Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas


Well It is time once again to celebrate the Chistmas Spirit. I wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday, God Bless you and your family!!!


+dwebb

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

DIY FM Transmitter

This Simple circuit can be used to transmit any audio signal. It is basically the same as a Griffin iTrip. There is an inductor/capacitor oscillator that can be changed to change the transmitted frequency. It has a home made inductor, and a trimmer capacitor which can be changed to change the frequency.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Pantone To Hex Colour Chart

This is a great web design tool. I don't know how many times I have wanted to replicate a color from a printed piece for the web, and had to go into photoshop or another graphics program to convert the color into the proper Hex code. Which isn't a huge deal, but this site makes it a whole lot easier. Colours should be tested across different platforms, operating systems, browsers and versions to ensure colour is reliable displayed in typical viewing environments, since not all systems are the same.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Finding Toll Free Numbers With Google

OK, here's a secret "the man" doesn't want you to know. Some companies have a toll-free number that's buried deep on their website -- but it would take like a thousand clicks to find it, and these days, who has the time? One way to get to it more quickly is to search Google for the company name and the phrase "customer support." Like this: Apple Customer Support.

An even trickier way to get at hard-to-reach customer support phone numbers is to search for the company name and the standard toll-free prefixes. That'll dig up some real gems. For example, "[company name] 800 OR 877 OR 888 OR 866". Give it a whirl -- and here's to less holiday stress.

+dwebb

Using Google As A Free Proxy

What's the purpose for Google as a proxy? We often use office/school/university connections, usually those services are set to provide more safety, blocking the access to undesidered web sites (the "black list"). What you can do now is use Google translator service (language tools) as a proxy to bypass the restrictions set for our connection!

You just need to type the following URL:

http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.blockedsite.com
(www.blockedsite.com stands for the URL you need to go to...)

What you'll get is the translation (english to english!) of the page you want to see... your connection is directed to a google.com page so this page won't be blocked (would be blocked only with google.com on the black list), no matter what's the content.

+dwebb

Find free courses with OpenCourseWare Finder

The OpenCourseWare Finder organizes and lists open (read:free) university courses with materials that you can access online.

Currently the OpenCourseWare Finder is listing results from five universities like MIT and Tufts.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Webmaster's Who Didn't Think About Their URL

Here's a list of some funny URLs, where the designer didn't think about how people would read the name of the site:

1) Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous:
http://www.whorepresents.com

2) Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views:
http://www.expertsexchange.com

3) Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island:
http://www.penisland.net

4) Need a therapist?
http://www.therapistfinder.com

5) Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
http://www.molestationnursery.com

6) Gas central heating anyone?
http://www.gasheating.co.uk

7) New to Milan and you need electric light? Why not sign up on-line with
Power-Gen?
http://www.powergenitalia.com



+dwebb

Great List of Free Proxy Servers

Here is a great list of Free Proxy Servers for the majority of people trying to bypass their school or business's filters. Also used to surf the web anonymously.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Pandora - Discover Music Free

What is Pandora?? Well, Pandora is the music discovery service that helps you find new music that you'll love. Create custom stations based on your music tastes. Try it for free. I absolutely love this service, and I have already discovered new bands I would have never known about.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Monday, November 21, 2005

Awesome Free Flight Simulator

Here is a great open source flight sim called Flight Gear. Flight Gear is a free flight simulator project. It is being developed through the gracious contributions of source code and spare time by many talented people from around the globe.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Blockbuster Hack: One Month Free Code

Anyone can use the promotion code "bbstore" to get a free month trial of Blockbuster Online. It's a promotion code for employees, but they don't check to see if you are actually an employee or not.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

2005 Black Friday Deals

What is Black Friday?? Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many consider it the "official" beginning to the Christmas shopping season. The "black" in the name comes from the standard accounting practice of using red ink to denote negative values (i.e., losses) and black ink to denote positive values (profits). Black Friday is the day when retailers traditionally get back "in the black" after operating "in the red" for the previous months.

Here is a website that lists the prices of many retailers on Black Friday. Typically this stuff is secret, and is never revealed till that day. In fact the guy got a ceist and desist order from several companies who were pissed off thier prices were leaked to the net. ;)

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Google Maps: Bounty Hunter

Locate wanted items and other services via google maps.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Find Free Music on the Web


I know I have listed ways of finding free music goodies before, but I figured I would consolodate them into one post and add some new ones I have discovered.

Google
I know I have showed you various ways of doing a google search to find the mp3's you like, but here it is again in case you forgot:
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Van Halen"
Replace “Van Halen” with the artist, genre or keyword of your liking.

Singing Fish
If you don’t want to mess around with nutty Google operators, check out Singing Fish, an exclusively audio and video search engine. See most popular searches and easily filter by file type and duration. Check out the site here

Webjay
Webjay is a playlist community. Webjay users create lists of songs that exist all over the Web in different formats. Browse around Webjay playlists and play them in a variety of music players - from Winamp to iTunes to RealPlayer. Check out the site here.

del.icio.us social bookmarks
Bookmark aggregator del.icio.us filters its bookmarks by filetype - which means http://del.icio.us/tag/system:media:audio will give you a page of audio files, http://del.icio.us/tag/system:filetype:mp3 will give you a page of MP3’s, and http://del.icio.us/tag/system:filetype:mp3+mashups will give you a page of MP3’s tagged mashup. You can play del.icio.us music directly on the page or subscribe to del.icio.us audio in iTunes and get new songs automatically using iTunes’ Podcasting feature.

Amazon
Amazon’s Top Free Music downloads
updates every six hours with DRM-free and legal tracks Amazon users like the most. This previously-mentioned Greasemonkey script will make DL’ing the Amazon tunes easier for Firefox users.

