Friday, November 14, 2008
Fix
DIY Greeting Card Holder
8:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | If you’re flush with Christmas cards but lack an enormous mantle to spread them out on, check out this DIY greeting card holder. Instructables user Very Keri had a ton of Christmas cards and no where to put them. By recycling an unused art canvas with a fresh wrap of festive fabric and attaching bands of ribbon around it, she created a unique greeting card holder. It can be hung on the wall or propped up, and the entire project is easily customised to blend in with any decor just by the colour of ribbons and fabric you use. Make Your Own Greeting Card Holder [Instructables] More »
Design
WPClipart Archives Free Clipart
7:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Don’t embarrass yourself by busting out the same tired stock clip art for your next Power Point tour de force. WPClipart has a pile of royalty free images to share. The archive currently has 23,872 images, covering thousands of subjects. A significant portion of them are in lossless formats. The site is organised into categories, but if casual browsing fails to find you the perfect gem you’ve been searching for there is always keyword based searches. You can even download the entire collection as a single archive, making it easier to use offline. For more free clipart, check out the Open Clip Art Library. WPClipart [via DownloadSquad] More »
Fix
BookCrossing Tracks Your Books In The Wild
5:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | If you’re looking for a novel way to keep your books out of landfills, release them into the wild with a tracking number from BookCrossing.com to see how far and wide they roam. After signing up for an account you can begin tagging your books and releasing them. Give them to friends, leave them on airplanes or coffee shop tables, anything to put them out where they can be found and enjoyed. Each book you release will have a unique ID number that allows future readers to visit BookCrossing and track where the book has been and what other people have to say about it. Some of the more well traveled books have hundreds of entries showing where they were found and what the readers has to say about the book. You can order labels or simply download the templates from their website and print them on label paper. If you’d like to jump right in and start sending lots of books on new adventures, you can order packets of pre-numbered labels. All the pre-numbered labels are registered to your account so all that’s left to do is slap them in the covers of the books and leave them in interesting places to be found and passed on. Bookcrossing [via DumbLittleMan] More »
Fix
Top 10 DIY Photography Tools
2:00AM Kevin Purdy | As productivity thinker Merlin Mann recently wrote, getting better at photography can be a long-haul test of willpower and humility. It doesn’t have to be expensive, though. Whether you’re rocking a digital single-lens reflex model or a reliable point-and-shoot, there are a lot of different shots and gear you can experiment with, and important lessons to learn, that cost less than $50, if anything. Read on for our roundup of ten cheap or free DIY projects and lessons for aspiring photographers. Photo by Marcin Wichary. More »
Communicate
Pac-Man Tops Most Downloaded Android Apps List
1:58AM Gina Trapani | Fast Company publishes the most popular Android applications downloaded so far from the Android Market, which opened on October 22nd. Pac-Man tops the list at number one, followed by MySpace Mobile, The Weather Channel, and ShopSavvy. Check out our picks for the best Android apps to boost your mobile productivity. [via Gizmodo] More »
Fix
Online Monitor Test Calibrates Your Monitor For Free
1:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | FlatPanelsDK, a Danish monitor information site, has a set of free tools available on their site. Available both as portable downloads and web based tools you’ll have your monitor tweaked in no time flat. More »
Organise
MiniTask Is A Light-Weight Task Tracker
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows/Mac/Linux (Adobe AIR): Free Adobe AIR application MiniTask is a light-weight task manager with a surprising number of features. MiniTask displays in single window, the entire functionality of the application exists in one menu available via right click. You can bulk remove done tasks, separate tasks them with a simple labelled line break, set alarms, and export your tasks easily to the clipboard. MiniTask has handy keyboard shortcuts like the ability to create a new labelled divider by typing **divider name** in your task list, MiniTask will automatically convert and place it. MiniTask is a free cross-platform download that requires Adobe AIR. MiniTask [via Elite By Design] More »
Design
Think Of Megapixels In Terms Of Cupcakes
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | It’s been noted that cramming more and more megapixels into consumer-grade digital cameras isn’t really giving everybody better pictures. These days, in fact, cameras with more than seven or eight megapixels per picture are seeing more noise and grit because too much information is passing into too small a sensor. One New York Times writer explains the phenomenon using a cupcake analogy: The mechanics of this can be understood by thinking of a digital camera sensor as a flat sheet of material pocked with millions (hence “mega”) of cylindrical, cuplike pixels. In other words, picture the digital sensor as a tiny cupcake tin … Larger pixels (cups, remember), with larger surface areas, capture more photons per second, which in electronics-speak means a stronger signal — and in camera-speak means less noise and cleaner colors. The article recommends those seeking better shots for less cash not worry about grabbing the latest MP-busting digicam and focus on getting a decent, lower-end DSLR. Got a high-megapixel camera and feeling a bit of buyer’s remorse, or are you seeing better shots these days? Tell us in the comments. Photo by jslander. Pixels Are Like Cupcakes. Let Me Explain. [New York Times] More »
Organise
Google iPhone App To Offer Search By Voice
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Google is expected to release a free iPhone application today that lets iPhone owners ask to find local businesses, get driving directions, ask basic search queries (”What’s the capitol of Belgium?”), and displays them on-screen “within seconds on a fast wireless network,” according to the New York Times. I don’t see it in the iTunes app store yet; tell us in the comments if you do. [via Gizmodo] More »
Work
