MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [February 14th]” plus 7 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [February 14th]
- Most Useful Discovery Engines: Search for Similar Pages
- How To Unpin The Permanent Skype Icon From The Taskbar In Windows 7
- A Brief Guide To Nintendo DS Homebrew & Emulation [Part 1]
- Design Your Facebook Fan Page With Pagemodo’s WYSIWYG Editor
- Top 8 RSS Feeds For Motivational Quotes of the Day
- 6 Best Sites to View Maps of Airline Flight Paths + Bonus Mobile Apps
- Speed Up Your File And Torrent Downloads With Folx Pro for Mac [Giveaway]
| Cool Websites and Tools [February 14th] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 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. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
    
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| Most Useful Discovery Engines: Search for Similar Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:30 PM PST
But what if you don’t exactly know how to describe the concept or the topic you are interested in? What if you just want “something of the kind”? In this case, you need to try discovery search engines: these tools rank the Web by similarity (not by popularity). They allow you to discover more pages based on the one you found most relevant. Here are the three useful and advanced discovery search engine tools. Google’s Related: OperatorI have mentioned this neat search operator when listing google tricks when you don't know what to search for. I also reviewed the visualization tool based on this operator called TouchGraph which can be used as discovery tool as well.
The index:Obviously, the operator uses Google’s own database (which is huge). However, for most searches you run, you are most likely to see no more than 30-50 results (which looks as if Google generates only the fraction of possible results). The algorithm:The basic algorithm behind the search operator is co-citation, which, in simple words, works like this: if a web page A links to both page B and page C, the latter pages (B and C) are likely to be related. Of course, not everything is that easy and straightforward (it never is with Google) but the basic algorithm is like that. Google Search Results Support?Yes, you can access the list of related sites right from Google search results page by clicking the “Similar” link:
Drawbacks:It is hard to find faults with the mighty Google. The only drawback that comes to mind is that it is still Google and if you really need to test alternative user experience and get alternative results (ranked not by Google), you should try out other tools as well. Similar PagesSimilar Pages is a standalone tool that uses its own technology and claims to let users dig into the “hidden” parts of the web – those that you wouldn’t be able to find using Google only: whereas “ordinary” search engines rank results by popularity (preventing us thus from seeing less popular pages), SimilarPages rank pages by similarity.
The index:The tool uses their own database which is claimed to contain more than 3.2 billion pages. The FireFox addon is said to access 200 million sites. The algorithm:The tool uses “PageAffinity” that takes into account both the content of pages as well as the linking structure of the web to determine the level of similarity between web pages. Google Search Results Support?Yes, with their addon installed, you are able to view similar pages right within search results:
Drawbacks?The tool has worked surprisingly well and suggested really good matches but it seems to be somewhat biased to home pages. Similar SitesSimilarSites (and its FireFox addon Similar Web) works similarly to the above one. We have written a review of SimilarSites previously.
The index:The developers seem to be very secretive as to which technology they use and how many sites they crawl. All that I have been able to find out using the external sources is that they have mapped “millions” of sites, and “adding tens of thousands daily”. The algorithm:Like the above two tools, this seems to be using page content and linking structure but the unique part is that they also analyze users’ input (votes) as well as user browsing trends. Google Search Support?Yes, with their FireFox addon you access similar sites right from the Google search results (works only for site home pages that you come across when searching Google):
Drawbacks?As the name suggests (and as we have seen from the above screenshot), the tool works only on the domain level. So no matter what the current page is about, the tool will only find similar sites to the current site (home pages). In other words, if you were testing it on this page (which is about search discovery), the tool would list sites about generic web tools and desktop tools and hacks (which is MUO is generally about) Besides that, the tool inserts “sponsored” results throughout their search results (which are marked as sponsored but may still seem disturbing). Any other great discovery search engines you are aware of? Please share them in the comments! Image credit: VJ_fliks 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 Unpin The Permanent Skype Icon From The Taskbar In Windows 7 Posted: 14 Feb 2011 03:30 PM PST
Though I could go on about many features that turn out very useful in Windows 7, all of which you can see listed and explained in detail in the free Windows 7 PDF manual, the taskbar or superbar is perhaps the most noticeable change. With it comes many beautiful previews and jumplists, but I also have to mention one not-so-welcomes feature.