MP3 blogs
Tons of music bloggers post MP3’s for download almost daily. Here is a list of some of them:

Stereogum
Tofu Hut
Metafilter

Once you find the MP3 blogs that you like, download songs from them automatically. Command-line lover Jeff Veen has a great method using the wget utility to fetch audio files listed on web sites you specify in a text file. Check out his instructions on how to wget new music every day. Also, The Hype Machine is an MP3 blog aggregator that gathers all the audio links on MP3 blogs into one place.


+dwebb

5 Great Freeware Apps for the iPod

Even though I do not have an iPod nor do I plan on buying one just yet, I know allot of you do out there. Here is a short little list of 5 applications that will make your iPod work for you.

Senuti
Take a look at the program’s name and then look at it spelled backwards, you got it, it’s like iTunes, but does the opposite, it syncs files off your iPod and sends them to your computer. There are many good reasons that someone would have to transfer music from their iPod back to their computer. There are many good ways to do it, too. Senuti is the only alternative that will give you the power and convenience that you need, wrapped in an interface that is extremely easy to use since it resembles iTunes itself.

iPodBackup
iPodBackup is a shell script-turned-application (via Platypus) that backs up your home folder to your iPod using the open source backup utility rsync. Combine it with Automator and you have fully automated incremental backups to your iPod, for free! You can customize a list of items to be excluded by simply dragging-and-dropping them onto the app.

Book2Pod
Book2Pod is a utility to format large text documents so they can be read on an iPod using the built-in note reader capabilities. It supports documents larger than the 4KB per note limit of the note reader, and makes the 1000 note limit easier to live with. It also lets you organize your collection of electronic books and supports services.

MovieToGo
MovieToGo is a simple batch processing application for converting QuickTime movies into iPod friendly 320×240 H.264 movie files. The Macintosh program, available as freeware from the Digigami web site

iPod-Linux Installers
4th Gen iPods
3rd Gen or older
The goal of these projects is to create an easy to use GUI program that enables Mac OS X user with iPods to install Linux on HFS+ formatted iPods while still allowing users to keep and use the Apple Supplied OS. When installed you can boot into either Linux or the original iPod software. Linux will add higher recording capabilities to your iPod and also a tons of programs, games and extras. Here are a few of the items Linux adds to your iPod, a recording program, calendar, calculator, Invaders, iPobble, Lights, Mine Sweep, Othello, Pong, Tetris, TicTacToe, TuxChess, Steroids, Cube, Matrix and others. Sometimes installation can be hit or miss, but the finished product is worth the effort.

+dwebb

OS X 10.4.3 for Intel x86 Cracked

According to post #325 in this forum thread, the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) for OS X 10.4.3 Intel has been cracked. 10.4.3 has a significant speed improvement over 10.4.1 (Up to 75% faster). It is rumored that a bootable installation DVD should emerge soon. Apple's TPM security doesn't seem to be working very well as this release was cracked within 2 weeks.

I will look for a copy online, if anyone wants to try this out on an machine they have kicking around. :)

+dwebb

Friday, November 18, 2005

What The Font Service

Ever wanted to find a font just like the one used by certain publications, corporations, or ad campaigns? Well now you can, using the WhatTheFont font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and instantly find the closest matches in thier database.

Try it out here.

+dwebb

Meebo - "Online Chat Application"

Meebo is an online chat client that allows you to connect to all the popular chat protocals. Why would you need this, well it is great for all those companies that have IT block the protocal ports. Here at work for instance, they only allow Yahoo to be used, but using Meebo I can connact to all the other chat protocals at once and use Port 80 to chat with my family and friends anyways. Don't let the man keep you down :)

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Google Maps Web Cam Locator

Here is a cool application of the Google Maps API. It allows you to Geolocate webcams online.

Check it out here

+dwebb

Online Police Scanners

Here is a great list of websites that allow you to listen to Police scanners from some major citys online. It is fun to see what is going on in the big apple. Check them out here:

NYPD - Live Police Scanner

KY - Several to choose from

Eufaula, AL - Live Police Scanner

Orlando, FL - Live Police Scanner


Here are some other scanner sites you may want to check out as well:

APL's Radio Scanning Zone

John's Police Scanner Website

Police Fire and Ems Live - Police Fire and Ems scanner site



+dwebb

Saturday, November 12, 2005

HTTrack Website Copier

How many times have you wanted to grab a website for offline viewing, maybe its an e-book you would like to read on the train or a website you want to backup for personal use. Well here is a FREE little utility that will let you do just that.

Check it out here.


+dwebb

The Men Commandments

Here is a great list of commandments all Men should follow!! And By the way Mike I strongly disagree with Number 7 :)

1.) It is ok for a Man to cry under the following circumstances:

- When a heroic dog dies to save its master.
- The moment Angelina Jolie starts unbuttoning her blouse.
- After wrecking your boss' car.
- One hour, 12 minutes, 37 seconds into "The Crying Game".
- When she is using her teeth.

2.) Any Man who brings a camera to a bachelor party may be legally killed and eaten by his friends.

3.) Unless he murdered someone in your family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours.

4.) If you've known a Man for more than 24 hours, his sister is off limits forever, unless you actually marry her.

5.) Moaning about the brand of free beer in a friend's fridge is forbidden. Complain at will if the temperature is unsuitable.

6.) No Man shall ever be required to buy a birthday present for another Man. In fact, even remembering your friend's birthday is strictly optional.

7.) On a road trip, the strongest bladder determines pit stops, not the weakest.

8.) When stumbling upon other men watching a sporting event, you may ask the score of the game in progress, but you may never ask who's playing.

9.) It is permissible to drink a fruity alcopop drink only when you're sunning on a tropical beach... and it's delivered by a topless supermodel...and it's free.

10.) Only in situations of moral and/or physical peril are you allowed to kick another Man in the nuts.

11.) Unless you're in prison, never fight naked.

