The Campus Computer Science Classes

Blockbuster vs. AppleTV

2008-04-27T16:05:00.001-04:00

I use Blockbuster Online, and I love it. Apple TV and downloadable rentals that I can transfer to my iPod sounds even better than getting DVDs in the mail, but I don’t own one. The Blockbuster subscription plan works well for me and is cheaper than the $229 required for the Apple TV. I have been using Blockbuster online for over 2 years and rented over 200 movies. If that seems like a lot, I am counting TV show DVDs in that count as movies as well, and we have a few minor addictions.

I have spent about $300. That is about as much as an original Apple TV (and does not include the rented movies). If I did the same for the next two years (assuming Apple does not create a subscription model), my cost would be at least $800. But this article isn’t about the cost of an Apple TV. Nor is it about the added benefits of DVDs over digital downloads that Bob talked about a couple weeks ago (and take the time to watch the alternate ending of “I Am Legend” if you haven’t, it is amazing).

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Fix Your Achy Body by Walking Barefoot [Health]

2008-04-26T15:15:00.003-04:00

New York Magazine online suggests that despite your innate ability to walk, years of walking in shoes has got you doing it all wrong. The result: more aches and pains in your body than you should naturally encounter. The article as a whole is a compelling read, making the case that despite the great lengths shoe manufacturers have taken to bring comfort to your step, most shoes are doing more harm than good. The author also highlights a shoe style called Vivo Barefoot made specifically to mimic the barefoot walking experience while providing some of the modern necessities of shoes (like, um, protecting you from broken glass). The article is persuasive—enough at least to pique my interest in some barefoot shoes—but if you have experience with the barefoot lifestyle of even barefoot shoes, share your thoughts in the comments. Photo by Nicholas_T.

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BitRipper Converts DVDs to AVIs in One Click [Featured Windows Download]

2008-04-26T15:15:00.001-04:00

Windows only: Freeware application bitRipper provides no-hassle, one-click conversions from DVDs straight to AVI video files. Until recently a commercial program, bitRipper handles the decryption and encoding of the DVD video in one fell swoop, emphasizing a very simple one-click process (though you can set more advanced options if you like). The on-the-fly encryption and encoding means bitRipper also works very quickly. The downside: bitRipper does not support filetypes other than AVI, which means you'll want to stick with previously mentioned HandBrake when you're ready to rip a DVD for your iPod. If you give it a try, let's hear how you like it in the comments. While you're beefing up your DVD-ripping toolbet, check out the five best DVD ripping tools.

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Get Better Tech Support [How To]

2008-04-26T15:14:00.001-04:00

Former tech support guy Brett Kelly says there are a few things you can do to get the computer help you need most efficiently over the phone. Before you call, try the obvious fixes: Reboot, consult the manual, Google, or help pages, and know how to reproduce the problem consistently. (You should know how to describe the problem thoroughly as well.) On the phone, be patient, do what your support person asks you to do, and don't lie about how you got where you are. Along these same lines, when you post a question in an online forum or send an email to someone for help, be sure to master the art of asking.

Whiten Your Teeth with Strawberries from Lifehacker

2008-04-26T15:13:00.001-04:00

If you've never been keen on commercial teeth-whitening products and you love strawberries, today is your lucky day: Web site Health.com says that one ripe strawberry plus half a teaspoon of baking powder equals a natural teeth whitener. The secret is malic acid—the product of the mix—which is an astringent that can buff coffee and cigarette stains from your teeth. The post emphasizes that you should be careful, though—too much use could lead to damaged enamel. While a professional teeth bleaching by your dentist will lead to better results, the strawberry method is a fast, cheap alternative.

A new look for Google Video: from the Official Google Blog

2008-04-22T23:43:00.001-04:00

Google Video gets a facelift

Friday, April 18, 2008 4/18/2008 07:17:00 AM

Posted by Greg Billock, Software Engineer

An article from Official Google Blog.

As part of our mission, we on the Google Video team want you to be able to search, browse and discover videos from across the web. More than a year ago, we described our renewed focus on organizing all the web's video. Today, in addition to expanding Google Video's search capabilities, we have a number of new browse- and search-related features we're excited to share.