There are two ways to remove the Skype icon that doesn’t seem to leave the taskbar in Windows 7. The first method really depends on what version of Skype you might have, and is a bit easier to complete as it doesn’t require a Skype restart. Using Skype’s Built-in Option To Remove The Taskbar IconOpen Skype and in the menu bar, locate the Tools menu.
Under it, you’ll see Options. After you click on it, navigate to the Advanced tab and click on it.
You’ll see an option on the right of Advanced Settings, that says Keep Skype on the taskbar while I’m signed in.
Uncheck the box and click OK to go back to the main interface. The pinned program should have disappeared from the taskbar. If that doesn’t work, or you have a different version of Skype that doesn’t have the checkbox, read on. Changing Compatibility ModeLet’s say you have the latest version of Skype but still don’t see that Keep Skype on the taskbar option at all, try this. Type Skype in the Start search box, right-click on the program icon and click on Properties.
In the Properties box, select the Compatibility tab. Check the box that says Run this program in compatibility mode for box so you can select the previous OS with updates, which is Windows Vista (Service Pack 2).
Now click OK. Quit and restart Skype. You should only have the system tray icon for Skype, but if you still see the persistent taskbar Skype icon, try a different OS in the Skype Properties dialog box. Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) actually didn’t work for me, while choosing plain Windows Vista did the trick. Does the permanent icon on the taskbar annoy you? 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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| A Brief Guide To Nintendo DS Homebrew & Emulation [Part 1] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST
Homebrew software is the catch-all term given to fan-made games and tools for platforms that are not usually open to development. The Nintendo DS is no exception and has its own fair share of tools and software that vastly enhance the handheld’s capabilities. If you’re interested in emulation, media playback and the ability to play games from a memory stick then read on. What You’ll NeedIn order to put your DS on steroids, you’re going to need to make a small purchase. Nintendo DS homebrew applications must be launched using a custom game card (often called a flash card) that fits into SLOT-1 (your normal NDS cartridge slot) or SLOT-2 (the original DS GameBoy Advance slot, though these are now outdated and should be avoided). I’m not going to go into detail about which card you should buy – there are hundreds on the market already, each claiming to work a treat. As they’re cheap to produce and fairly easy to sell there are a vast number of clones available, which often take the name of more original products.
Wikipedia has an article listing a great number of these devices, with a few warnings about known clone cards. If you’re seriously thinking of using your DS for homebrew and backups then I’d recommend doing your research before committing to purchase. At the time of writing, there are a good number of cards that support the very latest Nintendo DS and DSi firmware, and this is important to check. When I bought a flash card, I emailed the retailer first just to make sure, though the seller should have just stated this on the product page. The more popular devices usually use flash memory (MicroSD is a popular choice, with SDHC compatibility boosting storage capacity greatly) in the form of a memory card that slots into the game card. Your game card should come with full setup instructions, and these will most likely involve downloading and transferring the latest available firmware onto the device’s memory via your PC. Playing BackupsYour brand new DS flash card can do a few wonderful things that Nintendo really aren’t pleased about (provided you bought a good one, and no cheap knock-offs). The first is the ability to run "backup games". Backup games (often just referred to as ROMs) are "dumped" DS cartridges in file format (usually .NDS) which you can transfer to your flash card and play straight from file. Whilst this is horrendously illegal if you don’t own the original cartridge (don’t say I didn’t warn you), it’s a very convenient and almost futuristic way of accessing your game library.
