Wednesday, March 30, 2005

A lunch-bag of Style!



Built NY has come out with lunch bag that screams Style! They come in various colors - red, pink, blue, black, etc. Made of neoprene that acts as insulator and protective padding. The bag even opens as a placemat. They also make wine bottle (1 or 2) carrier, six-pack carrier. Check it out!

Built NY

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Hang a Poster the simple way!


If only I knew this while in college. My dorm room would have been spared the gobs of thumb tacs & those post-it gum stuff. Posterhanger has a simple and clever way to hand a poster without any expensive framing or adhesives. The system uses few clips and top and a bottom weight bar and hangs nicely from one nail. Check out the site, they even sell the sets.

Posterhanger

Monday, March 28, 2005

iPod Shuffle in Altoids Gum case


My first Altoids iPod shuffle case. Took me 10 minutes to make.
1. Bought the Altoids (sugar free) Chewing Gum case from Target tonight.
2. Drilled a hole with a 19/64" drill bit (strart with a small drill then work upto the bigger bit, trust me on this one.)
3. Put in the shuffle and hook up the headphones.

Here are some more pictures

The case seems to let the shuffle fit in quite decent. I hear a very slight rattle. Next few days I'll post some upgrades.

I'm sure you can make your shuffle more comfortable in it. But this sure is heck of a case for a 10 minute contruction time.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Get your fill of ASCII art

ASCII Generator creates the fancy-pants ASCII art that we used to see way back when. Nostalgic really! If you haven't gotten over your kick for these, or want to get some healthy dosage, check it out!

ASCII Generator

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Delivery Pizza made @ your door-step!

Scott Matthew's Super Fast Pizza has brought about an innovation in the pizza delivery business, that's akin to Mr. Coffee's drip system over the old perculator gizmos. Using a wireless computer system, pizza orders are sent to mobile and in-motion Pizza delievery vans. These 60K vans equipped with a full pizza making kitchen, drives to your doorstep in less than half the conventional 40 minutes wait time. The pizza cooks en-route. Two catches - limited toppings, and for now only available in Fond du Lac, WI.

Super Fast Pizza slashes delivery times [pizzamarketplace]

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Your own Life Mosaic

Make your own "life mosaic" out of 1200 tiny tiled photos that make one master image. Each tile links to the full-sized photo of themselves.

How to make a life mosaic [lifehacker]

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Leave no web trace behind!

Lifehacker presents an article by Technology columnist Jeremy Wagstaff has publised a list of USB drive software applications, including:

Trillian Anywhere
Portable Firefox
Portable Thunderbird
Portable Nvu

A Directory of Programs Designed for USB Drives[Jeremy W. LOOSE wire]

Monday, March 14, 2005

FREE SpyWare Killer Roundup

* Ad-Aware - For total cleaning, two thumbs up
* Spybot Search & Destroy - Great in conjunction with Ad-Aware
* Microsoft AntiSpyware - Pretty good, getting better
* SpywareBlaster - Preventative while-you-browse monitor blocks nasties real-time
* HijackThis - Helps you reclaim a “hijacked” web browser

courtesy of lifehacker

Friday, March 11, 2005

SpywareBlaster - yet another entry in spyware blocker

Its a chicken-and-egg riddle. A new spyware blocker results in the ad creators to work around it. The best one I have seen so far is Lavasoft's Adaware (Free for personal use). Here is another one called SpywareBlaster by Javacool Software. This software prevents the installation of spyware, adware and browser hijacking meanies while you’re innocently surfing the web.

SpywareBlaster

Lavasoft's Adaware

Free Anti-Virus (frankly paid ones are far better)

Lifehacker has a good round-up of free anti virus software for personal use. These are comparable to that of Norton Anti-Virus paid subscription. Only one drawback, these may not update the virus files as instanteneously as that of Norton Anti-Virus. But still some anti-virus protection is better than none.

Free anti-virus roundup [Lifehacker]

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Annotate where you tread using Google Maps.