Now you can choose any of three ways to view your video search-results: a traditional list view, a grid view and, for those of you who like to maximize your video-watching efficiency, a TV view, where you can watch an embedded video while continuing to view your search results next to the video for a more seamless browse and search experience.

Try them out by clicking on the gray icon boxes:

You may have also noticed that we've given the Google Video homepage a bit of a facelift. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to find and access the web's most compelling videos, and just as before, you can see what videos people are viewing, sharing, and blogging about -- but now, with the new TV view, you can also watch many of the top videos directly on the homepage.

There's something else we think you'll like. Have you ever asked yourself "What was that really cool video that everyone was watching a couple of weeks ago?" Well, you can use our timeline viewto find out. If you're wondering, for example, what was the most blogged-about video on April Fool's Day, it was Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" (thanks to YouTube rickrolling the world). If you're curious which video was shared most in October, it was Professor Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture", which has persisted as one of the most-shared titles on Google Video ever since. Try it out to discover (or re-discover) something interesting.

We'll be letting you know as we roll out new features, so keep checking back for more information about what we're up to!

8 Post Types To Expand and Highlight Your Blog’s Content

2008-04-22T23:40:00.001-04:00

8 Post Types To Expand and Highlight Your Blog’s Content

http://www.dailyblogtips.com

If you are struggling for content or want to expand the number of posts your blog has, having regular features that highlight existing content, whether on your blog or elsewhere, is a good approach. Below are some of the most common and popular features that you can implement on your site.

1. Best or popular posts

A common feature on many blogs. It basically involves listing the best or most popular posts over the previous week or month (depending on how often you update). If you are an avid reader of the blog this may not offer much, but for everyone else it’s a great way of showcasing your best content without all the filler in between. Be sure to encourage readers to check out and leave comments on any posts they missed.

Example: Zen Habits

2. Best comments

An excellent way of boosting reader interaction as it rewards those who comment regularly. When doing a post like this try and tie the highlighted comments together rather than just picking random ones. Also, prioritize regular commentators by mentioning their name and website.

Example: Organize IT

3. A year ago

Similar to the best post feature, only this one delves into the misty past to highlight top content from a year ago. Not much good if you don’t have an old enough blog or a deep archive, but it’s still a great way of showcasing all those forgotten about posts and giving them a bit of extra life

Example: Unclutterer

4. Coming soon

Enticing readers with upcoming, intriguing content is a great way of encouraging people to subscribe to your feed. Just make sure you can deliver on it. If you are a regular poster who sticks to a solid schedule this can be a great way of creating anticipation for a new week or month. If you just post when you feel like it this may not work for you.

Example: ProBlogger

5. Interesting links

An old school technique. This feature has the added benefit of attracting the attention of other bloggers, who are usually appreciative of others linking to their posts. Just be sure to provide a solid amount of links for the reader to delve into.

Example: Lifehack.org

6. Ask the readers

A great way of encouraging reader interaction. It allows you to take the backseat while the readers provide the value with their comments. Just be sure to join in the conversation and help it along as necessary. Try combining this with a best comments feature for maximum benefit.

Example: Get Rich Slowly

7. Recap

If you feel you may struggle to provide value with the features above, why not combine them together? It’s a good way of summarizing what’s happened with the blog over the last week or month, highlighting posts, linking to interesting sites and describing what’s upcoming.

Example: Life Optimizer

8. Something a little different

Offer something a little different to your usual content. It could be a funny video, interesting picture… whatever. As long as you are providing plenty of the content your blog is known for, this feature can provide a nice break from the usual ritual.

10 Best Online Storage Services

2008-04-22T23:37:00.001-04:00

Here's a great list of some file sharing websites for free online storage and file management: If you work primarily from your computer you’ve no doubt got a huge number of papers, files, notes, and various pieces of information that you need to store. If you collaborate with others on projects, the problem of file
storage gets even more complicated. Everyone working on the project needs real-time access to the files.