Who wants to carry round 15 cartridges and the console when you can stick everything on a flash card and leave it in the console? It’s worth pointing out that not every Nintendo DS ROM you load will work, but flash card firmware updates often resolve these issues. Oh, and no – I’m not going to tell you where to get your ROMs from. Don’t even ask. So go out and get your MicroSD card. I’ll tell you more about Nintendo DS homebrew apps and emulation on Wednesday. Do you have a flash card? What brand? Are you pleased? Tell us your suggestions 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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| Design Your Facebook Fan Page With Pagemodo’s WYSIWYG Editor Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:31 AM PST
Using the WYSISYG editor, you can add images and text, select your font, background colours and more. While there are drawbacks to using the free version of Pagemodo, it offers a great opportunity for startups or individuals, but for the serious entrepreneur, one of the paid packages will be more appropriate.
Once you’ve created your page, the next step takes place at Pagemodo.
Registering for a free account will of course require you to connect Pagemodo to your Facebook account, allowing access to your basic information, send you email, post to your wall and manage your pages.
With a free account, you can create one branded tab, which will feature a Pagemodo footer. There are several customisable templates to choose from, but any templates which include videos require one of the paid packages, starting at $9 per month for three tabs to $59 per month for 15 tabs. Of the paid packages, only the most expensive removes the “Powered by Pagemodo” branding from the top of the page, but with all paid packages, the footer is removed. For a truly professional appearance, the footer and branding may not be the ideal choice for some.
Amongst the templates, there are some, labeled Reveal Content, which require fans to click the like button before being able to view your videos and coupon codes, but this kind of practice could turn away more fans than it gains you. Once you’ve selected your template, click the customize button, and begin to add content.
The WYSIWYG editor couldn’t be easier to use. Each box is clearly labeled and numbered. You can upload images from your computer, or simply link to images hosted elsewhere.
When entering text, you can also select the background design and colour, and text formatting.
The preview pane makes it easy to see the changes as they are made.
When uploading images, you can scale and rotate them to fit the allotted space.
Once you’ve entered all images and text, you can then save the template for later or, if you’re ready to launch your page straight away, select the Free package, and click the install button.
You will then be redirected to Facebook where you can add the tab to your Facebook fan page.
If you want to make changes to the template at a later date, it’s as simple as going back to the WYSIWYG editor, making your changes, and updating it. While Pagemodo does offer a very easy method to create a welcome tab, one major drawback, due to Facebook’s settings, is that you cannot rearrange the tabs to place the Welcome tab before your Wall and Info tabs. The best you can do is click and drag the tab into the third slot behind them. What free services can you recommend for jazzing up your Facebook page? What do you think of Pagemodo? Let us know in the comments.
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| Top 8 RSS Feeds For Motivational Quotes of the Day Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:30 AM PST
Thanks to many motivational websites on the web, you are never in want of wisdom nuggets that are made available for free. You can go straight to websites like the ones we saw on the 10 Websites For A Daily Fix Of Sayings & Quotations. Or you can quite easily go to your favorite quotation website and see if it offers daily quotes by mail, Twitter, or RSS feeds.
Quotes Daddy
Quotes Daddy has over 1,000,000 quotes spanning relationships, inspiration, love, and even a section of user submitted quotes. You won't be able to read all of them in your lifetime, so it makes sense to receive one each day in your feed reader. The quotation website doesn't make it obvious but you can subscribe to its feed using the little red feed icon on top between the Signup and Home links. Or if you just want the ones tagged as 'inspirational' click the feed icon next to the quote headline. The Quotations Page
This one is a simple quote collection website without too many frills. Among all the quotes arranged by author and subject, there's the one which showcases Motivational Quotes of the Day. You can subscribe to the motivational quotes of the day using the link for the feed. What I like about this quotation website is the extra information it provides on the quote and its author. Quotations Book
