of your camera is set correctly and they room is well-lit. Read your camera's manual about the white balance settings. Some cameras will attempt make these settings automatically.
If need be, you might want to write your script on a large poster board and have someone hold it up for you to read from. Of course, you should read the script over several times for timing and clarity. If you have an iPad, you can download a free teleprompter app called iPrompt Pro [iTunes App Store link]. Copy and paste your script into the app and you're good to go.
For a self-promotion video, an on-camera mic might work okay. But a dedicated lapel mic works better. More importantly, make sure you're shooting in a quiet place — no fan blowing, computers humming or people talking in the background. When you're done shooting your presentation, watch it while it's still in the camera. Typically, you will need to reshoot the presentation a couple of times before you are satisfied — making sure the timing is right and that you voice is coming across clearly. Finally, shoot any cutaway shots to edit into your video. Shoot more than what you need. Each shot should be at least 10 seconds long. You can shorten it in the editing process. Experiment with panning and zooming in order to provide some movement in the shot. Step 4: Edit Your ProductionNow bring all your video into the editing software. Create an opening and/or closing title card that includes the name of your business, or perhaps start off with an enlarged image of your business card. Use a fade-in transition for the opening of your video, and a fade-out for the closing. When you're telling viewers how to contact to you, you can add a fade-out from you and then show a title card with the contact the information. This way viewers hear and see what you're saying.
Refer to the manual of the video editing software to find out how to add in cutaway shots. Also read our MakeUseOf article for more tips on shooting and editing video and additional tutorials posted on the net. Finally, if you have a copy of Apple's iLife suite (iMovie, Garageband, iPhoto, etc.), you can select background music from the Jingles folder found in iMovie '09.
Step 5: Post Your VideoNow for the easy part. Once your video promo is like you want it, post it on your website. Of course, posting your video on YouTube and embedding it in your website is a great way to get instant Flash support which can often make it easier to download, plus it means that your video can be viewed on mobile devices like the iPhone, and it will also be picked up by Google's search engine. If you produce your won promotional video, let us know about it with a link. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| 10 Best Websites For Free Audio Books Posted: 23 Aug 2010 11:31 AM PDT
With the explosion of personal media players like iPods and even mobile phones which can carry media files, even a routine walk can be turned into an education. Not all books are good for easy listening. Audio books on goal setting and motivation lend themselves well to listening while walking. That's not to say you can't enjoy an audio narration of a novel or even a bit of poetry.
The following ten audio book websites, of course. Booksshouldbefree
At this address you get free audio books in multiple genres and languages. You can check out the Top 100, drill through the genres, or use the Google search at the top to get the free audio book for download. Downloads are available in mp3 and iTunes format. The books are mostly classical literature and very well organized with reviews and a small preview. You can also check out the Wikipedia links on the book and the author. NewFiction
NewFiction.com is one of the better 'lookers' in the class of free audio book websites. Perhaps, because it's about 'iSoaps' or fictionalized stories delivered in episodes daily. Stories are voiced by trained dramatic actors for your aural appeal. You can subscribe to the 'iSoaps' and play episodes online, get it as a podcast, or download it to your PC or your portable device (iPod, cell phone etc). ThoughtAudio
ThoughtAudio is a neat little audio book website with a neat collection of classical works. You can listen to them online or download them in segments. You can also view the written text of some of the books as a PDF download. LibriVox
Our previous thorough review on LibriVox covers this audio book website. LibriVox is a repository of free audio books in the public domain. It is a volunteer driven site, where enthusiasts record freely available books and make them available as MP3 downloads or podcasts. You can also volunteer to be a reader, no qualifications other than an audible voice is necessary. You can search through the collection using the catalog search on the site. An advanced search option is also available. Podiobooks
Podiobooks is a similar episodic audio rendition of free audio books as podcasts. Like lot of podcasts, you can receive them as RSS feeds or download them directly. The number of categories is well covered from alternative history to chick lit and satire. The audio book site has about 434 titles in its stock. Open Culture
