Computer, Gadgets, Humor, et cetera

Daily Clicks

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Flickr photo editing with Preloadr

Website Preloadr.com connects to your Flickr account and allows you to edit your photos. I'll quote their site to give you a better idea of what they offer:

Preloadr is a free service providing image manipulation functions linked with your Flickr account. It is designed to pre-process photos uploaded to Flickr.

Based on the unique technology of nexImage and the public API of Flickr, this platform connects to your Flickr account and brings powerful image manipulation tools right to your browser. No special installation and no additional registration is needed.

Our main goal
...is to extend the fantastic capabilities of the Flickr platform with state-of-the-art image editing functions and make all that accessible from any computer connected to the internet. You can use this service to enhance your photos before sharing them with your friends.

How it works
Using Preloadr is absolutely free and does not require any registration. You will be redirected to log into your account at Flickr.com and then sent back to this platform where you can access all your images and upload new photos. Before sending the images to Flickr, you can modify them with several tools like cropping, sharpening, color correction and much more. Once you've optimized your photo you can specify details about the image and set tags, as you're used to do at Flickr. If you're a Flickr Pro user, you can edit an existing image and replace the current copy with the new version.

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Menufela let's you hide the MAC OS X menu bar

Menufela is a haxie that let's you hide away the menubar and/or get rid of the spotlight menu item.


For those of you that want to go messing with the sexiest OS ever you may like to check this out. I for one like having the menu bar up there in Mac OS X but some OS X users don't really like it. This hack is for you.


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Computer enables quadriplegic to move simple devices

Here's a story about hooking a man's brain up to a computer and then he controls the cursor, with his brain. He then is able to control mechanical devices.
Within little or no learning time, the patient began to be able to move a computer cursor via the device to open simulated e-mail, draw circular shapes and play simple video games. He also was able to open and close a prosthetic hand and use a robotic limb to grasp and move objects, the researchers said.

One step closer...
We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first Bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better . . . stronger . . . faster.



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Mr. T to get his own TV show

Mr. T is set to get his own TV Show this October called "I pity the fool". From the AP:

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Mr. T wore bling before we knew what bling was. Now, the bling's gone and he's wearing a sharp suit.

Mr. T says seeing the destruction of Hurricane Katrina changed him. He says "as a spiritual man," he "felt it would be a sin" against God to wear all that gold while so many people are less fortunate.

Mr. T will be using his skills as a motivational speaker to help others on his new advice show called "I Pity the Fool." It premieres October Eleventh on TV Land. Oh, and by the way, the bling may be gone, but the mohawk stays. He's just trimmed it a little.



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Jimtech to Last.fm, "Looking good!"

Last.FM has relaunched with a brand spanking new look. Those of us that pay for Last.FM have seen the dashboard at beta.last.fm but now they've dropped the beta and the new look is for everybody to see. It's actually quite slick and a welcome addition to this site.

Last.FM is a web 2.0 radio website, but it is so much more than that. Create your own custom stations based on artist or styles of music you like. As songs play you can "Favorite" them or "Ban" them or just skip them. There is a recommended music station that is based off music you've listened too and music you say you like. You can submit music you listen to in you iTunes library and off your iPod with various plugins for the program. There is just so much you can do and if you're a music lover and not using this service you are missing out.

Now that the site has a facelift there is no time like the present to go and check it out. Signup is free but they would love it if you would donate $3 a month to get extra services that are well worth it. The free account is more than enough for most users though so don't delay and go create your own Last.FM account.

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Ripping DVD's on a Macintosh to your iPod

Today I got a little bit froggy and decided I wanted to convert a DVD I own to iPod format. This DVD was Failure To Launch. It weighs in at 1 Hour, 34 Minutes, and 14 seconds. Now I'm not going to step you through everything I did to get up and running in various ways to get this to rip but I will tell you enough.

I've used Handbrake quite a bit to rip movies not just to iPod format but to XviD as well. I however read somewhere that Roxio Popcorn 2 did a great job of converting to iPod format. So I decided I'd try them both out. Timing how long it takes as I go using Chimoo Timer, a free countdown/up timer for Mac. While the ripping was going on I continued to use my white 2.0 Ghz MacBook with a superdrive and 2GB of ram to surf the internet, check my email with Mail.app, and listen to my Last.FM radio.

