The Great Geek Manual

This physics engine from Umeå University is seriously entertaining. There’s no objective, but watching it’s effects at work is likely to eat up a good piece of your day.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

While I’ve been a dedicated user of VideoLAN Client (VLC) for longer than I can remember, I’ve recently been converted.

The new player I’ve been using lately is Kantaris. Kantaris is a new media player based on VLC, with a few small improvements, including, most notably, a slick graphical user interface similar to that of Windows Media Player. Not only can Kantaris play all of the file formats that VLC can play, it claims to be able to play a few more with improved support for some of the difficult to manage file types (such as .WMA).
Read the rest of this entry » » »

It happens to everyone eventually. You’re putting the finishing touches on a project, you’re exhausted, and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, everything you’ve been working on is gone.

Blame it on Shift + Delete. You can’t live with it, you can live without it. The important thing is to be ready when it finally happens, because the first step in data recovery is to stop using the drive from which you’ve just deleted the files you need to restore. You definitely don’t want to spend those precious minutes following the deletion and inevitable flurry of curses that follow surfing the internet for recovery software. So download one of these now as insurance against future emergencies!

For those of you who have come to this page by way of Google in the middle of such an emergency, here’s what you need to do:

1. STOP USING THE DRIVE YOU WANT TO RECOVER FILES FROM! Stop everything you’re doing the moment you delete anything you want back to prevent overwriting what you’ve lost. Shut down all other applications that write to that drive, and if you need to save something that you’re working on in order to shut down an application, save it to another drive. It’s best to have these utilities on hand, but if you have to look for them, use another computer. If it’s going to be a while before you get around to using a recovery utility, you might also consider shutting down the computer altogether, since Windows always has a couple systems running in the background.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

Netscape has released the first beta of Netscape 9, which, not surprisingly, is based on Firefox. It’s not exactly clear what might convince a user to switch from Firefox to Netscape, but the name alone may draw some old school Netscape users away from Internet Explorer. For those of you who do remember the old Netscape, you may not even recognize it’s new look. It’s significantly slimmed down; it no long includes a mail client or any sort of html editor. It does however include a host of other new features, like the Link Pad. Want to revisit a site, but don’t want to clutter your bookmarks? Just drop the link to the Link Pad and come back to it later. The browser will also feature URL Correction. Navigator 9 will automatically correct common typos in URLs. For example, if you accidentally type googlecom, Navigator will fix it be to google.com.

Check out all of Netscape’s features
Download it at Netscape Now

There’s enormous flexibility built into Firefox. If you’re interested in really customizing your browsing experience, I suggest you get a copy of the ExtremeTech series’ “Hacking Firefox.” To get you started, though, here’s a list of the fifteen most basic Firefox shortcuts to making surfing just a little easier.

If you have any others that you use regularly, feel free to throw them out there.

1. A bookmarks Folder’s position can also be Dragged & Dropped but you must hold down the SHIFT key while Dragging.
2. After you’ve typed in a domain name, such as “Yahoo” press Ctrl and Enter together to automatically append “http://www.” and “.com” to that domain.
3. Clear your Download history to make the download manager more responsive: Tools | Options | Privacy
4. Double Clicking empty space on the Tab Bar will open a ‘New Tab’
5. Drag any link to the Download Manager Window to add & download the link.
6. Holding down the Ctrl key when you right click to “View Image” or “View Background Image” will open the image in a New Tab or New Window.

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Alliance is private and secure peer-to-peer filesharing software for sharing files and communicating with people you know. Technically, Alliance takes the best parts of BitTorrent (advanced multi-source downloading), DirectConnect (community), and WASTE (security). The unique feature Alliance brings to the table is that Alliance users create their own networks. Users can either start a new network or get invited into an existing network by another Alliance user. Combined with encryption, Alliance is a very secure method for sharing files.

I don’t advocate piracy, but if I had a small group of friends or I wanted to share stuff with, this would be the software I would use.

Check out a full set of screenshots of the software, or go straight to the download page.

The current version of iTunes, 7.1.1 has been cracked by the QTFairUse6 project. You can now uncripple your legitimately purchased, DRM protected iTunes tracks, especially those brutally expensive, hard-to-rip audiobooks. It should be legal but whether or not its a technical violation of Apple’s end-user service agreement is a matter of debate. But if you plan to make use of it, do it quickly, before Apple patches up the breech of fascism.

Unfortunately, the fix only seems to work for Windows user.

Source: The Hymn Project via Digg

Buzzword Compliant is calling Hackety Hack the “Harry Potter programming language.” What is Hackety Hack? Yeah, I didn’t know either.

It turns out that Hackety Hack is a Ruby-based environment, created as part of a manifesto entitled “The Little Coder’s Predicament” written in 2003 by a programmer known by the handle “why the lucky stiff” or just “why” for short. The language is a highly streamlined combination of conversational Ruby code and a no-brainer install environment. It’s purpose is to reawaken the interest in programming in younger generation that was rampant back in the eighties.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

If I’m not sitting at the keyboard of my computer, then my bittorrent client is up and running. For thirty dollars a month, I’m not wasting a minute of bandwidth. The problem is that the downloads need a bit of a tweak now and again. I like to throttle back on the most popular torrents once they’ve finished, so that my other downloads have a chance at finishing. I also like to reactivate my completed downloads to seed once I have what I need for the day. But how can I do that while I’m at work? As usual, the Gods of the Internet have provided a solution.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

Ever wonder why it costs one hundred sixty dollars to buy a copy of Windows Vista here in the US?

Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS ‘Windows Vista’ in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers are quoted by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.

Source: Japan’s IT Media via Newlaunches.com

Just when you thought it was safe to surf the web, that the nineties were vanquished and gone, along comes the latest trend in webdesign - animated favicons! OMG! It’s like a little time capsule right there on your tool bookmarks toolbar… and a migraine right behind your eyeballs.

Noted offenders include:
BugmeNot (http://www.bugmenot.com/)
Linux Forums (http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/faq.php) Et tu, Linux? Et tu?!!
Pod1 (http://www.pod1.com/) web designers who should know better

Luckily, I’ve figured out a simple solution for removing irritating favicons:
Read the rest of this entry » » »

I can really never say enough about Google. I first started using Google back in the days when Google was written in quotes (”Google”) and people still used AskJeeves, and I’ve never strayed. When GMail was released, I was deliriously happy. I never thought that Google could become more useful, but somehow, it has.

Months ago, I began using my big, beautiful GMail account as a storage bin to shuffle files between computers. At first, I started out using a script called the GMail Drive shell extension. GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. It actually adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag files to your .GMail Drive.
Read the rest of this entry » » »