Online file storage solutions are the perfect way to keep everything you need within easy access, even when you work from a different
location or computer. Here (in no particular order) are ten of the best
ways to organize, store, and share your files online.

1. Basecamp. This online collaboration tool allows you to set different permissions for users on different projects and define milestones and to-do lists.

2. GoDaddy. Featuring plans from $7/year to $20/year, GoDaddy is basically an online network drive that lets you store up to 2,000 MB.

3. Box. There are options for individuals, businesses, and enterprises to store, share, and collaborate.

4. MediaMax. Store music, photos, videos, and files. Get 25 MB free, or sign up for a paid account for up to 100 GB of storage.

5. AllMyData. Unlimited storage for one price, or get 1 GB for free.

6. Scribd. Free unlimited storage for files. Also, publish, share, and embed your files anywhere.

7. Savefile. A free and simple service offering uploads of up to 60 MB. This is a great way to share files without resorting to emailing them.

8. iStorage. Pricier than the rest, but iStorage offers a multi-layer support system for uploading, storing, and sharing files.

9. FileSend. Simple, uncomplicated, and free file sending up to 120 MB.

10. OmniDrive. With a wealth of features and a friendly interface, OmniDrive offers 1 GB on free accounts and unlimited storage on Pro accounts.

Test Your Geography

2008-03-25T14:42:00.001-04:00

Quiz for testing the geography of Mexico.

Airwaves auction winners named

2008-03-23T14:50:00.001-04:00

By JOHN DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 21, 7:23 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The two largest cell phone companies dominated bidding in a record-setting government airwaves auction.

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless combined to account for $16 billion of the $19.6 billion bid in the auction, an Associated Press analysis of Federal Communications Commission data released Thursday shows. Verizon Wireless bid $9.4 billion and AT&T $6.6 billion.

The results raised concern that the auction failed to attract any significant new competitors to the cellular telephone market to challenge the dominant companies. For example, Google Inc. was not among the winners, meaning the search engine giant will not be entering the wireless business.

One new entrant, Frontier Wireless LLC, owned by direct broadcast satellite television company EchoStar Corp., won nearly enough licenses to create a nationwide footprint. Frontier bid $712 million, according to FCC data.

The spectrum was made available thanks to the nationwide transition to digital broadcasting. The hope is that consumers will benefit from more advanced wireless services such as high-speed Internet access. The money raised will be used to help public safety programs and offset the federal budget deficit.

Despite the dominance in the auction by the major cell providers, the FCC chairman was upbeat about the auction results.

"A bidder other than a nationwide incumbent won a license in every market," Kevin Martin said. As a result, there is the potential for a "wireless third-pipe" competitor to emerge in every market across the nation.

Broadband access is dominated by the major telecommunications and cable companies. Martin wants wireless to emerge as a third platform, creating competition.

But Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, an advocacy group that supports greater access to communications services, said the auction failed in that regard because Verizon Communications Inc. already is a dominant provider of Internet access.

"The prospect of a genuine third pipe competitor in the wireless world is now slim to none," he said.

Until Thursday, the names of the bidders were kept anonymous in an effort to discourage collusion during the auction.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and British telecom giant Vodafone Group PLC, won nearly every license in the consumer-friendly "C block."

The frequencies, which encompass about one-third of the spectrum at auction, are subject to "open access" provisions pushed by Martin. That means people on the network that is built can use whatever phones or software they wish.

Google posted a bid for the C block licenses early in the auction, assuring that the open-access provision would be put in place, but the offer was not enough.

Verizon Wireless won enough of the C-block licenses to cover every state but Alaska. The company said it was very pleased with the results, which will allow it to "continue to grow our business and data revenues."

AT&T said it will have "quality spectrum available for new services covering 95 percent of the U.S. population," according to Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive of the company's wireless unit.

The third leading bidder was Qualcomm Inc., which pledged $1.03 billion. Included in that total is $472 million the company pledged toward the block designated for the creation of an emergency communications network. The bid was well under the FCC-required minimum of $1.3 billion, so Qualcomm's winning total comes to $558 million.

The agency agreed to separate this D block from the rest of the auction so the winners could be announced. Not including that block, winning bids totaled $19.1 billion.