I decided to start with Popcorn since I had not used it before. It's a pretty straight forward program however right off the bat I had a problem. It's not free. I'm a fan of free software but I also know you get what you pay for. So $50 later I own Popcorn. After I get it installed I have another problem. It says my DVD is protected and can not be ripped by their program. That's kind of a bummer but luckily I have a program called MacTheRipper that will rip the DVD to my hard drive. It's hard to find now a days for download (something about breaking copy protection being illegal), but if you look in the usual places I'm sure you can find it. Ok, so I got my DVD ripped after about 30 minutes (the whole DVD because MTR wouldn't rip just the main feature) and I'm ready to start converting. I just drag and drop the VideoTS folder into Popcorn and set it for Video iPod and Standard quality and away it goes. It really was as easy as it sounds, signs of a quality Mac program. It doesn't show what percentage complete it is, however it does have a blue bar that indicates how far you've gone. By looking at it you can tell about how far you've gotten, 25%, 50%, etc... Since I didn't see a percentage I tried to go into the preferences to see if maybe I could adjust something but no dice. Everything is grayed out while a conversion is in progress.

It took about 1 hour and 35 minutes to rip and convert the DVD and then I had a 727.5 MB .m4v file sitting on my desktop. I could have chosen to automatically import it into iTunes however I manage my library on a computer with a bigger hard drive. Which is why I'm going to have to research managing an iPod without iTunes on a Mac while I convert with Handbrake. The quality on my Macbook isn't too impressive but then again I will be watching it on an iPod screen. The problem is I could have converted it to XviD and it would have fit on a 700MB CD and I could play it full screen and it would look great. The quality I'm getting with this file is quality I would expect from a 200-300 MB file. Like I said it will probably look fine on an iPod but the file size is unacceptable. Let's see what Handbrake does for us.

Now while I was encoding with Popcorn I decided to browse Handbrakes website a bit. I found that they released a version of Handbrake called Instant Handbrake. It's a free 2.8 MB download and is a stripped down version of Handbrake that is solely for converting to iPod or PSP formats. It doesn't have all the functionality of it's older brother or Popcorn but since all I want to do is convert a movie to play on my iPod I decided to give it a go.

I fire up Instant Handbrake and it gives me two options. Insert a DVD or select a VideoTS folder. I decide to pop the DVD back in and let it rip as it converts. Getting going with Handbrake was a lot easier than with Popcorn 2 and it was really easy with Popcorn. Within under a minute I was converting with Instant Handbrake. Right away it estimates it's going to take about 55 minutes to convert. We shall see since at the beginning it can probably rip faster since it is mainly just credits at the start of movies. When it gets into more live action the conversion will slow down a bit. It actually took about an hour an 20 minutes. 15 minutes faster than Popcorn did it in. The finished file came out at 512 MB's, much lower than what Popcorn did it in. It also looks beautiful, on my MacBook screen and on the iPod.

I downloaded a trial copy of ipod.itunes to transfer the movies to my iPod. First I had to copy them into iTunes and then hook up my iPod so I could start using the program. It went fairly smoothly. If you can follow directions you can get it copied over. I have to say, I thought the Popcorn version would look fine on my iPod screen but it was absolutely horrible. There were artifacts all over the place in just the first few minutes. At one point the video completely stopped while the audio kept going and then the video came back in a few seconds later. At least the Audio and Video were still in sync. Speaking of which, I know there are problems with Audio/Video syncing when you convert videos for the iPod so i thought I'd make sure it is fine. I fast forward to the end of the movie and it is in sync. That is good but with the file size being so big and the video looking the way it does I'd say with the default settings in Popcorn that it is junk. Handbrakes encode looks great on the iPod and the audio/video sync is spot on as well.

The final verdict? I'm sure you can tell from the way I've written this, Popcorn did a crappy job. Especially considering I had to use two different programs to get the DVD converted and that it cost me money. Instant Handbrake is by far the winner. A 2.8 MB download, faster conversion time, smaller file, and better looking video makes it a winner all around. So go and download Instant Handbrake.


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Friday, July 14, 2006

Control your Sky+ box from your mobile

Do you like in the UK? Do you use Sky+? Do you have a mobile phone? If you answered yes to all these questions you may be interested to know that you can now control your Sky+ box from your cell phone. If you don't have a data plan on your phone don't fret, you can still control it via SMS messaging. You can also control it over the internet which is great for the UK DVR user crowd. More information and registration details are available at 3g.co.uk.