Audio books are just one of the sections covered on this site which focuses on educational media collected from other sites. You get to download free courses from universities in MP3 format, language lessons as podcasts, and a variety of other podcasts that cover subjects like technology, travel, music, science, and more. Learn Out Loud
LearnOutLoud.com is a well designed and large collection of audio books. Their catalog has 25,000 audio and video titles in a mixture of paid and free. You can click on the tab marked as Free Stuff to access the free audio books that are available for download with a right click. All usual genres are well represented. For instance, if you are into self development, you have 425 titles to choose from. All titles are rated and reviewed. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the ongoing effort to digitize and archive cultural works in the form of eBooks. It also works in co-operation with websites like LibriVox and AudioBooksForFree for creating audio books. As a result, you can browse through their comprehensive list of human and machine read audio books. You can go through the list alphabetically for author and title. Audio books are also available in a number of languages. But the quicker way would be to use the Advanced Search page. Storynory
A free audio book site especially for children is a nice little place for classic children stories like 'A Christmas Carol', fairy tales 'Aesop', educational stories that cover The Bible or history, and lots of other original stuff. You can download a free audio story every week. Librophile
The interface at first glance appears a bit off-the-wall. Then you realize that it's a search tool for eBooks. Librophile collects and displays eBooks mostly from LibriVox and Audible. Click on the Free button and then go through the listings. A mouseover over the thumbnail cover gives you a sketchy summary. You can download the free audio books as a ZIP file, play it in the browser, or check it out as a readable eBook. Clicking on a title takes you to the Audible or LibriVox website. Do you have any other free audio book site to add to the list? Personally, I have found audio books to be the best way to beat traffic jams. What about you? Image Credit: PlayfulLibrarian Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| 7 Twitter Archetypes You Just Love To Hate Posted: 23 Aug 2010 10:31 AM PDT
Twitter has been around long enough to attract all types, and with time archetypes emerge, and continue to repeat themselves. There are quite a few stereotypical Tweeters, the kind of which we could definitely use less of. This is just a short list of some of the tweeters out there that we love to hate. The NoobThe Noob has just signed up for Twitter and only has a few updates. Their first tweet is always something like Hmmm… New to twitter or Just trying to figure out this Twitter thing or So what's Twitter all about? In their defence, the first tweet is always the hardest. They can often be found asking for advice on how to use Twitter, but when you have no followers, no one's listening. And when you're new to Twitter, you don't know that no one but your followers listen to you, and when you're trying to get followers…. What was I saying?
The Narrator (On Steroids)The Narrator feels the need to inform you of every minute of their day, from the very first, Good Morning Twitterville, to a final Night Tweeps with every little detail of their day in between. These Tweeters aren't all that smart either. A few of these unfortunate souls have been known to geotag their tweets, so it really wouldn't be hard to track them down and bludgeon them with the laptop, phone or computer, or whatever else they're using to send out their updates. Not that we're encouraging that.
The Quiz TakerI don't know about you, but I don't care which character you are in Harry Potter, I'm not interested in what Michael Jackson song represents your current relationship, and I really don't want to know if you're a Twilight expert. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people on Twitter who seem to think that this is exactly the kind of information we want from them. They take quiz upon quiz and inform us of each and every answer.
The GamerThe same people who spend hours playing Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook, are on Twitter. Instead of playing Farmville, you'll find them playing Ninja Clash and Spymaster. They are the 21st Century's answer to Dungeons and Dragons, the difference being that they are trying to drag us down with them. Their updates consist of a long list of moves, attacks, and defeats in this virtual world that has pretty much replaced their real one.
The Trend WhoreThere are many variants of people on Twitter just desperate for some attention. The most obvious of these are the Trend Whores. They take a look at the trending topics and try to cram as many of them as possible into one Tweet, regardless of whether or not it makes sense. What they don't realise is that it's not going to gain them any popularity points as people are more likely to think they're spam bots, and block them into oblivion.