Also Thursday, Martin said he had ordered an investigation by the FCC internal watchdog into the circumstances surrounding the failure of the block to attract a winning bid.

Public interest groups asked the agency on Wednesday to investigate allegations about a meeting between Frontline Wireless LLC and its financial backers and a company called Cyren Call, created by Nextel Corp. co-founder Morgan O'Brien.

Frontline was widely expected to bid on the public safety spectrum block. But the company dropped out before the auction began after failing to meet a minimum required payment.

Cyren Call was acting as the agent for a nonprofit public safety trust that would share the network with the winning bidder.

The Greatest Blogging Skill

2008-03-23T14:45:00.001-04:00

The following guest post was submitted by Easton Ellsworth from Visionary Blogging.

What is the greatest blogging skill?

It’s not the ability to produce excellent blog content.

It’s not the ability to build a strong blog community.

It’s not the ability to monetize every page view, click and pixel.

It’s not even the ability to improve your content or your community or your monetization or anything else.

The greatest blogging skill is:

Meta-improvement.

Meta-improvement is the improvement of improvement.

It’s not just self-improvement. It’s self-self-improvement-improvement.

In other words: Becoming a better blogger faster and faster.

Why Meta-Improvement?

Picture 3 runners in a race. All start at the same speed.

Runner #1 never changes speed. Flat line. No improvement.

Runner #2 speeds up at a constant rate. Upward slope. Improvement.

Runner #3 speeds up at a constantly increasing rate. Upward curve. Meta-improvement.

Guess who wins?

3 Keys to Blogger Meta-Improvement

Self-Awareness. (See Metacognition.) Consider your personal efforts to improve your blogging skills. What’s your routine? Do you madly surf the intertubes for tasty blogging tips on how to boost any skill about which you’re momentarily feeling insecure? Or is there more of a method to your madness? Begin now to think about how you think about how to improve.

Focus. This meta stuff can be overwhelming. Take it one step at a time. Each week or month, consider your blogging skills one by one: content creation, design, community building, monetization, email ninja-ness, etc. Pick the one that you need to improve most urgently in order to meet your blogging goals. And keep that sucker in your sights until it’s licked.

Relentlessness. Never give up trying to become a faster improver. Lather, rinse, repeat. How quickly do you apply the blogging wisdom that you discover? How easily do you let your skills relapse?

The Blogger Meta-Improvement Motto

“I will do my best to improve more today than I improved yesterday.”

Meta-improvement is hard. It’s much harder than improvement alone. But it’s also worth the struggle. Your struggle is its oxygen.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Dive beneath the surface and you’ll find a never-ending series of layers: meta-meta-improvement, meta-meta-meta-improvement, etc.

Your mind can probably only wrap itself around that first submarine layer. But take the dive; it’s well worth it.

May this help you begin to see yourself in a new way and become a better blogger - faster.

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Explore the Universe with Google Sky [Launch]

2008-03-15T12:31:00.001-04:00

Star gazers rejoice! The newly launched Google Sky maps the universe from your browser. If you already loved Google Earth's addition of Sky, now you can enjoy the same eyes-on-the-sky mapping on the web. Like Google Maps but pointed in the other direction, you can navigate the planets and constellations or check out other great educational overlays, like the podcast overlay. We could already head to the moon and Mars with the previously launched Google Moon and Google Mars, but yay for the sky! The internet's looking like a great place for the amateur astronomer.

Canada Lessons

2008-03-11T10:27:00.001-04:00

Canadian Culture

Lifestyles in the Day Activities

Seven Years War

FCC auction nears conclusion, so what's next?

2008-03-07T22:47:00.001-05:00

As bidding on the 700MHz spectrum auction starts to wind down, a group of business school students predicts it will be long time before consumers see any of the promised new services resulting from the auction.

The 700MHz auction, which is reissuing spectrum originally allocated for analog TV, has been touted as one of the most important spectrum auctions the Federal Communications Commission has ever conducted. Not only was it expected to raise a great deal of money for the government, but as the last bit of prime wireless spectrum that will be made available for a long time, many people believed it would pave the way to a brave new world of wireless broadband.