12.) Friends don't let friends wear Speedos. Ever. Issue closed.

13.) If a Man's fly is down, that's his problem, you didn't see anything.

14.) Women who claim they "love to watch sports" must be treated as spies until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to drink as much as the other sports watchers.

15.) A Man in the company of a hot, suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight.

16.) Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both - that's just mean.

17.) If you compliment a Man on his six-pack, you'd better be talking about his choice of beer.

18.) Never join your girlfriend or wife in discussing a friend of yours, except if she's withholding sex pending your response.

19.) Phrases that may NOT be uttered to another Man while lifting weights:

- Yeah, Baby, Push it!
- C'mon, give me one more! Harder!
- Another set and we can hit the showers!

20.) Never talk to a Man in a bathroom unless you are on equal footing: i.e. Both urinating, both waiting in line, etc. For all other situations, an almost imperceptible nod is all the conversation you need.

21.) Never allow a telephone conversation with a woman to go on longer than you are able to have sex with her. Keep a stopwatch by the phone. Hang up if necessary.

22.) The morning after you and a girl who was formerly "just a friend" have carnal drunken monkey sex, the fact that you're feeling weird and guilty is no reason not to nail her again before the discussion about what a big mistake it was.

23.) There is no reason for guys to watch Men's Ice Skating or Men's Gymnastics. Ever.

24.) When you are queried by a buddy's wife, girlfriend, mother, father, priest, shrink, dentist, accountant, or dog walker, you need not and should not provide any useful information whatsoever as to his whereabouts. You are permitted to deny his very existence.

25.) You may exaggerate any anecdote told in a bar by 50 percent without recrimination; beyond that, anyone within earshot is allowed to call 'BULLSHIT!'.

Exception: When trying to pick up a girl, the allowable exaggeration rate rises to 400 percent.

26.) The minimum amount of time you have to wait for another guy who's running late is 5 minutes. For a girl, you are required to wait 10 minutes for every point of hotness she scores on the classic 1-10 babe scale.

27.) Agreeing to distract the ugly friend of a hot babe that your buddy is trying to hook up with is your legal duty. Should you get carried away with your good deed and end up having sex with the beast, your pal is forbidden to speak of it, even at your bachelor party.

28.) Before dating a buddy's "ex", you are required to ask his permission and he in return is required to grant it.

29.) The universal compensation for buddies who help you move is beer.

30.) A Man must never own a cat or like his girlfriend's cat.

31.) When your girlfriend/wife expresses a desire to fix her whiney friend up with your pal, you may give her the go-ahead only if you'll be able to warn your buddy and give him time to prepare excuses about joining the priesthood.

32.) If a buddy is out-numbered, out-Manned, or too drunk to fight, you must jump into the fight.

Exception: If within the last 24 hours his actions have caused you to think, "What this guy needs is a good ass-whoopin.", then you may sit back and enjoy.

33.) If a buddy is already singing along to a song in the car, you may not join him...too gay.

34.) Under no circumstances may two men share an umbrella.

35.) When a buddy is trying to hook up, you may sabotage him only in a manner that gives you no chance of hooking up either.

36.) Before allowing a drunken friend to cheat on his girl, you must attempt one intervention. If he is able to get on his feet, look you in the eye, and deliver a "FUCK OFF!" You are absolved of your of responsibility.

37.) Never, EVER slap or smack another Man.

38.) A Man is never allowed to talk to his mother on the phone while at a bar. This is especially true if said conversation is preventing him from taking his shot during a game of pool.


+dwebb

Thursday, November 03, 2005

1500+ E-books from Microsoft

Yes believe it or not Microsoft took a break from trying to take over the world and is offering 1500+ ebooks online for free. Just follow the link below and search the listing of what's available. Many are timeless classics we read in H.S. english class as kids.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

del.icio.us - New mp3 tagging

Hmmm...This is an intresting onine adaptation. del.icio.us the online social bookmarking site now allows users to tag mp3's it seems for playback and download. Just another way to share music and tell the RIAA to go F...CK themselves ;)

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Klipfolio - RSS Dashboard

Klipfolio is a great small desktop dashboard that reads all your RSS feeds. It is totally skinable and uses little CPU resources. You can customize it and add your own favorite feeds or pick from a huge selection on their website.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Take control of traffic and security cameras

Here is another one of my favorite Google hacks. It allows you to search for unsecure security cameras and take control of them thru the web. By using the "liveapplet" search, you can find several links that will take you to unsecure camreas that have their control interafce online for anyone to use. Kinda scary when u think of it ;)

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Monday, October 31, 2005

DOFUS - Free MMORPG

What's a MMORPG you ask? No it's not some new secret Al Qaeda weapon, it stands for - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Its a game played online with thousands of other people in real time, interacting and working together in a virtual gaming world. Other MMORPG's like World of Warcraft and Guild wars have become very popular, but you have to buy the software and sometimes pay an online monthly fee. Dofus, although the name is kinda whacky is a free MMORPG for the kiddies. No cost for the download and no online fees. I am gonna sign up tonight and see how it is. Say hello to me, my nickname is AngryFetus and my character name is Ginku

check it out here.

+dwebb

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Hacking the iTrip

A lot people use the iTrip from Griffin Technology as a way to interface their Ipod with their FM car stereos. In fact is a great wireless FM Transmitter. But the problem is that it has a very short range, and the signal starts breaking up very easily. Here is a little hack from I-hacked that shows you how to extend the range to around 60 feet and clear up the sound.

Steps to Follow:


1. First, use a razorblade to pry the unit open.
2. Get a paperclip and tightly wrapped a long section of copper wire around it like a spring.
3. After taking the copper wire off the paperclip, slide it over the existing antenna, then with a section of heat shrink to seal it
4. Pop it back together, there shouldn't be any more static, and the range should be increased to like 60-70 feet away.


