Category Archives: Original Duenos

Posts by the original Duenos.net crew.

Killer Apps for Mac – App Zapper

An epic open-source journey

A Brooklyn-based technologist/activist/blogger by the name of “Noel Hidalgo”:http://luckofseven.com/about will be embarking on an epic voyage he is calling: “On the Luck of Seven; an open-source journey around the world documenting free culture, social innovators & global change.” The journey will last 7 months, span 7 continents, cover the 7 seas, and visit the 7 wonders of the world, all while researching 7 “topics of freedom”:http://luckofseven.com/whats_focus/. The trip will start (duh) on 7/7/07, but only if 700 people pledge to give him $11.11. Follow the journey at “LuckofSeven.com”:http://luckofseven.com/.

Have a pixel problem?

LCD panel displays are great, they’re cheap, efficient and bright. The only problem, they’re made up of tons of little pixels that sometimes get stuck or die. I’ve had a few monitors go bad over the years and never knew there was anything you could do about it until now.
For dead (black) pixels: These pixels aren’t getting signals from your computer any more. This isn’t as guaranteed to work as the solution for stuck pixels below, but try the steps recommended on “this page”:http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Stuck-Pixel-on-an-LCD-Monitor and tell me how it goes.
For stuck (colored) pixels: These pixels aren’t dead, they’re just confused. Try downloading “JScreenFix”:http://www.jscreenfix.com/ and running it. The developers even claim that it can cure plasma screen burn-in.

Get all of Wikipedia on your iPod

http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html, an an application that puts all the world's knowledge in the palm of your hand. Previously on duenos: - "What Wikipedians Search For":http://duenos.net/article/211/WhatWikipediansSearchFor, charts and statistics on Wikipedia use.

Automotive emoticons

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8e9a/ displays one of 5 different emoticons (smileys): smiley, frowny, dubious, thanks, and back-off. Thanks "Jeff":http://jag85.com/.

Life from the deep

This short French documentary on life in the abyss of deep ocean waters starts by saying “these are not aliens.” The disclaimer is a helpful one as you go on to watch translucent squid, writhing luminescent worms, and a a flan-like creature the narrators call a dumbo octopus. The animals shown in this video are no less than incredible, and it’s amazing that they live on the same planet that we do.
I found this video through one of my favorite blogs, “collision detection”:http://www.collisiondetection.net/ by Clive Thompson. His stories and writing style are wonderful, and I recommend reading in full his “introduction”:http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2007/05/is_this_sea_cre.html to this video and adding it to your daily read.

Vu du ciel : les abysses
Uploaded by Grenouillard

Jello San Francisco

This is an oldie but a goodie. Liz Hickok is a San Francisco artist that has worked with a number of media including sculpture, photography and most importantly, jello. “This gallery”:http://www.lizhickok.com/portfolio_jello.html of photos is from her most famous exhibition in which she cast a scale model of downtown San Francisco entirely out of jello, Golden Gate Bridge and everything.
Previously on duenos:
* “13 lb Gummy Bear”:http://duenos.net/article/221/13lbGummyBear

Time your child's birth right and you could win a Sebring

Perennially for sale car company Chrysler has come up with one of the weirder marketing gimicks I’ve seen in a while. In most ways, this is a normal win-a-car auction except for one catch, the only way to qualify to enter the contest is if you have a baby born at 2:03:04 on 05/06/07. I’m not sure whether they’re trying to say that their cars are good for new families, or that they just they like a good number joke, but this is something to keep in mind if you are due to deliver sometime in the next week. Stall.
(Via “Winding Road”:http://news.windingroad.com/marketingadvertising/have-a-baby-win-a-sebring/)

“Barely Used” Info on Dumpster Diving

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpster_diving. For starters, at "this blog":http://community.livejournal.com/dumpsterdiving, alley surfers share tips and brag about their bounties of “slightly crushed” produce, “mostly nice” clothing, and “perfectly useable” appliances. One of my favorite quotes has got to be "_I've been told that Zanotto's is a good place (however, there's probably a lot of competition from the hobos at the downtown location)…"_ Not only are they frugal, they're cut throat. But there's more, view "this movie trailer":http://jeffharrisshortfilms.com/vids/divetrailer.wmv of a diver's personal struggle in a tosser's world. Or better yet, here's some passionately written "instructions":http://web.textfiles.com/hacking/dumpster_diving.txt to get you started, which begins "_There's something about going through a dumpster that gets your blood pumping."_ I don’t know about you, but my blood pumps perfectly fine without shopping at D(umpster)*Mart.

Killer Apps for Mac – VLC

http://www.videolan.org/ is one of those programs that makes everything better. Give it any kind of file at all--avi, mp4, ogg, mp3, mov, literally anything at all--and VLC will play the hell out of it. Also the latest release of the mac version integrates beautifully with the OS, making it far sexier than the bundled Quicktime or any other option. If you watch any video at all on your mac, you need to get VLC. Download it "here":http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. Previous _Killer Apps for Mac_: "Adium":http://duenos.net/article/129/killer-apps-for-mac-adium, "Sidenote":http://duenos.net/article/111/killer-apps-for-mac-sidenote, "Darwiin Remote":http://duenos.net/article/193/KillerAppsforMacDarwiinRemote, "Mac Pilot":http://duenos.net/article/174/KillerAppsforMacMacPilot, "Disk Inventory X":http://duenos.net/article/163/KillerAppsforMacDiskInventoryX, "Tangerine":http://duenos.net/article/150/KillerAppsforMacTangerine, "SizzlingKeys":http://duenos.net/article/119/killer-apps-for-mac-sizzlingkeys, and "Vienna Reader":http://duenos.net/article/204/KillerAppsforMacViennaReader.