Monday, May 12, 2008
Parallels Adds Windows Service Pack Support
3:36PM Gina Trapani | The Windows on Mac virtualization arms race continues: On the heels of a new VMware Fusion 2.0 beta, Parallels Desktop issues a software update that adds support for XP Service Pack 3 and Vista Service Pack 1 for Boot Camp partitions. Here’s more on how to dual boot and virtualise the same Windows partition with Parallels. [via] More »
Powerset Searches the Wikipedia with Natural Language
3:08PM Gina Trapani | Instead of putting the onus on you to choose the best keyword, just-launched semantic search engine Powerset can find the answers you seek on the Wikipedia using natural language. Type things like “what is a life hack” or “paintings by Salvador Dali” and Powerset extracts those answers from Wikipedia and lays them out on an attractive page. CNET reports: Powerset’s natural language search technology is based on patents licensed exclusively from PARC and its own proprietary indexing. Powerset’s engine has read 2.5 million Wikipedia pages and extracted “meaning” from the sentences, creating a navigation and semantic layer on top of the popular Web encyclopaedia. In my tests, Powerset was slow to respond (no doubt suffering from launch overload), but you can check out a video of Powerset in action after the jump. More »Phun Teaches Physics Lessons the Best Way Possible
12:30PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Phun, a free open-source, cross-platform 2D physics simulator, makes you want to pick up blocks, or maybe crayons, and learn more about the way things fall and move under pressure. Written by a Swedish graduate student, the program teaches concepts of restitution and friction, so it’s great to load up with the kids, but you’ll probably find yourself sneaking a few turns by yourself at creating, and knocking over, shapes and lines. Phun is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems; hit the link for instructions on using and having, well, fun in Phun. Phun More »
Design
FontStruct Creates Typefaces Brick-by-Brick
11:00AM Kevin Purdy | For certain projects, even the gargantuan list of pre-installed fonts on your system just won’t do. When you want to create your own font but don’t want to learn the archaic process for doing so, you want free font designer webapp FontStruct. FontStruct provides simple tools to colour in integrated blocks. You can fill out just one key letter or a whole font, distribute your creation freely or with rights reserved, and offer it up as an easy-to-install TrueType font. Using FontStruct’s tools requires a free sign-up—or you could just browse FontStruct’s library of original fonts for download. FontStruct [via Digital Inspiration] More »
WikiU Schools You in Film Making, Home or Otherwise
9:30AM Kevin Purdy | Most home movies are jammed-together affairs, but anyone can make their videos better with a little schooling in the basics of story-telling. The Wikiversity has a free multi-part “Film School” that focuses on the kinds of tips just as helpful to unofficial wedding videographers as aspiring auteurs. Learn the basics of framing, editing in “L cuts,” and when and where to cut a scene. Some of it does get a bit technical for DIY directors, but you’ll pick up enough to have real pride in the next set of home-burned DVDs you send out. WikiU Film School [via gHacks] More »Say no to charity collectors and salespeople
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Sometimes it can seem like every time you answer the phone you get asked for money. Especially when it’s a charity collector, some people find it hard to say no (which is why so many charities operate this way). The Simple Dollar suggests a couple of strategies for people who find that they get easily talked into parting with their cash:
If you like to support charity, by all means go for it. But do it in a planned way – budget your giving for the year, and stick to your budget.
When a telemarketer calls you raising money for a different charity, tell them the truth:
“I’ve already decided my charitable giving for the year. I’ll keep you in mind for next year.” Then – hang up!
Learn to politely but firmly end the conversation – the more you chat, the more opportunity you give to the salesperson to talk you into the sale or donation.
Note that you can add your number to the Do Not Call register to avoid sales calls – but charities are exempt, as as businesses with whom you already have an existing relationship – so your telco can still call trying to upsell you to a more expensive contract, for example.The Sucker Factor – The Cost of Being Unable to Say No and How to Get Out of it [The Simple Dollar] More » Google gets Friendly
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Data portability seems to be the buzzword of the moment. We’ve already heard that Facebook and MySpace will let users take their profile data to other sites. But if you’re a Google-head, you will probably be excited to learn that the Big G has been tipped to announce something similar, called Friend Connect. Tech Crunch has speculated that Friend Connect will be “APIs for Open Social participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party websites.” More »Installing WINE
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | WINE is a piece of software (an emulation layer if you want to get technical) which lets you run certain Windows applications on Linux systems. So it’s very handy for penguin lovers who still have one or two (WINE-supported) Windows apps they want to be able to run.Atomic mag have helpfully published a guide to installing WINE. As a bonus, it also includes instructions on how to get Valve’s most excellent Orange Box game running with WINE. Sweet!
Installing WINE [Atomic] More » 
Twitterverse Screensaver Visualizes Your Twitter Activity
7:50AM Adam Pash | An adventurous Flickr user dug up a file in Leopard’s example developer documents called Twitterverse, a screensaver that displays your Twitter world in a circle of thumbnailed activity. To use Twitterverse, find the file (a quick Spotlight search for Twitterverse should do the trick), open your Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane, and then simply drag the Twitterverse.qtz file into the preview window of the Screen Saver preference pane. To get it downloading your friends’ tweets, click the Options button, enter your username and password, and try it out. I had trouble seeing results (just a blank screen), but if you have more luck, the screensaver is eye-tastic! Twitterverse Quartz Composer [Flickr via TG Daily] More »