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Psych pilot free on iTunes

I love me some free content for my video enabled 5th Generation iPod. This show airs on the USA network and it is being labeled as a Drama/Comedy.
PSYCH follows Shawn Spencer who has developed a keen eye for detail after being instructed by his police officer father to note even the most minute details of his surroundings. After Shawn calls in a tip on a crime to the police, he is actually accused of committing the crime. To try to clear his name, Shawn convinces the police that he is a psychic and he begins solving cases for the police force.

Download the Pilot episode now from iTunes.

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Migrate a Boot Camp partition into Parallels Desktop

Do you want to reclaim your Boot Camp partition and use Parallels Desktop only to run your Windows tasks? MacOSXHints has a how to that you need to read. It's not going to be easy but check out how they did it here.

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Gracenote to Sell Lyrics on iTunes

Gracenote has said they now have the rights to distribute the lyrics to over a million songs online. I guess sites that operate and give away song lyrics are illegal as they do not own the rights. It seems the record companies are trying to squeeze a little more of your consumer dollar out of that sponge. Read the article on Reuters.

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Gas Thieves Also Steal Your License Plate

Snopes has an article today about thieves stealing peoples license plates so when they "pump and run" they won't get caught but instead you will. they are reporting that this is "True" and in fact happening. A version of the email you may have seen about it looks something like this:

Just a warning...

A woman said her son found his license plate missing so he called the police to file a report. They told him people were stealing the plates to get free gas. Given the rise in gas prices, people have taken to stealing license plates, putting them on their car, then getting gas and running. The gas station will have "your" license plate # and you could be in trouble for "pump and run." Check your car periodically to be sure you still have a plate. If you should find it missing, file a report immediately!!!


Check out the story for yourself at Snopes website.

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A Few Items From Amazon's Friday Sale

I've picked out a few items of interest from Amazon's Friday sale. Good for today only, Friday, July 14, 2006.

They are selling a Calphalon Commercial Hard Anodized 12-Quart Stockpot with Lid for $40 down from $168, which seems like a pretty good price. A pot of this size can be used for a lot of different things. I was looking at them before and they seemed kind of outrageous. Now may be the time to pick up on of these giant pots, especially with $128 off.

They also have a Spalding NBA Street Basketball for $10. Not a bad price and everyone needs a basketball.

They have something for the ladies too. The Herbal O, Vivid Virility For Her, Sexual Enhancer. Now seriously, does this even work? Seems like high school guys would be stocking up on this. While you're at it you better pick up 36 Trojan Ultra Pleasure Spermicidal Lubricated Latex Condoms too.

YMMV, perhaps you'd like to check out the sale yourself. Head over to Amazon's Friday Sale Page.



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Microsoft Giving away Virtual PC 2004

Microsoft is now giving away their Virtual PC 2004 software. Maybe since VMWare is giving away their virtualization software Microsoft decided to follow suite. Virtual PC 2004 allows you to run many different operating systems at once on top of your host OS. If you want the free version you'll be looking at using Windows 2000/XP as that is the only version that they are giving away. Microsoft has also announced that Virtual PC 2007 is in the works but there are not many details about it however we do know that Vista will be supported as a host and a guest OS. So go and get your free copy of Virtual PC 2004 for Windows now.

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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Released

The other day we posted that Firefox Beta 1 was out there. Now that may have not been entirely true. Sure, Bon Echo RC 3 was available for download, but it wasn't the officially branded Firefox Beta. Well, it's here now. What's new you ask? Check it from the site:

Built in Phishing Protection.
Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com
Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
Ability to re-open accidentally closed tabs
Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
Inline spell checking in text boxes
Search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
New Windows installer based on NullSoft Scriptable Install System
Support for JavaScript 1.7
Support for client-side session and persistent storage
Extended search plugin format
Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

Most if not all your extensions will not work in this. No luck with that theme you like either. But that is the price you pay to be on the bleeding edge isn't it? Just go download it already!

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iPod Hi-Fi Mini or Speakers Shoved in a MacPlus

What do you do when no one is going to buy you a iPod Hi-Fi system? Make your own of course! I happen to love DIY projects, especially when I'm not the one doing them. This one is extremely good looking, and props goes out to this guy for such a great job. Check out the speakers for yourself.




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Apple Boot Camp 1.02 released

Apple has quietly released an update to their Boot Camp software now weighing in at version 1.02. It is not clear what has been updated but if you have to be on the cutting edge then here you go. If you ask me, I'd go and get Parallels Desktop instead.





