The Great Geek Manual

Utilities and Resources

• Color Scheme Designer 3 – allows a user to create harmonious color schemes using their choice of one of six customizable combinations from the color wheel. There is an option to show what a given scheme would look like to users with various types of colorblindness. The resulting scheme can be exported in several formats including HTML+CSS and Photoshop ACO, and a given scheme can even be shared as a link.
• Fresh WebSuction – a utility for downloading entire websites. Includes a comprehensive list of features to download website on your system.
• HotkeyP – a portable application to create macro commands and assign hotkey combinations in order to perform almost any kind of task, such as, open files, run applications, shut down, log off or restart your PC, change windows opacity, simulate mouse actions and so on.
• Watch2gether – a web service that makes it more fun to watch YouTube videos with friends. Instead of sharing links to the video, it lets you create a private session where you can watch them together.

Tech News

• 1st Circuit Court establishes a clear First Amendment Right to Film Officers In A Public Space (This Is A Big Deal)
• China accidentally broadcasts evidence of cyberwar against US: A translation of the screenshot says “Choose Attack Target,” and then the operator selects an IP address of 138.26.72.17. That IP belongs to the University of Alabama
• IBM Builds Biggest Data Drive Ever: The system could enable detailed simulations of real-world phenomena—or store 24 billion MP3s.
• UK government will not seek to close down social media networks: In meeting with communications firms, they solicited advice about how to monitor the sites instead of how to prohibit criminals from using the sites

Software

• At 20, Linux is invisible, ubiquitous
• Want a Faster Firefox? Pale Moon 6.0 Can Help

Internet

• After 14 years, Rob Malda is walking away from Slashdot.
• As Wikipedia expanded to lesser known languages it ran into a problem: What is knowledge for Wikipedia purposes? Traditionally knowledge has been defined by citations, but many languages don’t have a lot of written material, greatly limiting what could be created on Wikipedia. The solution (NYT) may be that People are Knowledge (45min), a project funded by a Wikimedia Foundation grant.
• Facebook is phasing out its Places feature as part of a sweeping new privacy-centric redesign.
• Facebook Served a Trillion Pageviews in June, Google Says
• Government won’t ban rioters from social networks
• The “nymwars” rage on. Despite a passionate post on their own public policy blog earlier this year, outlining all of the reasons that Google is a strong supporter of the use of pseudonyms on the internet, Google is continuing to take an uncharacteristically draconian approach to the use of pseudonyms on Google+. Google+ users with pseudonyms not only risk losing access to Google+, but also access to other Google services including Picasa and Google Reader as well. Naturally, this is a significant inconvenience for users who are known primarily by their pseudonyms, and a more significant inconvenience to users who use pseudonyms to protect the physical safety of themselves and their families.

Gadgets

• 2012 – the year of 3D printing?
• 3-D Design Simplified A new website could accelerate the adoption of 3-D printing.
• Android Is No. 1 Target of Mobile Hackers
• Why a $25 PC? Because it’s the price of a textbook

Entertainment

• Nerds Triumphant? The one-liner judged as the Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is about computer passwords. Runners-up and the joke judged WORST also listed.

Discussion / OpEd

• Apple Will Be Just Fine, Thanks To Aggressive Jobsian Minimalism
• Copyright Infringement and Theft – The Difference
• Kids today need a licence to tinker: Forget the old approach of the national curriculum, we need to open young minds to the creative possibilities of computing

Business

• Research in Motion Unveils BlackBerry Music Sharing Service: Nice idea, though it may be too little, too late for this company that has never quite adapted to the New Smartphone World Order.
• Samsung Denies Eying HP’s PC Division