+dwebb

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

October Deals & Steals $$

Here are some recent tech deals I have come across on the net. Christmas is right around the corner, and some of these are great stocking stuffers for the geek in your life ;) Hint Hint!!

1.) Maxtor 300GB HD with Enclosure for $99 - This Bundle Includes • Maxtor 300GB ATA-133 Refurbished Hard Drive • Ultra 3.5" USB 2.0 / Firewire External HD Enclosure

2.) Lexar JumpDrive™ 1GB $39 - Store, transfer and carry your data with you wherever you go! JumpDrive Secure is your answer for dependable and reliable storage of all types of files. With JumpDrive Secure security software, your confidential data will remain password protected and encrypted, even if someone else tries to use your JumpDrive.

3.) 70 Free Songs From iTunes! - Download 70 songs on iTunes made by Stanford student. the songs include "A wide range of musical performance by Stanford student,faculty, alumni and artists-in-residence.

4.) 300GB 7200RPM Hard Drive now just $89.99!! (After $50 MIR) - Price: $139.99 - $50 Rebate After Rebate: $89.99 This is one amazing price!

5.) Free Audiobooks ! - God bless the project Gutenberg folks. This one is great; more of us should take time to read the classics for those of us who don't have time to read the classics.

6.) Free Paper from HP - Just tell them where to send it.

7.) Never pay for wi-fi access again! - The world is full of free wi-fi locations so why pay for them? Skip Starbucks and other paid access locations and support local businesses and your community for free.



+dwebb

Hide My Ass

That pesky firewall or websense software blocking you at work or school, and you can't get to your favorite websites. Well here is an easy and free solution, that will allow you to bypass the sentinals and surf anonymously ;)

The site is called Hide My Ass and you can check it out here

+dwebb

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

10 things you shouldn't buy new

Thought this was an interesting artice on MSN. Tells you how you save a boatload of money, by buying these 10 things used.

1.) Books, books, books
The reality is that most books don’t get read more than once, if that, and they’re astonishingly easy to find used at steep discounts -- if not absolutely free.

2.)
DVDs, CDs and videos
The list price for Quentin Tarantino's most recent film, “Kill Bill, Volume 2,” is $30, and you can get it new for about $20 from Amazon.com. Buy from one of the retailers selling it used on the same site, though, and you’ll save at least $10. You can find similar deals online for videos and CDs. Other good hunting grounds for purchase of used items: movie rental chains like Blockbuster; used record stores; yard sales.

3.)
Little kids' toys
Parents know: it’s all but impossible to predict which toy will be a hit and which will lie forlorn at the bottom of the toy box. So rather than gamble at full price, cruise consignment shops and yard sales for bargains.

4.)
Jewelry
Fat markups on most gems (100% or more is fairly common) means that you’d be lucky to get one-third of what you paid at a retail store, should you ever need to sell.

5.)
Sports equipment
We may buy everything from badminton rackets to weight sets fully intending to wear them out, but too often they wind up collecting dust. Buy someone else’s good intention and you’ll save some bucks.

6.)
Timeshares
You could call these a notoriously lousy investment if you could call them an investment at all, but you can’t -- because what real investment is guaranteed to lose 30% to 70% right off the bat? That is, unless you buy used. There’s a huge number of folks who caved in to three hours of hard sell and are now desperate to dump their shares. For more details, read "Get the best deal on a time share."

7.)
Cars
The average new car loses 12.2% of its value in the first year, according to Edmunds.com; on a $20,000 car, that’s $2,440, or more than $200 a month. Some cars depreciate even faster, depending on demand, incentives offered and other factors.

8.)
Software and console games
Buy used, and you’ll pay half or less what the software cost new. Console games like those for the Xbox and Sony PS2 that list for $50 new, for instance, can often be purchased used for $20 or less a year after release.

9.)
Office furniture
Built to take a beating and last a lifetime, good-quality office desks, filing cabinets and credenzas are relatively easy to find even when a recession isn’t cratering the local economy.

10.) Hand tools
Well-made tools with few or no moving parts -- like hammers, wrenches, shovels, hoes, etc. -- can last decades with proper maintenance and are relatively easy to find at yard sales. If you’re not going to use a tool frequently, you may be able to rent it or borrow from a friend or neighbor rather than buying something else to clutter up your garage.



+dwebb


Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Suite101.com - Free Online Courses

Suite101 is a great resource for e-learning. All of the courses they offer are now totally free ;) You will find a wide variety of general interest courses.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Tidy Up iTunes MP3 collection

Many of us use iTunes and as you may know your Music library can get pretty cluttered with songs being imported from the various sources out there. Many of my song files are missing ID tags, artwork, etc. Well here is a way to organize all that music in your playlists ;)

Step 1 Tagging

Even if your tracks have been imported directly from CD the ID3 tags can still contain errors, especially if you are importing old CDs or non-mainstream CDs. The best tool I have found to fix tags is MusicBrainz Tagger. This great tool scans your various music files and writes clean metadata tags (ID3 tags or Vorbis comment fields) to your files.

For files that MusicBrainz doesn't recognize, MB submits acoustic fingerprints (TRM ids) of the files back to the server and asks the user to manually edit the track information, so that the next time someone uses the tool these tracks will be identified.

MusicBrainz allows you to set the threshold at which it thinks it has a match. For my collection I found that very few mistakes were made with a threshold of 80% and I was able to automatically update the tags on around 50% of my 8,000 track collection this way.

For the other 50%, MetaBrainz Tagger still made a pretty good guess as to what the correct tags were. In some cases I was able to automatically accept MB's best stab, but in other cases I had to use the tools within MB to find the correct details. This took quite a long time, but was worth the effort as MB helped me identify a lot of previously unknown tracks and artists. Sorting by album proved to be the quickest way to process my tracks as once I'd confirmed what album a particular track came from I could usually process another 10 tracks from the same album immediately.