The site says it has 43,000 quotes by over 7,000 people in over 1200 subjects. It has also indexed 20,000 books from Project Gutenberg to provide quotes in context as they occur in literature. You can browse quotes by tags, drill through using the alphabetical listing, or do a general search. The page on motivation has 79 quotes, but then inspirational quotes are usually spread across other subjects too. Quotes of the Day is sent out by two kinds of RSS feeds – plain quotes of the day and quotes of the day with pictures. The site also as Short Quotes of the Day feed which updates every 3 hours. Brainy Quote
Brainy Quotes commonly makes the list of quote websites. It features an extensive collection of quotations intermingled with a whole lot of features like trivia games. One of the unique categorizations it has is by type of author which lets you look at quotes by professions. Right at the foot of the page, you will find the link to the site's Quote Feeds which leads you straight to the Quote of the Day RSS feed. Quote Snack
Quote Snack is a little blog on quotes which goes into quotes a bit more deeply. Each quote is an individual blog entry which explains the quote and points to the context in which it was mentioned. Try out the blog with the RSS subscription link provided. Dictionary Quotes
The quote collection on this site is thanks to the sayings of the famous who have inspired us with words of wisdom. Though you can browse through the quotes by subject, they are mixed up each day. You can click on the RSS link to subscribe to the quotes. Too Many Quotes
TooManyQuotes.com is a community website where anybody can browse, search, submit, vote on, rate and make lists of quotes and quotations. Along with the usual categories, you also have quotes from movies, books, music, and TV shows. Every category has its own feed and you can get it by browsing to the categories page and clicking on the RSS feed icon. You Quoted
YouQuoted.com hopes to trigger motivation by providing a constant source of inspirational and go-getting quotes. All the quotes are carefully selected and also matched to pictures that help bring out the meaning. Feed subscription is recommended. Quotations help to provide a fresh spark to our jaded thinking. A lot of others have done the thinking job before us and put it in words. All that's left for us to do is to act on those wise words. That's why these motivational quotations deserve a special folder all of their own in your feed reader. Can you suggest a few more motivation quote websites that we can place in ours? Image credit: Shutterstock Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| 6 Best Sites to View Maps of Airline Flight Paths + Bonus Mobile Apps Posted: 14 Feb 2011 08:30 AM PST
The way I see it, you have two reasons to need to view maps of an airline flight path: You are waiting for a family member or friend to arrive at the airport safely – let’s call this informational only, or you are waiting at the airport/driving in to pick up that person. These are two totally separate uses and a website does not do you much good if all you have is a smartphone or even just a regular phone. The sites below are reviewed based on these two parameters: informational sites for casual viewing and must-have information for those traveling to the airport for pickups. FlightStats
FlightStats is my favorite website for tracking flight information on the web. It provides comprehensive flight information for all flights originating in the United States and also fairly comprehensive coverage for overseas flights in Europe. For other countries, the data you receive is hit or miss. The content it provides (on US flights) is comprehensive. You can see the flight path on a variety of maps, all powered by Google Maps. You can also overlay radar which is a nice feature that the other flight tracking sites do not provide. Flightstats.com does not have a free iPhone app; however there are some paid ones if you are interested in that (I list some great free alternatives below). They do have a suite of Android apps; including FlightStats for Android Lite which is free.
Finally, the killer feature that is unique to Flightstats is automatic notification via cell phone text or email when a flight is delayed or its status is updated at all (for example, when it arrives at the gate). This allows someone picking up a flyer to know when they get there without relying on a call; it also provides gate information. Flightview
Flightview offers much of the same information as Flightstats above. You get a live map (although not as pretty as Flightstats) time and delay information, and more. The website isn’t quite as polished but it is still very informative for the flight traveller.
The one area where Flightview really shines is mobile apps. They offer free mobile flight tracking apps for iPhone [iTunes link], Android, Blackberry and other platforms. Their mobile app for flight tracking is one of the highest rated in the iTunes app store and it is easy to see why: flights are easy to find, gate information and a maps at your fingertips. FlightwiseFlightwise, formerly our favorite named fboweb, has some compelling features you might want to look at. They are geared more towards the technical information about a flight so if you are an aviation enthusiast you might want to choose them over the other sites. They have a free iPhone app, but information like the arrival Gate is left out for the paid versions.
