MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [December 21st]” plus 12 more |
- Cool Websites and Tools [December 21st]
- The 10 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Sqworl – Visually Bookmark Links To Multiple Websites
- Explore Weird & Wonderful Lists At Snagsta
- AnyBizSoft PDF Converter for Mac and Anokimobi ecoskin Giveaway Winners
- Hot Tech Deals [Dec 21st]
- NTFS Undelete – The Rescue Act When You Want To Recover A Deleted File [Windows]
- DailyBooth Launches New iPhone App [News]
- How To Upload Files To The Awesome Box.Net Directly from Windows Explorer
- Thematic Theme Framework: A Powerful Alternative For A WordPress Makeover
- 5 Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas In Case You Get Stuck
- 15 MORE Free Guides That Really Teach You USEFUL Stuff
- Access Apps & Documents on Your Mac Quickly with XMenu
Cool Websites and Tools [December 21st] Posted: 21 Dec 2010 07:31 PM PST
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. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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The 10 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 21 Dec 2010 05:31 PM PST This week we have a lot of unanswered questions. Please have a look and see whether you can contribute a little bit of knowledge. It’s the time of giving after all. Your best effort shall not go unrecognized. The Best Answer of the Week is rewarded with the honor of having your name mentioned right here and a cash prize of $50 claimable via PayPal or Amazon voucher. All we need is a way to contact our winner, so don’t be anonymous. And these are the challenging questions you can help us with today:
MakeUseOf Answers can be sorted by Latest Questions, Most Popular Questions, or Unanswered Questions. For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers. NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
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Sqworl – Visually Bookmark Links To Multiple Websites Posted: 21 Dec 2010 03:31 PM PST There is, and it’s called Sqworl. The example I used above is just one of many different uses you could find for Sqworl, which lets you combine multiple site URLs into a single link. Angela also recently discussed a similar service called BridgeURL. In this article, I’ll show you Sqworl and how to use it in general. How Does Sqworl Work?To start using Sqworl, the first thing I recommend you do is head over to the homepage and click register. You’ll be taken to a simple signup page where you can choose a username and create a password. Do that and click Sign Up and you’re all set. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be taken to your homepage. Since you’re new to Sqworl, you won’t have any Groups yet. Groups are collections of links you’ve bookmarked. Since Sqworl lets you see everything you’ve saved or shared with others, you will probably revisit this page in the future. To create a Group, click on the link that says “Add some, plz!” and you’ll be taken to Sqworl’s Add page. Once there, you’re prompted for the title and description of the Group you would like to create. You can fill in whatever you like here, but it would be best to use this space to describe the group of links you are going to bookmark so you can easily find them later. What are all those links about? What do they have in common? Click start and you can begin adding links to the Group. Just paste in the URLs one by one and add an optional description for each. Click the add button after each one to add it to your Group. When you’re done adding links, you can use a single public URL to share them all at once or bookmark them easily. When you share your link, others will be taken to a page where they can see thumbnails of all the sites you added to the Group. Clicking on a thumbnail will take you to the site, just as if you shared a URL with the person. To view the example “Sports Sites” link I created, check it out: http://sqworl.com/8wbtdb Other Uses For SqworlAre you starting to get an idea of how you could use Sqworl? Like I said, it has many potential uses. You could use Sqworl to make a personalized homepage for yourself, take notes when comparing items, create a step-by-step tutorial for others, and much more. ConclusionTo make things even easier, Sqworl also has a Bookmarklet that will allow you to add the URL you’re currently viewing to one of your Sqworl groups without leaving the webpage. It even lets you create a new group on the spot. Also, if you have an iPhone you can check out Sqworl mobile. Sqworl is one of the most simple, yet effective tools I’ve come across in a long while. It’s very easy to use and it makes sharing links and visual bookmarking a better experience. What do you think of Sqworl? What will you be using it for? Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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Explore Weird & Wonderful Lists At Snagsta Posted: 21 Dec 2010 01:31 PM PST What results is that you find all sorts of wonderful and weird lists including tourism advice, motivation tips, startup advice, book lists, movie lists and much more. There’s always new lists to check out, so it’s definitely somewhere you could head back to on a regular basis just to get a little more inspiration. Signing up at Snagsta only takes a moment, regardless of whether you create a log in or use Facebook Connect to log in. You’ll be ready to go in no time at all. Exploring ListsBrowsing the lists can be done by categories listed at the bottom of all Snagsta pages, including some “best of” categories to let you quickly browse the popular lists. When browsing lists, ensure you let Snagsta know if you like it. This will allow Snagsta to recommend better lists to you and to everyone else using Snagsta. Once you’ve liked three lists the recommendations will start. You can find them whenever you like by clicking Me > Recommendations. Make Your Own ListsCreating a list is straightforward – the “Create List” link is at the top of all Snagsta pages. Once you get to that page, it’s easy to see what you need to do. If you choose the bells and whistles option, you can add photos, video or links to each list item, making your list more interesting for everyone. Take a look around for list ideas — there’s plenty of unusual ideas out there. Also check out Paul Graham and Leo Babauta‘s profiles for an idea how these big names use Snagsta. Finding FriendsIf you ask Snagsta, friends are key to the Snagsta experience, since these lists give you recommendations for all sorts of things, not limited recommending just music or book collections like most other social networks. Personally, I think Snagsta is the sort of website where it doesn’t really matter if your friends use it or not, since you can easily explore community lists and share your favourite lists with social networking sites or email. There is an option to find your friends, but it asks for you to enter your email password — I thought most startups these days knew better than that! What Could Snagsta Do Better?It would be great to see :
Listography and Listverse are similar listing services (and there are plenty more listing services), both of which seem to be using the lists people generate to write books on lists — maybe that’s somewhere in the future for Snagsta, too. Have a play!If you’re looking for travel suggestions, new books to read or just some inspiration, Snagsta can supply it. If you have any great ideas on how to use Snagsta, let us know in the comments! Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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AnyBizSoft PDF Converter for Mac and Anokimobi ecoskin Giveaway Winners Posted: 21 Dec 2010 01:00 PM PST AnyBizSoft PDF Converter for Mac
Anokimobi ecoskin case for iPhone 4
Congratulations! MakeUseOf would like to thank Tom Tranter and AnyBizSoft 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. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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Posted: 21 Dec 2010 12:15 PM PST 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 Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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NTFS Undelete – The Rescue Act When You Want To Recover A Deleted File [Windows] Posted: 21 Dec 2010 11:31 AM PST Of course, NTFS Undelete is not a one of a kind file recovery tool. We have covered a bunch of them and you can find them under the file recovery and undelete tags. Recovering files and undoing the delete process is more common than we would like to think. When we delete a file, there's the Recycle Bin as a parachute and also the CTRL+Z keys. But an undelete utility is for the 'ooops' moments when you throw caution to the winds and banish an essential file to digital limbo.
Small Size & Three Download OptionsNTFS Undelete (ver. 0.94) is a small 2MB download in the ZIP archive format. You can also download it as a Windows installer or as an ISO image. You can go with the ZIP download, because then you can run it straight from a standalone folder without an installation. Though, I had some problems with the ZIP version on my system. NTFS Undelete runs on Win XP and Vista. The Plain Jane LookNTFS Undelete is a utilitarian software; a straightforward interface with three tabs. There's no help file, so it's best that the software is without any frills. We will look into the tabs when we put this little software through its paces. Recover Beyond the Recycle BinNTFS Undelete, as its name suggests, works on Windows NTFS systems and can recover files even if they are gone from the Recycle Bin. It will work best if you run NTFS Undelete as soon as you have emptied the Recycle Bin. When a file is deleted, it is removed from the bin, but physically it still exists on the NTFS file system. Only the space it occupied is marked as free for other files to occupy it. The success of recovery is increased if no other file overwrites that original space. The Rescue ActI started my hunt for some wallpapers, mp3′s, and a movie file I deleted by mistake. The Browse tab can be used to select the drive or the original folder from where the file was killed off. First, bring up the Search tab. NTFS Undelete gives you a Simple search and an Advanced search. As you will see, the Simple search is like casting a wide net for the lost file while the Advanced search lets you finetune the hunt with options. If you have the right information, the latter can save you some time. The one thing you should always use is the File Mask as it will help to scour for only that particular file type and not the whole lost tribe. Use the right-click menu to select and mark