The hope going into the auction was that it would open up the airwaves to at least one new nontraditional player, such as Google, which would help transform the wireless market and introduce more open services.

Now, the auction, which has already raised a whopping $19.59 billion since it began in January, will likely end in the next few days, according to the Reuters news service. Under the FCC's rules, the auction will continue until the bidding stops.

So what's likely to change for consumers after the auction concludes? According to a competitive intelligence war game initiated by market research firm Fuld & Company, not much, at least for the next few years. Carriers aren't expected to even have the new infrastructure built within the next two to three years.

Students from four top business schools--University of Chicago, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Business School, and MIT's Sloan School of Management--took on identities of four companies with a stake in the auction outcome--Google, Intel, AT&T Mobility and Vulcan Capital. The students then predicted the strategies of the companies post auction. Results of the game were published on Thursday.

Here's a look at some of the other predictions. The Google team, made up of students from University of Chicago, predicted that the search engine giant will partner with a leading wireless service provider, possibly AT&T. And the group believes that it will share 20 percent of its advertising revenue with whoever owns the licenses. Separate from the auction, the group also predicts that Google's new Android handset software will run into resistance among chipmakers and handset manufacturers, who have different business interests than Google.

The Northwestern group, which took on the identity of Intel, believes the chipmaker will attack the wireless broadband market through its WiMax initiative. The company will likely work with PC makers to embed WiMax chips and help them shrink their devices to compete directly with smartphones, the students said.

The teams also said that adult content was likely to be the killer application that will drive wireless broadband adoption.

For the most part, the predictions were not earth-shattering. I've been saying for a long time that Google would be better served if it worked with a carrier rather than build its own network. Intel has also been pretty open about its strategy for putting WiMax chips into PCs. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that porn sells. In fact, the adult content industry has been at the forefront of most new developments in technology, from the VCR to the explosion in Internet use. So it's hardly surprising that faster wireless broadband would spur people to get their kicks on the mobile Web. In fact, lots of people all over the world are already doing that even on slower-speed wireless networks.

It's still somewhat unclear how much longer the auction will last. Bidding has slowed over the past several days. But some experts have said that it could be over as early as next week. Neither the FCC nor any of the companies bidding in the auction have commented on when it will end. The identity of bidders has been a secret throughout the auction. But the FCC is expected to reveal the names of spectrum license winners within days of the auction's conclusion.

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

2008-03-05T10:34:00.001-05:00

Check out this link for interactive lessons.

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Make your own warrior

2008-03-03T10:50:00.001-05:00

Check out this activity to make your own warrior. Follow the link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/launch_gms_gladiator.shtml

Metal Gear Solid 4 Sneaks onto PS3 on June 12

2008-03-02T16:48:00.001-05:00

The long wait for an official release date is over. Barring no sudden delays, Solid Snake fans will be able to play MGS4 on June 12, and PS3 sales could get a nice lift as a result.

Posted by James Brightman on Thursday, February 28, 2008

It's one of the most anticipated games of 2008 and may be the "killer app" for Sony's PlayStation 3. After initially providing a vague release date of Q2 2008, today Konami officially locked in a launch date of June 12 for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Konami likened the release to that of a blockbuster Hollywood film – a strategy that certainly has worked nicely for the Halo franchise.

"Blockbuster events and premieres are a tradition of the summer," said Kazumi Kitaue, Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. Chairman and CEO. "We anticipate that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots fits that bill perfectly, and consumers will be waiting in line to get their copy of the game just like it's a hit Hollywood movie."

In addition, Konami said that starting in April 2008 gamers will be able to pre-order the game and receive the Metal Gear Saga 2.0 DVD, which features a Prologue recapping the entire Metal Gear franchise, a 20th Anniversary retrospective, character bios for Big Boss, Liquid Snake, Solidus Snake, and Solid Snake, and a collection of international trailers for Metal Gear Solid 4. The pre-order bonus also comes with an insert with a download code and special instructions for accessing the Metal Gear Online beta test – currently set to go live in late April.