Engadget has an awesome how-to that teaches how to annotate and personalize google maps to create a mapped presentation. They show how to even embed pictures and videos at different stops (waypoints) on your journey. Oh man! here I go with my trips annotated.

HOW-TO: Make your own annotated multimedia Google map [Engadget]

What color is your website?

If you like the color scheme of a URL and want to borrow (steal) the color scheme idea you can do it easy with this nifty tool by Owen Winkler. Great job man!

I like your colors [Lifehacker]

Digital Photo Tips & Techniques

Lifehacker has compiled a greatly useful set of articles providing valuable tips and techniques for digital photography. Check it out.

Know your rights as a photographer
Photograph snow more effectively
Take better digital photos at night
Set up a photoblog with PixelPost
Brush up on digital retouching techniques

Monday, March 07, 2005

Maxthon - IE boosted!

A free IE alternate (bug free from the usual microsoft IE) browser based on the IE browser engine, Maxthon, incorporates tabs, RSS reading, pop-up and ad-blocking. Its a good alternate to IE for those sites that don't work in FireFox. Hey Microsoft learn from Maxthon would you..

Maxthon

'jybe' with co-browsers

Jybe is a browser add-on compatible with IE and Firefox, allows colaborative navigation, chatting inside the 'jybe' session. Cool thing is people from a Mac can jybe with a PC user and vise versa. Check it out..

Jybe

Friday, March 04, 2005

Freecycle - give & get stuff for Free

Got a chair or spare screen-less laptop (like me) lying around? Need an excuse to get rid of the old to buy new? Need some free stuff? Check Freecycle. Its a collection of local email lists on which memebers offer and ask for stuff for free. Its up to the taker & giver to arrange pickup of items.

Freecycle

Keep your Windows happy!

A helpful post at Neowin.net forums gives sensible & spot-on tips on keeping your Windows PC happy and running smoothly. From disk defragmenting and registry-cleaning to spyware detection.

How to maintain a healthry Windows System [Neowin.net]

Random Time Theory?

What on earth is this clock all about? So I see the time then I don't see the time. Intriguing mix of jumbled time. Nice one.

Random Time [cafepress]

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Peerflix - Netflix alternate

Peerflix allows you to part with your old DVD only for someone else's old DVD. You might luck out and get the ones you are looking for. I wonder how many scratched DVDs will be traded this year. Thanks to Peerflix.

Sign up for a Peerflix account, make a list of DVD’s you own & willing to trade and DVD’s you want. Peerflix provides the mailers - send out a DVD, receive a DVD. Keep the movies you get for as long as you want, until you trade again.

Peerflix

iPod style ear buds don't fit? Get this...

So I admit, I must have deformed ears. Those iPod style ear buds never fit in my ears. Looks like David Pogue, technology writer of NY Times seems to share in such deformity with me. David has a found a way to keep em in, and so have I.

My Way [Griffin Earjam]

David's Way [NY Times]

Montage-a-Google

Awesome flash app creates a user-defined montage from google image searches. It can use the thumbnails or the originals with mouseover links to the original site. You can even define the grid size. Awesome research tool for artists, researchers, and porn-hogs.

Montage-a-Google

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Yahoo! gives away free ice-cream / coffee.

Web giant Yahoo! celebrates its 10th birthday today by giving out a coupon for a free Baskin Robbins ice cream cone or cup to registered members. The offer’s one day only, so sign into Yahoo! and print out your coupon (and optional driving directions to the nearest Baskin Robbins) while you still can.

Update: in Singapore, Yahoo!’s giving away coffee, not ice cream.

Yahoo! 10th Anniversary Ice Cream giveaway [Yahoo!]

Ditch that buggy Outlook for EssentialPIM for FREE

EssentialPIM manages your calendar, to-do list, contacts and outline-style notes on the desktop. It will import data from Microsoft Outlook refugees and other common formats. Exports to HTML and text. Supports multiple languages, database password protection and easy backup.

