Web site Speckly is a barebones BitTorrent search engine that scours multiple popular torrent trackers and returns the results in a simple interface. In fact, you’ll notice the site’s design is a direct knock off of Google, but it has a few subtle tweaks for BitTorrent. Like previously mentioned torrent aggregator PizzaTorrent, Speckly also allows you to sort results by file type, and according to weblog Mashable, the ad-free site will remain ad-free—an accomplishment for the often pop-up-ridden world of BitTorrent trackers. If you need more robust filtering, we’d recommend PizzaTorrent, but if simplicity is what you’re looking for, Speckly looks like a winner. Speckly [via Mashable]
Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, but too much of the time they can be frustrating, time-wasting, stubborn machines. From the irritating “Access Denied” message when you can’t remember your 147th password, to all the useless email that clutters your inbox, to IT lockdown restrictions that keep you from getting your job done, let’s take a look at 10 of the more common gripes amongst computer users and our humble suggestions for fixing them. Photo by basykes.
Mac OS X only: When you’re trying to eject that drive or delete that file but Finder stops you because it’s “in use,” you want desktop app What’s Keeping Me. Enter the name of the file or drive into What’s Keeping Me and the app will identify the process that’s preventing you from completing your task, and give you the option to quit, relaunch, or kill the problem application. Of course you can quit processes through the Activity Monitor by hand, but What’s Keeping Me does all the searching for you. What’s Keeping Me is a free download, donations requested, for Mac only.
What’s Keeping Me? [HAMSoft Engineering via Download Squad]Brett Kelly at the Cranking Widgets Blog outlines a few crafty uses for universal capture tool —recently available as a Mac client and free iPhone app—including a no-hassle storage space for software licence receipts, reference PDFs, and IM conversations. What does Evernote help you store and recall? Share it in the comments.
When you run across good-looking open source software which isn’t available as an executable, installable file, it’s time to get down and dirty with the source code at the command line. Tech tutorial site Webmonkey describes how to compile software from source. The process involves three main steps—the basic commands in order are configure, make, and make install. You can get tripped up if your system doesn’t have a compiler, or the software has dependencies that aren’t available, but those issues are easily resolved—and there’s no better feeling when you’re starting to get comfortable at the command line than the first time you successfully compile software from source. This howto’s a great place to start. Compile Software From Source Code [Webmonkey]
Windows only: FileCheckMD5, a free stand-alone utility, is designed as a simple means of generating and comparing two MD5 files against each other for verifying burned CDs/DVDs. Because it’s a stand-alone program that can run from any directory, however, it makes for a nice addition to the root of any disc you’re burning and passing along. Throw the app and your original MD5 (from the files you burned for them) onto the disc, and they can check if any problems they’re having are due to a bad burn. It’s a simple, fast, and free tool for anyone who does a good deal of burning. FileCheckMD5 is a free download for Windows systems only. FileCheckMD5 [via Download Squad]