the files you want to recover and go to the next tab. The Recover marked files is where you need to hold your breath. Set a destination folder for the 'undeleted' files as NTFS Undelete recommends not recovering files to the same partition they were located. If you want to recover a bunch of files and aren't concerned about the folder, uncheck Recover Folder Structure. Clicking on Recover to bring the dead and gone files back. Head to the destination folder and with some luck you will get the files back along with some identifier files that you need not pay any attention to. In The Spirit of Open SourceNTFS Undelete is Open Source software written in Python, so coders can have a go at it. I am not sure whether the freeware is being developed further as there is no information on its page. Sigh Of Relief Or….?Success or failure with file recovery software depends on the bits and bytes of the deleted that have been overwritten by successive files. NTFS Undelete scanned pretty fast and managed to recover freshly deleted files competently. A few more filters or at least a search field to search a file by name would have helped. The lack of help may set off less experienced users as it's difficult to make out from the list of files which ones can be successfully recovered. Color coding or the use of icons would have been a visual aid. But hey, I am not complaining because when it comes to recovering my deleted file, I am willing to sweat it out for the moment it takes NTFS Undelete to get it back for me. We have included three file recovery tools in our list of The Best Of: Windows Software. You should always have one close by. Do you think NTFS Undelete deserves a space? Let us know. Image: Shutterstock Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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DailyBooth Launches New iPhone App [News] Posted: 21 Dec 2010 10:33 AM PST You may have gathered from that article that DailyBooth has an iPhone app, but what you may not know is that they recently released a complete redesign of it. Allow me to take you inside the news and show you what’s different about version 2.0 of DailyBooth for the iPhone. What’s New With DailyBooth?This brand-new release of DailyBooth’s official app has been rebuilt from the ground up. It is said to be faster and more responsive, and it also includes a bevy of new features that make it more like the website edition, like full profile details and messaging. Here’s what’s new in version 2.0:
"We've started over and built this from the ground up," said CEO Brian Pokorny. "In addition to the iPhone, the app will be great for all of the new iPod Touch (devices) launched a few months ago that all have a front facing camera," he added. The company is planning on releasing an Android app soon. Source: GigaOM Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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How To Upload Files To The Awesome Box.Net Directly from Windows Explorer Posted: 21 Dec 2010 10:31 AM PST There’s a myriad of reasons why you should re-discover the service if you don’t use it already as updates are constantly pushed and it would be a great alternative to sites like Drop.io. For those that appreciate WebDAV access or at least, an easier way to upload files from your desktop’s file manager, here are the simple steps to view your Box.net files in Windows Explorer. Easily Upload Files Via Windows ExplorerNote: Tested in several Windows Vista machines. WinXP users can see Techie Buzz’s handy post. 1. Press the Win key + E or go to the Start menu, right-click on Computer and select Open. 2. Right-click on Computer again and select Add A Network Location, which will prompt the respective wizard. 3. Click Next on the welcoming screen. 4. Then select the second option, Choose a custom network location. Type the following: https://www.box.net/dav If for some reason, you have trouble, try the unsecured 5. If everything goes well, you’ll get a popup window asking you for your credentials. Type your username, which is the email you use to log in to Box.net, as well as your password. 6. Now you can type a name for you to easily identify this location, before clicking Next. 7. You can choose whether to or not to check the box to launch the network location on Windows Explorer after exiting the wizard. Click on Finish. On Ubuntu, make sure you log onto Box.net in your web browser before following the instructions on the How-To Geek blog. This might break at times because support for WebDav has stopped after similar posts were written but at this time, it looks like it works. You might also find Gladinet interesting if you are still having problems connecting, since it’s designed to help you map network drives for web apps. Why Use Box.Net?
Depending on what services from the OpenBox you add, you can have other office suites, like Zoho, at your disposal and still use Box.net for storage. The only downside to Box.net is that you can only upload files of up to 25MB for the free account, but most files I own are within the limits. Online storage services abound these days. You’ll find many Dropbox fans, as well as people that swear by Mozy, and Windows Live Skydrive. I’ve personally always used Skydrive to upload pictures by email when Flickr and Facebook just don’t cut it. What do you use to store files?