Step 2 - Re-import to iTunes
(a) iTunes unfortunately manages its own tag database so it won't immediately pick up the new information. This can be fixed by:

- highlighting all tracks in the library, right clicking and selecting “Get Info.”
- Then click "OK" (BE SURE NOT TO CHECK ANY OF THE FIELDS OR YOU WILL LOSE THE VALUE FOR EVERY FILE).

After doing this, the files are all processed and the tag changes will be picked up, and your playcounts and playlists will remain the same.

(b) I had some problems with the above method as iTunes seemed to get a bit confused and wouldn't find the modifed tracks so what I ended up doing was going into my iTunes folder, deleting the iTunes music library files, and re-importing my music folder which picked up all the new tag info.

WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE ALL PLAYCOUNTS AND PLAYLISTS

Step 3 - Removing Duplicates
Once you've tidied up your tags removing duplicates becomes much easier. iTunes has a 'Show Duplicate Songs' command in the Edit menu. It only matches track name, which should be fine if you've tidied up your tags. Once you've done this it's just a case of working through the list and deleting duplicates.

Step 4 - Add Album Art
iTunes doesn't automatically add the artwork from CDs. The iTunes Art Importer solves this problem by adding album images from Amazon to your CDs - very clever.


Now your Itunes should be organized and easier to work with ;)

+dwebb

23 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP

Here is a great list of 23 Items, to help speed up your system.

1.) To decrease a system’s boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software — the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine — and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you’re not sure, here’s how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it’s important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.

The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP’s built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.

Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you’re a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.

Here’s how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.” Next, apply changes to “C: subfolders and files,” and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as “Access is denied”), click the Ignore All button.

5.) Update the PC’s video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site.

6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That’s fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here’s how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button — it’s just to the right of the Capacity pie graph — and delete all temporary files.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support “cable select,” the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here’s how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don’t want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here’s how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer — only its responsiveness.

14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

15.) Visit Microsoft’s Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

16.) Update the customer’s anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts — that is, anything over 500 — will noticeably tax the system.

18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP’s NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called “D drive.” You’ll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won’t be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won’t need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

19.) Check the system’s RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC’s memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer’s Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you’ll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it’s free.

21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

22.) If you’re sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

23.) At least once a year, open the computer’s cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you’re in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks.

+dwebb

Free PDF Maker

There are many times when you need to create a PDF of a word doc or some other file. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat to accomplish this, here is a free PDF maker that will get the job done nicely ;) Its called PrimoPDF - With it you can, convert to PDF from any application by simply 'printing' to the PrimoPDF printer - it couldn't be easier! Within minutes, you can create high-quality PDFs by converting from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and virtually any other printable file type.

Check it out here.


+dwebb

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Linking an Ipod to a Car Stereo

Here is an article I came across in PC magazine. Many of you have iPods and have wondered how to get all that great music off the iPod and playing on your car stereo. Here is 6 way to achieve it and the pros and cons of each.

1.) FM modulator.

The modulator is a low-power FM transmitter that broadcasts on an unused frequency. You plug a connecting cable from the modulator into your music player's headphone jack. Most of the portable satellite radio tuners from Sirius and XM have modulators built in, and usually run $20-$30.

Pro: Works on every car with an FM radio. Choose from multiple frequencies. Affordable. Most don't need installation.
Con: Quality ranges from okay to poor. For models that don't plug into the lighter, you must remember to bring a spare AA or AAA battery.


2.) Cassette adapter.

Plug this familiar (since the 1980s and the first portable CD players) gadget into your car's cassette slot, and press Play. It works adequately if you, ah, still have a car cassette player. Cost is $10 to $20.

Pro: Works with every car with a cassette player.
Con: Works only with cars with a cassette player. Adequate sound quality.


3.) FM modulator (antenna direct connection).

This modulator transmits, but not over the airwaves. You insert the car radio antenna plug into the back of this modulator, and the modulator's antenna plugs into the back of the car radio where it directly injects the signal. Sound quality is better, and less variable, than with other FM modulators. Cost is $30 to $75 and you may want an audio shop to install it. Check out products from Fahrenheit and Scosche, among others.

Pro: Adequate to good sound quality. Draws from car power (no batteries).
Con: May need pro installation (but it's not that hard). A handful of esoteric cars may lack the standard antenna jack or it will be in the trunk (requiring extra wiring).


4.) Line-in connection.

Run a cable from the headphone jack of your music player to a jack on the front of your car radio, a music-in jack in the glovebox, or in the center console. Can't find it? Automakers only got religion in the last year or so, and a few started adding line-in jacks, although others, like Lexus, will charge extra for it. Before, they (or the dealers) thought you'd be willing to pay $500 for a trunk-mounted CD changer that would play six CDs. Look for a stereo line cable with 1/8-inch jacks at both ends; this is the common size for music player headphones. Cost is $2-$10.

Pro: Excellent sound quality.
Con: Few cars have line-in jacks yet.


5.) Line-in connection via CD changer.

Most cars built in the past decade have a jack in the trunk for the dealer-installable CD changer you never bought. Or a CD changer connector on the back of the factory radio. If your car lacks a line-in jack and you want best sound quality, this is where you make the connection. Sound quality won't be any better or worse than a standard line-in connection, but this may be the only way to hack in. Some trunk-mount satellite radios can actually pass track-and-title information to the radio head unit. Cost varies from $25 to $150 plus an hour or two of installation time. It may be possible to have both a satellite radio and a music player connected with a custom A/B switchbox. Look into products from blitzsafe.com, pac-audio.com (Pacific Accessory Corp), and soundgate.com.

Pro: Excellent sound quality. Possible to pass satellite radio station, song information to car radio.
Con: Not cheap. May require disconnection of CD changer if you have one.