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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

No More $899 iMac

Apple has done away with the $899 iMac as reported by AppleInsider. You may remember that just last week Apple released the new iMac and it was supposed to be a replacement for the eMac. AppleInsider posts some speculation on why that is including that some think it was cutting into sales of the $400 more expensive iMac so much that Apple couldn't stand it.

The $899 iMac is still available. The only thing is only institutions can buy them. You and I can not.


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M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water" Exclusive look @ Amazon

A little entertainment news for you today. Out of the norm I know but just check it out. I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Mr. Shyamalan's work but I do like it. Amazon has the exclusive behind the scenes look so check it out. Right now it is on their main page which is where the linky will take you.





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OSX Dashboard Phones Home part III

Mac Geekery has posted stating that the 10.4.7 dashboard doesn't really phone home. It does connect to Apple's site but it doesn't send any personal data. I already posted that however what they do find is that you send more personal data and information whenever you connect to Apple's website and other sites than you do when Dashboard checks your widgets. Check out the full article at Mac Geekery.


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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Released

The First beta version of Firefox 2.0 was released today. Firefox has been around for quite awhile and I've been a regular user of it since I first installed it back when it was called Firebird. Firebird however is the name of some free database software so that of course would not do. Just like their first name for the browser, Phoenix, had to be changed because of the BIOS manufacturer of the same name. I do not rely on Firefox on my Mac. I only use it on every PC I use usually in a portable version on my USB Stick.

The new version sports a spell checker as well as a phishing filter. That should help out with blog posts and the like so now we won't see so many misspelled words. I've had some problems downloading it, maybe it's just me but I bet their servers are a bit overloaded. You're best bet is to grab it from the FTP server with something like Transmit or Filezilla.

Get it here. RC3 is the current now.



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iUseThis, a pretty interesting website.

There is a new website out there called iUseThis. I've signed up and have been using it a bit. I'm not sure if it is for Mac OSX only because when I navigate to it from my MacBook it appears to autodetect what OS I'm using and then redirect me to OSX.iUseThis.com. The site follows in the theme of the social bookmarking, tagging, sharing, et cetera theme of so many other popular sites in that it lets you post a piece of software that you use and like and then other people can vote by clicking on "I Use This". The more votes it gets the higher the software goes on the list. Newly submitted apps are on the frontpage and there is a sidebar for the top apps. Of course they have an RSS feed so you can see all the new apps people are using. In order to tell the site you are using a particular app you must sign up however the process is quite painless. So stop reading this and go check out iUseThis.com!


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Is that an Apple Logo on a PS3 site?

What is going on with Apple and Sony? Why was there a Apple Logo on a site for the upcoming PlayStation 3 (PS3)? Sony's site has a flash animation that shows a PS3. A few days ago the animation had a small blip of a Apple logo that showed up and went away. The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a screen grab of this. You can also check out the original flash intro grabbed from Sony's website.

So what are Apple and Sony planning? Is this just a hoax?

Not so much a hoax as it is Sony being cheap. If you use a trial version of Apple's Shake it will give you that exact effect. Since it has now been fixed I wonder if they edited out somehow which I'm sure must be against Apple's TOS or did they spend the $500 to buy the software? Answers I'm sure we'll never have.


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Apple responds to Dashboard privacy concerns

You may recall not too long ago I posted about Apple's Macintosh OS X 10.4.7 phoning home to check for the latest updates. Apple has since responded to everyone freaking out. CNet has an article that quotes them as saying:
"Apple takes protecting user privacy very seriously. The Dashboard Advisory feature is a security tool that ensures that the correct version of a widget has been downloaded from a third-party site and no personal information is transmitted back to Apple"

So, yeah, Apple is just looking out for your best interests.



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iPod to get speech capability

The Scotsman is reporting that some exciting new features are coming to the iPod. They are saying that the new iPod will have speech recognition so you will be able to speak a name of an artist, song title, and the like to the iPod and it will play them for you. They also say:
The new iPod will tell you what it is about to play, removing the need for users to look at the screen while selecting music, and making the device safer and easier to use while driving, cycling or in badly-lit locations.

I'm not so sure I want the iPod talking to me everytime a new song comes on. Not that it matters anyway, I'm not so sure I actually believe this story. They say their source is a patent filed by Apple Computer that states:
"A user will have difficulty navigating the interface in 'eyes-busy' situations.

"Such activities include, for example, driving an automobile, exercising and crossing the street."

Only time will tell I guess.


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