Next time you stumble into a patch of poison ivy at a picnic, The Daily Green web site suggests pouring a little vodka on the affected area to cure what ails you. In fact, the article offers a total of 10 unusual uses for the popular beverage, from flower preservation and insect repellent to toothache reliever and jellyfish-sting soother. This is completely unverified, but I’ve also heard it mixes well and can get you really drunk, so be careful! The Vodka Poison Ivy Cure…and 9 Other Weird Uses for Vodka [The Daily Green]
When it’s time to finally clear out that dusty trunk full of home movies on VHS tapes, you have a couple of options: pay someone to transfer all that precious video to DVD, or do it yourself. For several hours of tape, having it done can get expensive, so the Unclutterer blog runs down the steps for capturing and burning VHS videos to disk the DIY way. You’ll need a video capture card or external capture device (a camcorder will work), and to import it to a video application like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. From there you can edit the clips, add titles, music, and burn the whole shebang to DVD. The whole process isn’t a quick one, depending on how much tape you have and how fast a system and large a hard drive you’ve got. Have you digitised old VHS tapes? Got any gear or tricks that made it faster or easier? Let us know in the comments. How to digitally encode VHS home movies [Unclutterer]
TimeTube is one of those rare YouTube mashups that make the video-sharing site both fun and functional. Type in a search term, and TimeTube lines up the results on an easily-navigated timeline, letting you trip down memory lane or learn more about a topic as it progresses through the social media jungle. There are alternate views—a list, a flipbook, and geo-located—but the timeline view is what really sells this mashup. Got another tool that stramlines and organises YouTube searches? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
TimeTube [Dipity via TechCrunch]Windows only: Freeware application DExposE2 is a clone of Mac OS X’s Expose feature for Windows XP and Vista. Aside from the basic Expose features, which we’ve seen from a lot of clones in the past, DExpose2 features a handful of extra features like interactive previews, hot corners, multi-monitor support, and more. If you like the look and feel of Expose but have never found a good substitute for your Windows PC, the freeware DExpose2 may be the best available. DExposE2 comes in portable and installable flavours, so you can check it out with a quick download and no install. Hit the jump for a video of DExposE2 in action.