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Thematic Theme Framework: A Powerful Alternative For A WordPress Makeover Posted: 21 Dec 2010 09:31 AM PST These variations are also the reason people feel reluctant to switch themes. They might not find some of the features of the old theme in the new one. That’s why some people go with personalization. Those with money to burn can have their own theme developed, while the adventurous types (with the thinner wallets) might want to go the DIY path and try to generate a simple theme or modify one. The What & The WhyWhat is a theme framework? To get a clearer picture, let’s imagine it as a human body. You can put different clothing on it to change the appearance, but whatever wrapping you put on the skin will not change what the person can do. Those who have tried to build their own WordPress themes will quickly see the advantages of using a theme framework as the basis of their design. Instead of building everything from scratch and struggle to match the look and the functionalities by trial and error, the developers can just focus on the design knowing that they can easily turn on/off all the features already provided by the framework. Using a theme framework will reduce the workload and require less time to finish than trying to assemble all the pieces by yourself. The learning curve is also not as steep to common WordPress users as there is less technical stuff that users need to master. In terms of features, Thematic has a set that will put many premium themes to shame. Here are some of them:
Another advantage of using Thematic (or any other theme frameworks) is the child theme concept. A “child theme” is a term used for a theme which is developed around a theme framework, a.k.a “Parent theme“. If you want to design a WordPress theme using Thematic, you should modify only the child theme and never touch the parent. In the simplest definition, creating a new child theme around Thematic is simply creating and editing a new “style.css” file to define how your theme will look and override the parent theme. To be able to do that you need basic CSS and HTML knowledge, but no PHP coding is required. The easiest way to do this is by editing the basic child theme that comes with the Thematic installation. Granted, not everybody has the willingness (and/or the time) to build their own theme, even with Thematic standing at their back. But, if you think you are up to the job and want to know more about developing a child theme around Thematic, you might want to visit the Thematic Customization guide and WordPress Child Theme Basic to familiarize yourself with it. Meet The ChildrenYou can see how far developing a theme around Thematic could go by looking at the available ready-made child themes. One child theme that really blows my mind is “Gallery“, a theme designed to show off the portfolio of graphic artists. Similar to the basic child theme, other child themes are also very customizable. But you should pay attention to the license that comes with it as they are the creative results of someone else’s work. Not all the child themes can be freely modified. What you can do is use them as a source of inspiration to build your own theme later. To use a child theme (either the ready-made ones or your own creation/modification), you have to install both the child and parent in your WordPress blog. So the first thing that you have to do is download the Thematic framework and have the child theme that you want to use ready.
Looking at the child themes, it’s clear that the design possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination. It’s a great environment for theme designers to play in. Due to the limited choices of ready-made child themes, ordinary users who only want to use ready made themes without any plan to build their own might not want to go with Thematic. But for those who want to build their own full-featured WordPress theme easily, using Thematic is one of the best options that they can take. Let us know what you think of it. Image credit: Smashing Magazine Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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5 Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas In Case You Get Stuck Posted: 21 Dec 2010 09:01 AM PST This is the week of Christmas. Did you get the Christmas grocery shopping done? Is the house clean and ready to receive guests? Do you have all the gifts? Still need to wrap them up? Oops, is there something we forgot? Don’t stress! Remember that Christmas is not about consuming, it’s about love. You can express your love in many different ways. And since it’s all about love, the gifts don’t need to be fancy or expensive. Seriously. They should, however, show that you care. If you do, it will be easy to come up with a last minute gift idea. If you’re too stressed out to come up with a good gift idea, you have come to the right place. Let me share some suggestions and your creative juices will be flowing again in no time. Below are my five last minute Christmas gift ideas. Gift CardsA gift card may not be the greatest way in the world to show your appreciation, but in a way it’s honest. You cannot read someone else’s mind, you may not live close enough to organize something special for them, and you may not even have the time to come see them personally. Rather than sending a standard gift that will clutter up their home and consume their precious space and time, you let them choose something that they need or will enjoy. If you know where they love to shop, you can give a specific gift card. However, if you are not sure what they really like, if you would like to give something that isn’t mainstream, or if you want to conceal the amount you are giving, you need to find a unique gift card store. One example is Ribbon, which offers several gift card collections to choose from. The best is that the gift cards don’t have a $ value on them and neither do the gifts. Based on the gift card you pick, the receiver can choose gifts from a variety of items, without ever knowing how much you spent on the gift card. You can buy Ribbon gift cards from Amway or from sellers that have made the effort to create something more unique, for example Sam’s Smart Selections. Also check out GiftCardy for more unique gift card ideas. FoodDon’t buy processed food and gift it, that’s lame. Food is a great gift, however, if you made it yourself or chose it wisely. Bake cookies, prepare candy yourself, bring a cake, invite them to a self-cooked dinner, if they love to cook or bake themselves you can refill their spice collection, or simply share your most treasured recipes that you know they love. Do you need some ideas for recipes? We have the resources:
Personal CouponsEveryone has to complete chores that they don’t enjoy. You know what they are and you know which ones your friends and family dislike most. This Christmas you can gift relief. Be selfless, take the burden of unloved chores upon yourself, and create coupons for things like mowing the lawn, taking care of the laundry, cleaning the house, or washing the car. This is a gift you can be very creative with and share your skills. The best part is that this gift doesn’t cost anything, except for your time and consideration. Did you know that some of the most hated chores are doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, walking and cleaning up after the dog, cooking food, shoveling the driveway or raking leaves, fixing the computer, ironing, trimming trees and shrubs, and taking out the garbage? This should give you some practical ideas for personal coupons! Now that you know what to gift, how on earth can you make it look nice? Don’t fret, there are tons of free online tools and templates. Try these:
Time With YouFinally, the very best gift you can give a loved one is your time. Let them choose when they would like to spend time with you and in turn you get to choose how. Imagine what would make your friend or family member happy and think of creative ways to gift it to them. The possibilities are endless, but let me share some ideas. You could take them out for dinner at their favorite restaurant, go to a movie of their choice, attend a sports event with them, organize a weekend getaway, invite them to an all-inclusive-with-breakfast-in-bed-weekend, give a massage, or be their buddy for the first couple of workout classes they have wanted to start for ages. To create the vouchers, you can use the same tools listed under Personal Coupons. LoveThe greatest gift you can give is love. Don’t be edgy, don’t nag, don’t pull a face. Change your attitude, just relax, smile, be considerate, help around the house, smile some more, be generous, express your feelings, give (appropriate) compliments, cherish the moment, don’t expect anything, and appreciate everything you have. It will put your loved ones at ease and make their holidays more enjoyable. And you will enjoy yourself a lot more, too. Promise! Merry Christmas. Do you need more consumable gift ideas? Check out the following MakeUseOf articles:
Did you ever give a last minute gift? What have been some of your greatest gift ideas? Please share in the comments! Image credits: koya979, Ioannis Pantziaras, Volosina, Vitaly Korovin, lev dolgachov, Temych Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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15 MORE Free Guides That Really Teach You USEFUL Stuff Posted: 21 Dec 2010 08:01 AM PST During 2010, we’ve written a bunch of new PDF manuals for you, on all kinds of subjects, from Facebook privacy to Dropbox tips. After releasing 15 NEW manuals resulting in hundreds of thousands downloads we thought it was about time to look back and review them. If you’re a long time reader you probably know that we did a similar roundup last year. Enjoy! Downloads are free, no strings attached. Even if you’re not a MakeUseOf subscriber you may easily download a PDF of your choice with a click of a button. Please also do us a favor by sharing these manuals with your friends!
Lots of work went into those manuals. Every manual went through several people to make sure that it offers the best tips and tricks on topics. Please help us spread the word! Download, digg, stumble, retweet, and share them on Facebook! Image credit: Daz* Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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Access Apps & Documents on Your Mac Quickly with XMenu Posted: 21 Dec 2010 07:31 AM PST I have, however, found a solution – Xmenu. This decidedly un-Mac-like app adds menu icons to the upper right hand corner of the Mac menu bar. Let’s have a look at why this app has won me over. Quick & Easy AccessOne beef I have with Finder is ease of access. To maximize usable screen space on my Mac, I keep my dock hidden. If I want to open Finder I either need to go to the dock to open it, which involves mousing over it so it appears, or I need to Command-Tab and then select Finder. Xmenu, however, adds icons to the upper right hand part of the menu bar. These icons can display a number of folders including the Applications, Developer, Home and Documents folders. Once an icon is added, you simply need to click on it to open a display of the folder’s contents. This is readily accessible so long as your menu bar is visible (and it almost always is). This may seem like a minor complaint to resolve, but I’m sure some users share my desire to remain on-task at times. Xmenu is extremely quick, and doesn’t require that I open a new window over whatever I’m working on. For this, it has my love. Custom Folders & SnippetsAs mentioned, Xmenu comes with a number of default folder options. Xmenu will display everything that is in those folders. This can also become a bit unwieldy in certain situations, as you may have a lot of apps or documents that can be displayed. I know that I do. Fortunately, Xmenu has a solution to this. There is a user-defined folder, and the contents of it can be changed by adding files to the Library/Application Support/Xmenu folder. Adding files to this folder can provide you with a smaller selection of choices more closely related to the project you’re working on at the moment. Another cool features is the Snippets option. You can add files to Snippets by placing them into the Library/Application Support/XSnippets folder. As with the user-defined Xmenu folder, doing this will add the files to the appropriate Xmenu icon. However, clicking a Snippet doesn’t open the contents. Instead, the contents of the file are automatically copy-and-pasted into your currently open application. Snippets is very much like the copy-and-paste function, but you can store multiple bits of content in the XSnippets folder and paste them whenever you’d like. ConclusionXmenu won’t be for everyone. While I don’t like Finder much, I recognize that it is user-friendly in many ways. While quick, Xmenu isn’t as attractive or simple. It displays a large list of information from certain folders, and you have to do the rest. Do you have a favorite application that runs round Finder? Be sure to let us know in the comments. I enjoy Xmenu, but I’d also like to check out other alternatives. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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