The HashtaggerEvery other word in a tweet is not meant to be a hashtag. But you're out of luck trying to convince Hashtaggers of this. Their updates are littered with hashtags, although that does make it easier to click any given link and escape their page . They want to turn up in every possible search on Twitter, and clearly think that every other word they say has some sort of importance.
An even more annoying variant of The Hashtaggers are the ones who repeat the same hashtag over and over in one tweet, and sometimes repeat that one tweet over and over ad infinitum. This is usually an attempt to get one word or another into the trending topics. The sad part is that they don't realise that Twitter doesn't actually count repeated hashtags in one tweet. These Tweeters are often very closely related to the next archetype, The Justin Bieber Fan.
The Justin Bieber FanThese are probably the most lethal of all Tweeters, because they will push you to the brink of insanity, making you want to find the nearest cliff, to fling yourself off of it. Their Twitter backgrounds are adorned with pictures of Justin Bieber and they tweet about nothing other than, you guessed it, Justin Bieber. They have clubs, and cliques, and are constantly battling to keep Justin Bieber in the trending topics. They send him @ replies, in the smallest hope that, maybe just maybe, he'll read what they wrote and fall madly in love with them. They, of course, would also settle for a simple Twitter reply, after which they can die happy tweens. Justin Bieber can also be easily substituted with the Jonas Brothers in most cases.
What other kinds of Twitter archetypes can you think of? 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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| What Is An API & What Are They Good For? [Technology Explained] Posted: 23 Aug 2010 09:31 AM PDT
The word to really pay attention to is “Interface”. If you have any experience at all with programming, all kinds of abstractions and contracts must be coming to your mind when you hear the word “interface” but we are more interested in the classical meaning of the term. An interface is a common boundary between two separate systems. It is the means or the medium via which these two systems communicate. DefinitionAn API is the interface implemented by an application which allows other applications to communicate with it. Why Is It Needed?In one word – communication. You might ask why communication is so important. Just imagine Notepad couldn’t copy-paste to and from Microsoft Word or Google Chrome. Imagine having to type each and every time although the text is already there in some other application. This is only one of the examples of communication between applications and all this communication is made possible via APIs. What Is It Really?You cannot run an API like you would run say a Notepad application. This is because APIs are generally invisible to the end users like you and me. APIs are carefully thought out pieces of code created by programmers for their applications that allow other applications to interact with their application. APIs are specially crafted to expose only chosen functionality and/or data while safeguarding other parts of the application which provides the interface. Creating an API is indeed time well spent, because ultimately the more applications that interact with your application the more popular it becomes.
An excellent example is Twitter. Most people prefer their favorite Twitter client instead of the web interface. You can interact with Twitter whether you are using a mobile phone, a smart phone, an iPod or a computer. This has been made possible by the excellent Twitter API. What Is It Good For?As we have seen, APIs facilitate communication allowing different applications to communicate effectively with each other. So these are really well suited for extending a platform and for mashups. We have already seen Twitter as an example of how APIs are useful in extending a platform. When you combine data or functionality from more than one application to create another application, you have essentially created a mashup. Such mashups are extremely popular on the Internet these days. The Internet thrives on communication so it is an ideal place to take advantage of APIs. It is a common practice to expose part of your functionality or data as an API to others on the Web. They can then tap into what you offer, combine it with what they (or someone else) offers and then provide improved and added functionality to their users.
