Saturday, May 17, 2008
Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 Released
11:15AM Adam Pash | Mozilla pushed out the first release candidate of Firefox 3 early this evening, so if you’re already field testing Firefox 3, now’s the time to go to Help -> Check for Updates to download the latest and greatest build. If you’re wondering what to expect, check out the RC1 release notes. Looks like we’re getting close! Thanks Owen! More »
Fix Your Photos’ White Balance
10:30AM Adam Pash | If you take a lot of digital photos but are frustrated with the strange yellow glow or green hue to your results, weblog Of Zen and Computing’s guide to adjusting the white balance of digital photos is for you. Taking you step-by-step through adjusting the colour temperature in Photoshop, the guide makes it easy to understand how to fix these imbalances and give your pictures the more natural look they deserve. We’ve covered this territory once in the past, but this post’s screenshots and detailed instructions are worth another look if you’re new to correcting colour. How to Adjust the White Balance of a Digital Photo [Of Zen and Computing] More »
Automate Your BitTorrent Extraction and Organisation
10:15AM Adam Pash | Tim from the Daily Cup of Tech weblog has transitioned to an almost all BitTorrent TV diet, but the resulting disorganisation of files left him with an unsettled stomach. He prefers to archive everything he downloads to a system of folders, but while some video files he downloads hit his hard drive as plain AVI files, others are archived RARs, and manually organising it all became to much of a hassle. The solution: a saucy Windows batch script that automatically extracts RARs and sends all of his files off to the proper, well-organised folders. If you’ve got your own method of automating your file organisation, let’s hear about it in the comments. Automatic Torrent Extractor/Mover Script [Daily Cup of Tech] More »
Fedora 9 Puts Your Desktop on a USB Drive
10:00AM Kevin Purdy | This week’s release of the Fedora 9 Linux distribution makes putting a full-fledged desktop on a portable USB thumb drive a three-click affair. Even better, you don’t need Linux installed to create it, you can leave the data on your thumb drive untouched, and any files you create or settings you tweak remain in place the next time you boot up. After the jump, let’s create a fully-functional desktop-to-go using a simple Windows program and a 1GB or larger thumb drive. More »
Lebendig Animates Your Windows
9:50AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Lebendig adds snazzy, lightweight animations to your windows—like spinning a window as you launch it or fading out when you close it. Apps like Lebendig aren’t uncommon, but Lebendig does set itself apart by using very little memory while still adding a little snap to your daily computing. It’s not the eye candy of Aero, but it’s a good way to avoid some of that UI jealousy that you’re bound to have using XP every day. Then again, if you’re really getting jealous of some of Vista’s better features, check out how to get Vista’s best features in XP. Lebendig [via FreewareGenius] More »
Elevator Quickly Disables UAC for Specific Programs
9:50AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Elevator disables the User Account Control prompt for specific applications through your right-click menu, getting rid of the UAC annoyance for apps that require administrator privileges every time they run. We’ve shown you how to disable UAC entirely and how to disable UAC for specific apps before, but it required a little more sleeve-rolling than this simple right-click solution. Elevator is freeware, Windows Vista only; installation requires a little finesse, so be sure to read the instructions. Ignore UAC for specific programs [Scripting, Vista & Deployment] More »
Connect Hobbyist Hardware to Your Mac
9:40AM Gina Trapani | Macworld contributor Brian Jepson isn’t content with just connecting external drives, mice, scanners, and printers to his Mac—he wants to control custom hardware. He explains how to do just that with a microcontroller. Jepson writes: To show you what’s possible with microcontrollers and the Mac, I came up with a demonstration project that I call BreakTimer. This system enables your Mac to detect whether you’re sitting in your chair and, if you’ve been sitting too long, to tell you it’s time to get up and take a break. Jepson uses the Arduino microcontroller board, which plays nice with the Mac and comes with software that lets you program it. Hit the link to see how he hooked up a seat sensor and the microcontroller to his Mac to issue break reminders. Control the world [Macworld] More »
Mojo 2.0 Windows Beta Shares iTunes Over the Internet
9:00AM Gina Trapani | Windows only: Adam already walked you through how to download music from your friends’ iTunes libraries over the internet using Mojo on the Mac, and now Windows users can get in on the fun. Install the Mojo 2.0 beta for Windows, set up an account, and swap Mojo usernames with your friends to populate your buddy list. From there you can browse their playlists, search their libraries, play and download any songs to your computer. The Mojo Windows beta is a free download; upgrade to Mojo Pro to get an unlimited buddy list. Thanks Matt and Jack! Mojo 2.0 Beta for Windows [Deusty News] More »Google Translate Adds 10 Languages
8:45AM Gina Trapani | In addition to its new ability to automatically detect what language you’re trying to translate, Google Translate adds 10 more languages to its capabilities: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, and Swedish. More »