6.) iPod smart-cable connection.

Cables or black box (actually silver box) modules specific to Apple's all-conquering iPod connect into the CD changer jack or the back of the radio's CD changer / satellite radio jack. They pass the signal to the radio and charge your iPod at the same time. Some modules pass artist, track, and title information to the car radio. Others (Harman/Kardon drive+play, Monster Cable iCruze) have their own small LCD panels that mount on the dash, replacing the display of your iPod, which can be safely stashed in the glovebox. Costs range from $100 to $250.

Pro: Excellent sound, battery recharge, (sometimes) song information passed to car radio or dedicated LCD panel.
Con: Costly. Complex (for you, not the shop) installation. Disables iPod faceplate/controls, May limit you to a half-dozen playlists with specific names.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Using Google to find Movies

Awhile back I wrote about how to use the google search to find Mp3 files and Ebooks. Here is a way to use similar searches to find movies using google searches.

To achieve this we will borrow some of the operators from the Mp3 Search, namely -inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:”index of”

You could also add “-inurl:php” to avoid those nasty index.php files as well.

Now we could simply add the known movie file extensions like mpg, avi, wmv to the search and look at the first results.

We probably want to find special movies, like tv commercials, movies with a special actor in it, adult movies aso. What you do is to simply add what you are looking for to the search. For example movies with Claudia Schiffer would be found with the following search

-inurl:htm -inurl:html -inurl:php intitle:”index of” (mpg|avi|wmv) “Claudia Schiffer”

The (mpg|avi|wmv) operator can also be written (mpg or avi or wmv).

+dwebb

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Disposible Email Address Services

None of us like Spam and one of the best tricks to stop spam e-mail from reaching your inbox is by creating a disposable e-mail address. I’ve used a Yahoo account for spam for a long time, but recently, many services have popped up which serve exclusively to route spam to. Here is a list of some disposible email services on the web.
  • AnonInbox- no registration, simple, no frills.
  • DodgeIt- no registration required, provides RSS feeds, receive-only.
  • E4ward- requires registration, provides mail forwarding, allows multiple aliases of an account.
  • GreenSloth- no registration required, receive-only, e-mail expires automatically after a week.
  • KasMail- requires registration, allows up to 25 aliases, can set aliases to expire after a certain amount of time.
  • Jetable- provides mail forwarding, account autoexpires after certain amount of time.
  • Mailinator- no registration required, provides handy spam map, receive-only, e-mail expires automatically after a few hours.
  • PookMail- no registration required, very simple to use.
  • SneakeMail- requires registration, provides mail forwarding.
  • SpamDay- requires registration, provides mail forwarding, account is automatically destroyed after 24 hours of opening.
  • SpamGourmet- requires registration, provides mail forwarding, can create custom aliases which automatically expire after a certain number of e-mails received.
  • Spam.la- no registration required, no frills. You can see all spam being sent to all Spam.la accounts, or just your own.
  • SpamMotel- requires registration, provides mail forwarding, mail can be accessed through desktop e-mail clients, can reply to e-mail from your real e-mail address using SpamMotel e-mail.
  • Will Hack for Food- requires registration, account expires after user indicated period of time, best name ever.

+dwebb

Friday, September 30, 2005

Find A LAN Party Using Google Maps

So what's a LANParty you ask? In brief, a LANParty is a gathering of people who all bring their computers, play video games together on a network, and eat nachos. :) Here is a great site that incorporates Google Maps to find a LAN party going on in your area.

Check it out Here.

+dwebb

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Best Bumper Stickers

  1. Dyslexics are teople poo.
  2. Say "NO" to drugs. That will bring the prices down.
  3. What would Ashton do?
  4. Double your drive space. Delete Windows.
  5. Does anal retentive have a hyphen?
  6. If it ain't broke, take it apart and fix it.
  7. MOP AND GLO - The floor wax used by Three Mile Island cleanup team.
  8. Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
  9. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
  10. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
  11. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.
  12. The meek shall inherit the earth, after we're through with it.
  13. Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
  14. Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
  15. Nuke the Whales! We'll hunt them at night.
  16. Jesus loves you! Everybody else thinks you're a asshole.
  17. Lawyers have feelings too (allegedly).
  18. If there is no God, who always pops up that next Kleenex?
  19. Forget world peace; visualize using your turn signal.
  20. What wouldn't Jesus do?
  21. If you believe in telepathy, think about honking.
  22. People like you are the reason people like me need medication.
  23. Every time you open your mouth, some idiot starts talking.
  24. The box said Windows 2000 or better. So I installed Linux.
  25. Use the best: Linux for servers, Mac for graphics, Windows for Solitaire.
  26. I found Jesus - he was behind the sofa all the time.
  27. So many cats, so few recipes.
  28. Save the trees, wipe your ass with a spotted owl.
  29. Don't make me mad. I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.
  30. Rock is dead. Long live paper and scissors.
  31. Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil.
  32. On the journey of life, I choose the psycho path.
  33. On your mark, get set, go away!
  34. What would Scooby do?
  35. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.
+dwebb


Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Free Itunes Music Videos

Well it turns out by using a certain PHP script out there on the net, you can download complete music videos from the iTunes music store. You also have the option of downloading the smaller or larger .MOV format videos which can then be imported into your personal iTunes library.

Step 1: Open the iTMS and navigate to Music Videos in the left side column. Choose the video of your choice and right-click on either the ‘Small’ or ‘Large’ format clip. Choose ‘Copy iTunes Music Store URL’.

Step 2: Go here and paste the URL into the video field and click ‘Submit’. The resulting page will present you with a link to download the complete video from iTunes. Right-click and choose ‘Save Link As’. Make sure to rename your video appropriately.

These are high quality Quicktime .MOV files. The larger versions weigh in at about 50MB so make sure you have a lot of hardrive space if you plan on using this script.