Yelp for example has data on restaurants, hotels, shopping destinations and other local services but it would be a wasteful and tedious job if they set out to create their own Maps engine to let users know where the various destinations are. So instead they tap into the Google Maps API and plot their data on top of it, thereby increasing the utility of their service to the end user. This is a typical use of an API. Popular APIs You Can Use Or TryAPIs are all over the place. The most popular ones are the Web APIs like Google Maps API, Twitter API and the Flickr API. These are not the only ones though. You can find a complete, classified and searchable directory of APIs at Programmable Web and WebMashup. Here you can see the level of interest in an API, what services are provided by the API and which services are making use of the API. How you actually use an API depends upon your needs and your level of expertise. You might want to create the next big thing on the Internet, in which case you would most likely need to program for the Web using languages such as PHP, ASP.NET, Java or Python. A good starting point is to visit the official API page for the service you choose. Look for libraries others have written in the language of your choice. Usually these libraries make your job a lot easier and faster. Twitter for example mentions a number of these libraries on its API wiki. You can also find tutorials, official documentation and best practices on these pages. APIs have existed in one form or another for a very long time. The first communication between cooperating applications may or may not have been through an officially documented API, but nowadays they are an important component of your application especially if yours is a Web application. Have you ever created or used an API? We would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.
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| Surf the Web Anonymously With IP Privacy [MakeUseOf Giveaway] Posted: 23 Aug 2010 08:30 AM PDT
The solution to this is to use a proxy web server. A proxy server acts as a barrier between you and the Internet. When you send a request for information – say, you visit Makeuseof.com – that request first goes to the proxy server and is then routed to the final located. This disguises your IP address. The only problem is that using a proxy can be a real pain in the butt for users who are not very familiar with how they work. That's where IP Privacy comes in. Today, we’ll be offering 10 licenses for IP Privacy worth $399.50 in total. We’ve also got a 40% discount code available, just in case you don’t win a copy.
IP Privacy is a utility that enables one-click proxy web surfing. When you first open the program, you will be greeted with the main screen, on which there are two big buttons. For now, we are only going to touch on the top button, labeled Enable Online Anonimity. Above that button you will find a drop-down list. This, when opened, shows a list of proxy servers that IP Privacy has made available for you. Selecting a server will open a testing window. Press the Start button to begin testing the proxy server – it should only take a second. If the test is successful press Done, if it is not successful press Cancel and select a different proxy.
By pressing the Start button you have already enabled anonymous online surfing. Websites will no longer see you by your real IP address but will instead see you by the IP address of the proxy server. You can of course turn your anonymous surfing on or off by pressing the big Enable/Disable Online Anonimity button.
Now let's talk about the second big button labeled Enable Privacy. Pressing this button enables global privacy settings for your computer's web browsers. No matter what web browser you use, your privacy settings will apply. By default, the privacy settings block invasive Javascript that might be used to collect information from your computer. The settings can also be adjusted so that ActiveX is blocked.
Finally, IP Privacy has global web browser history settings. You can delete information from your web browser's history including Internet history, typed URLs, temporary Internet files, Internet cookies, autocomplete forms, autocomplete passwords, and favorites. The history will be deleted at user-specified intervals. The default setting is every five minutes, but you can adjust it as you desire.
IP Privacy is an excellent privacy utility for any Windows computer. It takes a task that is hard for the typical user and makes it very simple to achieve. IP Privacy has a 3-day fully functional trial that you can use to demo the program – but of course, Makeuseof has a few copies to give away! How do I win a copy?It’s simple, just follow the instructions.
This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, 27th August at 2100hrs PST. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email. We’ve also been graciously provided with a 40% discount code IPPrivacy40. Use this code during checkout in order to purchase IP Privacy at $23.97. Or you can click on this link to have the entire process performed automatically. Spread the word to your friends and have fun! MakeUseOf would like to thank Privacy Pro for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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What does the acronym API stand for? API means Application Programming Interface and they say that APIs are the underlying aspect of Web 2.0. But what does it really mean – what is an api? Let’s try to demystify the term a little.
Online privacy is a hot-button topic. There are numerous services that we use every day that keep track of our IP address. Unless you use dial-up Internet, your IP address is like your real, physical address. It is a 
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