Tag Archives: computers

Killer Apps for Mac – iStumbler

http://www.istumbler.net/. Previously featured _Killer Apps for Mac._ * "Adium":http://duenos.net/article/129/killer-apps-for-mac-adium - an alternative chat client * "App Zapper":http://duenos.net/article/231/ - tracks down all the caches and libraries for deleted applications and deletes them * "Darwiin Remote":http://duenos.net/article/193/KillerAppsforMacDarwiinRemote - an application that allows the use of the Wii-remote as an input * "Disk Inventory X":http://duenos.net/article/163/KillerAppsforMacDiskInventoryX - visualizes the hard disk * "img2icns":http://duenos.net/article/274/KillerAppsforMacimg2icns - A conversion tool for making any image into a .icns icon file * "Mac Pilot":http://duenos.net/article/174/KillerAppsforMacMacPilot - an interface to control more options on the Mac * "Sidenote":http://duenos.net/article/111/killer-apps-for-mac-sidenote - a VERY helpful note-taking program * "SizzlingKeys":http://duenos.net/article/119/killer-apps-for-mac-sizzlingkeys - allows universal control of iTunes through simple hotkeys * "Tangerine":http://duenos.net/article/150/KillerAppsforMacTangerine - analyzes and organizes the iTunes library by beat characteristics * "TV Shows":http://duenos.net/article/232/ - automatically downloads torrent files of TV shows * "UnRarX":http://duenos.net/article/234/KillerAppsforMacUnRarX - very good at decompressing .rar files * "Vienna Reader":http://duenos.net/article/204/KillerAppsforMacViennaReader - an OS X-integrated RSS reader with an internal browser * "VLC Player":http://duenos.net/article/228/ - the best media player in existence, it plays anything

StarCraft 2 in the works

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft_professional_competition leagues will show you how special the first in the series was with thousands of devotees following and attending StarLeague competitions. It's international popularity ranks StarCraft as the most popular real-time strategy game in history and while there's not much information available yet about its sequel, what can be found is on the "official site":http://starcraft2.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.

What Wikipedians Search For

http://tools.wikimedia.de/~leon/stats/wikicharts/index.php?lang=en&wiki=enwiki&ns=articles&limit=100&month=04%2F2007&mode=view continually calculates the most viewed pages on each of all the "Wikipedian projects":www.wikimedia.org offered. The above link is preset to view the top 100 articles viewed during April 2007 for "English Wikipedia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. In case you were wondering, 11% of the top viewed articles involved some sexual content and the number one searched definition in "English Wiktionary":http://wiktionary.org/ was "MILF":http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/MILF. Aren't you glad to know that one of the "most visited sites in the world":http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none is being put to good use.

More Microsoft news – color barcodes

Microsoft has recently announced the development of a system to encode more information onto their DVD discs and games by using a “system of colored, triangular barcodes”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6570871.stm. These are not meant to replace the black and white, linear barcodes that everyone knows and loves. Instead, disc owners can use a camera phone to read the data stored in the code and access online materials, extra downloads, or other game-related features.

Microsoft to offer Windows cheaply to developing nations

Despite Microsoft’s “criticisms”:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/16/gates_hundred_dollar_pc/ of the 100 dollar PC that was being developed for denizens of developing nations, the megacorporation will begin to produce a special version of Windows to be sold for as low as three dollars.

This version, known as the Student Innovation Suite, contains the bare bones features of Windows XP, Microsoft Office, math tools, and other basics. This version will be targeted towards middle and low income families as determined by the World Bank by 2008. Read more about it “here”:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/19/microsoft_windows_xp_starter/.

YouTube speed painter

Artistic talents are something I’ve always envied, and this guy is no exception to that. His name is Nico Di Mattia from Cordoba, Argentina and his channel, “NEXX”:http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=macpulenta, is the 78th most subscribed-to channel on YouTube. I can see why. The videos produced by this Argentinian are gorgeous, sped-up renditions of his own art being created with Photoshop. It really is cool to see every stage of the work, from experimenting with textures to simply re-drawing individual lines. Check out this video of his portrait of Scarlet Johannson being drawn:

Keyboards: Dvorak

The layout of a QWERTY keyboard is a strange thing, I’ve always known that. Why have so many of the important keys not on the home row? Why force a single hand to type whole words like _million_ or _greatest_? I didn’t know the answer to this question but for some reason I spent most of this afternoon finding out. During my explorations I rediscovered the Dvorak keyboard layout, or DSK. My roommate Dave made the switch to Dvorak in college when he’d worked out how much faster he could type (all the world-record typists are Dvorak typists) but quickly abandoned it out of frustration that no other computers used the layout and he was often in and out of campus labs.
Well it turns out that the reason we are all using QWERTY instead of the clearly superior Dvorak is because the designing imperative back when the first typewriters were made was to *slow down* typists, trying to avoid key jams. Jared Diamond, the author of the seminal _Guns, Germs and Steel_, wrote a really insightful piece on the evolution of keyboard design in Discover magazine which you can find “here”:http://discovermagazine.com/1997/apr/thecurseofqwerty1099/.
I highly recommend the article and maybe even trying Dvorak out for yourself, I just switched myself and while slow at first I can see how this will be much better.