Monday, January 26, 2009

Checkvist Creates Export-Friendly Nested Task Lists

11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Checkvist is a web-based to-do list manager that’s easy to navigate, simple to export from, and smart when it comes to organising your tasks. The first thing you might notice at Checkvist’s site is the support for keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick task and sub-task creation. Everything is displayed in hierarchical, first-things-first fashion for easy review and navigation, and collaborators can add to and work with your lists. But the best feature by far is the ability to import and export your lists easily in plain text, HTML, and OPML formats—a welcome bit of openness for anyone who doesn’t pretend to live entirely online. And when you’re copying from list to list, Checkvist’s copy-over tool transfers only the uncompleted items, saving you a whole lot of checkbox toggling. For more to-do list options check out the Hive Five best to-do list mangers Checkvist [via MakeUseOf] More »

YouTube HQ Automatically Loads High-Quality Versions Of YouTube Videos

11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Firefox with Greasemonkey: Force YouTube to always bring you to the high-quality version of a web video with YouTube HQ, a simple but great user script. There are actually two modes to YouTube HQ, one that always loads the standard/lower-quality video for low-bandwidth connections when you jump to an HD/high-quality page, and the much more useful always-high-quality standard version. Unless you break open the code and tinker with it, it’s a pretty quiet app that does one thing well—watch your YouTube URLs and fix them to load the higher-quality stuff. But you can also tweak YouTube HQ to try and resize the player for better viewing of 720p content—which generally means even better video views.YouTubeHQ is a free download, works wherever Greasemonkey scripts do. For those just looking to download high-quality vids, might we recommend the previously mentioned H.264 user script? YouTube HQ [via gHacks] More »

Microsoft To Merge Windows, Office Live Into ‘Kumo’

10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Microsoft said that its Windows Live and Office Live services will merge into a single web portal, possibly dubbed Kumo. Whether that simplifies or complicates the already-rangy Live offerings remains to be seen. [via PC World] More »

TaggedFrog Organises Your System’s Files Web 2.0 Style

9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Use the same kind of quick-thinking, fast-organising tags you use to organise your web life with TaggedFrog, a free Windows utility that sorts and finds any file you can throw at it. Windows Vista (and the Windows 7 beta) already have native tagging systems, and OS X has long offered search-able metadata as a simple filing system. Vista’s tagging is limited to certain file types, though, and it’s in need of a central tag station, much like the one TaggedFrog provides. TaggedFrog tags any file you have with any words you want, so you can selectively tag files to separate projects, keep a track of any MP3s with curse words in them, or whatever quick-search needs you have. As you search, a “cloud” view shows the most-accessed, or most-tagged, keywords, and you can narrow your search by file extension for heavily-used tags. There’s a portable, no-install version available at the program page, so even if you only want to try out TaggedFrog for a quick MP3 organisational mission, you’re good to go. TaggedFrog is a free download for Windows systems, requires the .NET 2.0 framework for both the installed and portable versions. TaggedFrog [via FreewareGenius.com] More »

iConvert Converts Your Icons For Multiple Platforms

10:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | iConvert is a web-based application for converting icons from the format of one operating system into another and from image files into new icons. The iConvert interface is straight forward, select a compatible file from your computer and upload it. There is no editing or tweaking just a straight conversion into a slew of compatible formats. iConvert supports the following file types: .icns, .ico, .png, .svg, .tif, .jpg, .bmp, .tga, and .cur and outputs to .hqx, .icns, .ico, .png. If you’re new to tinkering with icons, the output files are flagged by which operating system they go to making it even easier to grab the correct format for your system.On caveat: iConvert shows a constantly updated banner of the most recent conversions across the bottom of the site interface. Proceed knowing the icons will be available for public viewing and downloading. iConvert [via MakeUseOf] More »

Print Free Sheet Music At BlankSheetMusic

6:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | If you need blank sheet music to compose your next epic space-opera upon, BlankSheetMusic has a Flash-based sheet-creator to save you the ink and a trip to the music store. The sheet music generator allows you to freely insert notations for various instruments, alter the layout of the sheet, and customise the colours, key, and time signatures. There’s also a large directory of pre-populated sheets for a variety of instruments. The site is free, and with account registration you can save the custom sheets you make. BlankSheetMusic [via MakeUseOf] More »

Save Your Mobile Phone Screen By Massaging Dead Pixels Away

5:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Your phone’s screen has some dead pixels. You’re not too excited about the prospect of shelling out for a new phone. What’s the fix? Massage them away! Intrepid Make magazine contributor Tim Watson was quite distraught when his iPhone screen took a turn for the worse, following an accidental dousing in beer. He dried it immediately and all seemed well, but the next morning revealed a band of dead. After scouring the internet and finding others fixing their LCDs with a spot massage, he gave his phone a specialised rub-down. I used a Sharpie marker and started slowly pushing on the screen. I pushed with enough force that the screen noticeably discolored under the cap, but not enough pressure that I was scared of breaking the screen. And slowly, 1 pixel at a time, the grey dead blob started moving up and toward the top of the screen. The blob left other dead pixels in its wake, but they were red in colour instead of grey, and tended to fade and disappear within a couple of days. It took a couple of weeks of working on this process to get the grey blob out of the way, but I have finally succeeded! While having a small cluster of dead pixels in your phone’s screen corner is less than ideal, it certainly beats having a giant bar of them across the middle of the screen. For the cost of phone replacement, it’s probably worth giving your screen a light Shiatsu to possibly resuscitate it. If you’ve had success saving an LCD display of any size with a massage, sound off in the comments below. Fixing Dead Pixels on an iPhone [via Make] More »

Five Best People-Search Engines

2:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Need to do a little online detective work? Track down anyone from long lost schoolmates to the new friend whose number you’ve lost with this assortment of powerful people-search engines. Photo by Byrne7214. More »

Cut Down On Book Hoarding

1:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | If you find yourself with more books than you have time to read, it may be time to cut down your collection. How-to compendium wikiHow compiles suggestions for stemming the tide of new-book acquisition, such as setting up a purchase ratio. Make a rule that you will read X number of books you currently own before buying another one. Set a “read-to-purchase ratio”. This solution works well because it lets you control your book purchasing habits without requiring that you wait several years until you’ve read the entire existing selection. It also encourages you to read more, knowing that you can reward yourself with a new book soon enough, and not feel guilty about it. Choosing a ratio that’ll work for you involves finding that sweet spot between how much time you have to read, how quickly you read, and how many shelves you’ve still got to get through. Hit the link below for a host of library trimming suggestions. Just don’t chuck your books in the trash—you can always donate them to a library or charity, or give them away and track their travels. Photo by striatic. How to Stop Accumulating Books [wikiHow] More »