Enjoy ;)

+dwebb

Monday, September 26, 2005

Beer Can Padlock Shim

Here's an interesting HOW TO on making a padlock shim to open up padlocks - it's based on a retail version, but made from a beer can. So now you can get into your old locker at HS or any other padlock that you forgot the combination too.

Check it out here.


+dwebb

Free 411 Calls When Mobile

We have all been driving around at one time or another, and have needed to call directory assistance or 411 to get the number of the adult video shop or a specific restaurant in the area ;) Most times you cringe using your cell phone because it's too expensive, well the folks at Jingle Networks may have a solution for you. Their new free 411 service called, appropriately enough, Free411, is, well, just that. It's designed to give consumers a way to avoid paying the fee wireless carriers charge for 411 access--as much as $3.49.

Free411, which can be reached by calling 800-free-411, is an interesting utilization of a free service that requires users to bear with a bit of advertising before getting the goodies.

Enjoy :)

+dwebb

Monday, September 19, 2005

Free PC to Phone Calls

A program called adcall lets you make free calls to anywhere in the world but there will be ads when you use the program. There is no spyware or adware but you can only talk for 10 minutes. There is two hacks that lets you remove ads and make calls for an unlimited number of minutes...

No ads hack

1. First go into the adcalls-->ads folder
2. Then delete everything in the folder
3. No more ADS, enjoy

Unlimited calling hack

1. First go into adcalls-->skin-->skin1 folder
2. Then right-click on timerDisplay.xsl and open it with notepad
3. Scroll to the bottom and look for "startclock(00,09,59);"
4. Now change that to "startclock(00,99,59);" or whatever you like
5. Now enjoy unlimited calls

You can download adcall here

+dwebb

The Black Vault

What the heck is the Black Vault you ask??? Well the Black Vault, is one of the largest online communities of it's kind, anywhere in the world. It contains, over 149,000 government documents, over 10,000 archived news articles, and over 14,000 photographs of military aircraft, UFOs, JFK Assassination material, and much more. All obtained using the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). Now you can find out, if your friends are really alien lifeforms bent on taking over the world :)

Check it out to here.


+dwebb

MIT Courses For Free


Well you may not be able to get into MIT, but you can still study there. MIT now offers a bunch of OpenCourseWare: a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century.

Some of the Course Categories are:
Check out the full list and all the details here.

+dwebb

DIY Hardware Resources

This is a great resource list for all those DIY projects that come up. Vendors listed here sell miscellaneous and surplus hardware, tools, lab supplies, motors, adhesives, Dremel bits, screws, gizmos, and whatnots. Stuff you might need for successful hardware building and hacking, stuff you’re inclined to packrat until just the right project comes along.

Surplus Stores:

  1. American Science And Surplus The canonical go-to store for surplus anything.
  2. The Electronics Goldmine Mostly electronic components. Mostly. A wide and ecclectic variety of electronic components, assemblies, and kits.
  3. Alltronics not to be confused with All Electronics, this outfit is another Goldmine clone.
  4. Dontronics Dontronics carries an assortment of somewhat unique kits. Lots of components to get your PIC talking to serial ports, memory, and monitors.
  5. Phidgets Phidgets sells a wide range of electronics kits aimed at robotics and academics. Think servo controllers, digital I/O boards, USB interfaces, and analog sensors. Sadly, many of the kits are a little on the expensive side.
  6. ELM Electronics Elm Electronics produces integrated circuits (and only ICs) on a small scale. If National Semiconductor were scaled down ten thousand times, they’d be ELM Electronics. Anyway, ELM produces such chips as ODB (car diagnostics) to RS232 interpreters, Sony infrared remote control interpreters, stepper motor controllers, and more.
  7. Surplus Center Surplus Center sells components that are large and in charge. 1.5hp electric motors, 4hp gas engines, 3,000 lb hydraulic cylinders, and 12v SLA batteries. If you’re looking for BattleBot parts, these will most likely be too large, unless you’re building a BattleBot that will decisively put those punk kids (and the car they rode in on) in their place once and for all. If, however, you’re looking to convert your lawnmower into a GoKart, these people can help you out… (thanks Nick/Felice!)
  8. B&G Micro A popular Goldmine clone. Their online catalog rankles, so you may do well do download the PDF, though I’m not sure that the PDF covers their full inventory. (thanks, Bill)
  9. Surplus Shed DIY photography is enjoying a renaissance of sorts as people are realizing that all you need to make a camera is a lens, film, and a light-proof box to connect the two. To that end Surplus Shed offers a selection of items to get you started; lenses, eyepieces, mirrors, and repurposable cameras. They also offer parts for the astronomically inclined, such as finder scopes, motors, and lenses.
  10. Electronic Surplus There’s very little surprise about what Electronic Surplus sells—exotic Capuchin and Rhesus monkeys. No, wait, it’s surplus electronics.
  11. Government Liquidation As the name implies, Government Liquidation auctions big lots of government surplus equipment. If you’re going to bid on something here, you’ll need a forklift to unload it, so be sure to bid on one of those, too.
  12. Timeline, Inc. Timeline primarily sells LCD displays. They also have a “Hacker’s Corner” with odd power supplys, embedded computers, POS terminals, and serial terminals.

+dwebb

How to Play Video on Your iPod

There's a lot of speculation about future iPods, and if they'll play video - but you don't need to wait, the latest version of podzilla (Linux for the iPod) plays video, and now video with sound. Check out the site below for a quick how-to on installing Podzilla. Also here is a brief video showing many of the other features podzilla offers.

Check out Podzilla install on a Mac here.
Check out how to convert your own Videos, and Install off of a Windows Machine here.
Check out video with sound, playing on an iPod photo.