Flightwise offers one of the coolest visualizations of a flight on a map. One click and you can see the flight you are interested in, and nearby flights, in near-realtime 3D. This visualization is both interesting from a “cool” factor and also from an educational viewpoint. Elevation, speed and location are all mapped onto the earth in real-time, it doesn’t get much cooler than that! FlightArrivals
FlightArrivals has the information listed above, but also adds some interesting other visualizations of airlines. You can select an airport and see all of the flights out of that airport to other cities and countries. Flightaware
Flightaware has another neat visualization to add to the list above. In addition to receiving specific flight tracking for a commercial or private pilot flight, it also has a real-time map of US flights. Although it doesn’t display specific information for all of the flights, you can get a general idea as to the activity of the current airspace. They have historical information which is pretty neat to look at and watch. Flightaware also has a free iPhone app that will help you track and store flights. HelloFlight
HelloFlight offers some interesting maps of airline flight paths. On their site they show all current positions of SouthWest airplanes in flight, as well as providing tracking information for any other commercial US flight. They have a mobile site up at http://m.helloflight.com/ which would be handy if you are mobile and need to retrieve flight information. Whichever site you choose to use, you can get some really cool visualizations whether at home or on the go. Flight paths are available both for commercial airlines and private pilot trips (depending on if they are travelling IFR or VFR) and this information is both useful and fun. Many of the sites mentioned above have a “Show a random flight” link, if you don’t know of any current flight numbers try those to get a sample of what they have to offer, that way when you do need to use the sites you will know which one will work the best for you. Happy travels! Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| Speed Up Your File And Torrent Downloads With Folx Pro for Mac [Giveaway] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 07:30 AM PST
While there are quite a number of great download managers out there, the choices for Mac users are more limited. One of the best among them is Folx. And it comes with a twist: Folx is not just another file download manager, it’s also a torrent downloader. Win 25 free copies of Folx PRO worth $500 in total from this week’s giveaway. The Free FeaturesFolx is available for free. Aside from the ability to directly download any kind of files from the internet, Folx also supports torrent downloading.
But that’s not the only trick that it has up its sleeves, Folx users are able to manage their downloads using tags.
All of the downloaded items are be sorted using symlinks into categorized folders that correspond to the assigned tags. This feature makes it easy for users to find their downloaded items. All they have to do is to look for the items inside one of the tagged folders. For example, if you tag a download with “application”, “utility”, and “Mac”; you can then access the download from folders titled “application“, “utility“, and “Mac“. The Pro FeaturesAll of the features offered by the free version are great and would surely enhance your downloading experience. But if that’s are not enough, you could get the Pro version with more features. One of the Pro-only feature is the ability to split downloads in up to 10 threads and download each chunk simultaneously. This method will optimize the bandwidth usage and improve the download speed significantly.
Pro users will also appreciate the integrated ability to search for torrent files. To do that, start a new download and select the “Search for Torrents” tab. Enter the search string to find the file that you want, pick the one that matches your query from the search results, and click the “Add new task” button to begin the download.
There’s also the ability to set a download schedule and define Folx’s exiting behavior when it’s finished with the downloads: whether system shuts down, switches to sleep mode or just quits. You can customize this feature from the Preferences (Command + comma).
“Preferences” is also where you can adjust the “Speed Control“. You could choose among several settings: no limit, manual, and smart. You could also choose what applications these settings are applied to.
If you have to share your internet connection with several applications, you could limit Folx’s download and upload speeds.
If you want to get the Pro version with all the bells and whistles, you are in luck. MakeUseOf and Eltima Software are giving away 25 Pro licenses for the lucky ones among you – the readers.
And here’s how you can win one. How do I win a copy?It’s simple, just follow the instructions. Step 1: Fill in the giveaway formPlease fill in the form with your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner. Click here if you can’t view the form. The giveaway code required to activate the form is available from Friday’s newsletter or on our Facebook page. Step 2: Share!You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post. There are 2 options to choose from or you can do both!
Giveaway eligibility In accordance with Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines 2.4.2 and 2.4.3: Individuals who are over the age of 18. If you are under 18, get your parents to participate on your behalf; Individuals who reside in a country embargoed by the United States; Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India are not permitted to enter. This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, February 18th at 2100hrs PST. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email. Spread the word to your friends and have fun! MakeUseOf would like to thank Eltima Software 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. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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