EssentialPIM

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

HotMail & Yahoo Mail through Thunderbird

The WebMail extension allows you to read both Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail in Mozilla Thunderbird. Note, using this you can only read. You'll have to your own mail server's SMTP to send. This sort of only half solves the issue.

Check Hotmail using Thunderbird [lifehacker]

New Segways - more toys for the rich!

Segway has released three new models. I wonder if in few years, these would become the Porche of bi-pedal footpath human arrogance.

New Segways: The Segway XT, Segway GT, and Segway HT i180 [engadget]

Unlock your phone with your own face!

Japan's Omron Corp. has developed face-recoginition system for camera phones. It supposedly is 99% accurate. The software, claimed to be compatible with a range of cellphone systems, uses your own picture to lock / unlock your phone. Watch out you twins out there.

Omron develops face-recoginition software for cellphones [engadget]

Let the iPod hacks begin!

A guy named, Nils Schneider has come up with a rather inspired way to extract the iPod firmware.

iPod firmware reverse engineered [engadget]

Ga! Ga! I want this furniture! (Chick magnet)

"Heltzer introduces the industry’s first titanium indoor/outdoor seating and table collection. Called the Ti collection in reference to the chemical abbreviation for the inert element, the group also features back and seat cushions of blue silicone gel that can be adjusted for firmness. The cushions are draped with luxuriously soft, pull-over removable towels, which are custom made from a new eucalyptus-based, earth-friendly fiber and cotton."

heltzer.com

Light at the end of the Tunnel for PalmOne!

There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel for PalmOne yet, at least if this editorial has something to do with it. Question is, how deep does the tunnel really go?

Editorial: Palm Down, But Will Be Back! [MobileRead]

Are you hooked on Sony?

The hook - Sony Ericsson WorldQuest.05. It is a global online reality game where contestants combine their wit, cunning skills and speed with leading mobile technology to complete challenges as part of a race to become the “Master of Mobility”.

Global online reality game from Sony Ericsson [Pdalive]

See yourself in binary!

If you are like me you'd probably use a scenery. But I know someone out there would get a thrill seeing themselves in 1's and 0's. Upload your photo and watch it turn into thousands of different colored 1’s and 0’s.

Text-Image [Lifehacker]

Get it while its Hot! Firefox 1.0.1 beta.

FireFox 1.0.1 beta now available. Come and get it..

Firefox 1.0.1 beta download
[Mozilla.org]

Donate that old PC and do some good!

What to do with that old PC sitting around? Donate it. I've got several acting as a nice cozy house for dust bunnies.

Ten Tips for Donating a Computer [TechSoup]
Donate your old cell phone [Lifehacker]

Email from future, from past

Email yourself in the future but from the past. Reading about this service, made my mind loop around in space-time. One of my Friday afternoon, day-dreaming, sleep-deprived meanderings.

FutureMail [Ben Sinclair]

SideStep, Orbitz killer?

There is a new discount travel search engine in town. Could this be an Orbitz killer? You decide.

SideStep

Gmail as journal

Weblog White’s of Henry Lane shows how to use Gmail as a personal journal using labels.

Gmail journal [White’s of Henry Lane]
Gmail as virtual drive [Lifehacker]
Get a Gmail account [isnoop]

FireFox working for You

Recently I've picked up a quite a bit of chatter on the web about making Firefox working for you. Here are some links & articles consolidated.

Change the size of the search box in Firefox [Darrell Norton’s Blog]
Using Spellbound to check spelling in Firefox [SourceForge]
Quick Dictionary Lookup [Lifehacker]
Have Gmail? Make it look your's with Firefox[Persistent.info]

iPod Shuffle Tips

I've been looking for some hacks, tips & tricks for iPod Shuffle. Mac expert Scott Knaster offers tips and tricks for using the new iPod Shuffle.

iPod shuffle Tips and Tricks [MacDevCenter]