+dwebb

Friday, September 16, 2005

HOW TO TICK PEOPLE OFF

Some of you I am sure have seen this before, but for those who haven't, here is a great list of nutty stuff to drive people crazy with!!! I know I am going to be trying some of these this weekend. Pretty amusing stuff ;)

1.) Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2.) In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."

3.) Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."

4.) If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.

5.) Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.

6.) Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."

7.) Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."

8.) Practice making fax and modem noises.

9.) Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.

10.) Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.

11.) Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."

12.) Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.

13.) Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.

14.) Holler random numbers while someone is counting.

15.) Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."

16.) Staple pages in the middle of the page.

17.) Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.

18.) Honk and wave to strangers.

19.) Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.

20.) TYPE IN UPPERCASE.

21.) type only in lowercase.

22.) dont use any punctuation either

23.) Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24.) Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
"DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
"What?"

"Never mind, it's gone now."

25.) As much as possible, skip rather than walk.

26.) Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.

27.) Ask people what gender they are.

28.) While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.

29.) Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.

30.) Sing along at the opera.

31.) Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32.) Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles.

+dwebb

Thursday, September 15, 2005

New Cubicle Pet


Well it's official I am the proud owner of an OX. No not the 800 pound horned variety. My OX is a toy from the Ugly doll series. Ugly dolls remind me of something crossed between the land of misfit toys, and a lab experiment gone bad. There are like 20 different models, and they are great for a conversation piece, or for jazzing up that drab cubicle.

You can find them and other kewl import toys from Giant Robot.

+dwebb

Find a human when calling a company

How many times do we need to call a company for some customer support hoping to land a pulse on the other end, and what happens after the short phone greeting? We find ourselves thrown into the great abyss known as automated Phone Hell. Press 1 for this, Press 2 for that, Press three and hang yourself in your cubicle. Well here is a list of menu hacks for most major companies, that will help you in getting a live body to talk too.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

MAME arcade machine


Remember the days before Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube??? Well maybe I am dating myself by saying I spent hours and hours as a kid dropping quarters into Ms. Pacman :) Get your mind out of the gutter........Well now you can play all those old arcade classics on any standard PC using an application called MAME. In fact MAME is a perfect application to breathe new life into an old computer you have kicking around in the closet. What is MAME you ask???

MAME is an Arcade emulator, which means it is capable of making an ordinary P.C. run games which were designed for another computer system. The project aims to make a perfect reproduction of many historical arcade machines which users can play on their home P.C.s. Supported games include such classics as Space Invaders, Pacman and Donkey-Kong as well as many lesser-known titles. You can find the old classic roms on Bittorrent or other sites across the net.
Here is one good ROM site. People have even made cabinets to house the old PC and turned it into the perfect arcade machine for their game room or den. You can check out some DIY cabinets at this site or the arcade@home website.

+dwebb

Free Online Courses

Here ia a great collection of free online courses from About.com. Each online course is sent to you via email on a daily or weekly basis and is designed to help you learn a specific skill or solve a particular problem. There are no grades or degrees, only a whole lot of free online learning.

Check it out here.


+dwebb

Speed Boost from Rewiring DSL Circuit


Here is a little article on tweaking your DSL speed. This guide will show you how to rewire the DSL circuit from the phone Company's NID to your modem and hopefully you’ll gain about 100 to 150kbps in speed, lower Latency and even get rid of all the Filters that are attached to your phones.

Check it out here.

+dwebb

DIY "Secret" Hollow Book

Everybody has heard of those books with the hollowed out spaces in the pages from one spy movie or another. Well this little tutorial shows you how to construct your own. Hide valuables, firearms, or the secret formula to Coco Puffs :)

Check it out here.


+dwebb

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

TELECRAPPER 2000

Well we all have gotten those lovely calls just as we are sitting down in front of dinner, or trying to relax after a long day of work. The phone rings and no its not your Aunt Judy, it's some spider monkey telemarketer trying to sell you spray on hair or some other useless product or service. Well here is a little device that intercepts those calls and then through an algorithm plays a list of WAV files to annoy and harass the inconsiderate salesperson. It will cost around 20 bucks to make and should be a standard for any home ;)

Check it out here.

+dwebb

Strongman Stunts


Have you ever wanted to tear a telephone book apart, or drive a nail into a board with your fist? Well, then you got to check out these scans from the book How to perform Strong Man Stunts from 1952. Impress your girlfriend and amaze your friends…

Check them out here.

+dwebb

Great Little Flash Games

Here is a site I came across awhile back. It has numerous flash games to pass the time, and all are very well made and elegant in design. They are great for when you are mobile, and can be accessed remotely without ever installing a thing on your PC. Me and my son had a blast the other night checking them out.

Visit the site here.

+dwebb

20 Free Songs on iTunes

Some of you may already have these, but for those of you who don't, here are some links to some free Itunes tracks. The albums are called NU: The Sounds of New Scandinavia. There are 5 volumes in total, and each volume has around 4 free songs for a total of 20 tracks.

Get them here:

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5

Enjoy ;)

+dwebb

DIY Vintage Projects

Ahhh the smell of nostalga. I remember as a kid looking in the back of popular mechanics and drooling over all the cool DIY projects and plans they offered in the back of the magazine. I had visions of building my own Hovercraft, helicopter, ATV, etc. Well I came across some Vintage plans which tell you how to build some pretty cool devices for your home and for fun.

Yard & Garden:
Leaf Blower

Snow Blower
Garden Tiller


Boating:
Jon Boat
Submarine
Anyone's Boat
Folding Kayak
Canoe
Jet Ski

Archery
Recurve Bow
Repeating Crossbow
Flat bow

Vehicles
Six Wheeler ATV
Airboat Snow Sled
Airboat Snowmobile
Mini Dump Truck
Go Kart Plans

Kids Toys
Battery Powered Sidewalk Cars:
Classic Touring Car
Race Car
Classic Car
Snow Toboggan
Gas Powered RC Boat Plans


+dwebb