SCEA earlier this week announced a special PS3 bundle, which includes MGS4, an 80GB PS3, and a DualShock 3 controller for $499. The company said it would launch in conjunction with MGS4, so presumably the hardware bundle will go on sale on June 12 as well. We're checking with SCEA for confirmation.

Wii Owners Will Look to Purchase PS3, says iSuppli

2008-03-02T16:46:00.001-05:00

Research firm iSuppli, who forecast earlier this month that Sony's PlayStation 3 would eek out a victory in the console war by 2011, has told Reuters that 2008 will be a "turning year" for the PS3. "Sony is offering a better forthcoming software pipeline with blockbuster titles like Gran Turismo 5, which will boost PS3 sales this year," said iSuppli analyst Pamela Tufegdzic.

Importantly, Tufegdzic is looking at Nintendo's Wii audience as a driver of PS3 sales. She believes Sony will drop the price on its console enticing Wii owners to finally get a second, more powerful system. "We anticipate Sony will have another price slash on the PS3 this year, and come Christmas, consumers who originally bought the Wii will likely purchase the PS3," Tufegdzic said. "The battle over consoles ultimately boils down to price."

Another strong point for the PS3 of course will be its Blu-ray victory over HD DVD. As more consumers upgrade to HDTV and HD movies, there's a good chance they could look to the PS3 as their first Blu-ray player. "People may buy the PS3 not only for their gaming needs, but for video as well, which gives the PS3 a unique competitive edge over the Wii and Xbox 360 well into the longer term," Tufegdzic noted.

With the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4 launching on June 12, along with a new hardware bundle including the game and a DualShock 3 controller, the PS3 could have a strong summer. Konami Digital Entertainment CEO Kazumi Kitaue likened the release of MGS4 to a Hollywood summer blockbuster, and you can bet that Sony has high hopes that Solid Snake will do for PS3 what Master Chief and Halo have done for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Download and Convert Dailymotion Videos to MP4 for iPod

2008-02-06T14:40:00.001-05:00

Download and Convert Dailymotion Videos to MP4 for iPod

Most of the same tools that work for converting downloading YouTube videos and converting YouTube videos, also work for Dailymotion and several other sites. Lately, I opt to use RealPlayer 11 to download from Metacafe, downloading videos from YouTube or doing a download of movies from Dailymotion, becuase it names them well and make it easy to find what I'm looking for again. For converting the FLV files from Dailymotion and most other sites, I rely on WinFF to get me there.

How to Copy Songs From an iPod to a PC

2008-01-29T17:08:00.001-05:00

A reader points out a straightforward way for Windows users to transfer music from an iPod to your hard drive, without extra software:

Difficulty: Easy

Steps

Step One

Connect the iPod to your PC. If iTunes starts syncing (ie erasing) your music automatically, hit the X in the upper right hand corner of iTunes display, to the left of the search box, to stop it.

Step Two

In Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, double-click your iPod.

Step Three

In the Tools menu -> Options, in the View Tab, check "Show hidden files and folders."

Step Four

Navigate to the Music folder. On my 2nd gen 'pod, the full path is
Portable Media Devices\GINA'S IPOD (F:)\iPod_Control\Music

Step Five

Select all the music folders, and drag and drop them into a folder on your hard drive, or directly into iTunes.

2008-01-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

Install OSX guide on PC Hardware

2008-01-27T12:22:00.001-05:00

Install OS X on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Two months ago I walked through how to build a Hackintosh Mac on the cheap using PC parts. Since that post, the OSx86 scene has changed rapidly, and now you can install Leopard on your computer about as easily as installing Leopard on a Mac—no command line hacking required. In addition, the resulting installation is—theoretically, at least—can be upgraded without fear of breaking. As if the simplicity of the installation weren't already enough, the new installation tools fix any problems I've had in the past (for example, I no longer need to keep my install DVD in the drive to boot into OS X), and support the Wi-Fi card on my motherboard out-of-the-box. In short, it's a winner.

NOTE: I can only vouch for this method on the build I detailed in the original post, but others have had a lot of luck with other boards, as well. If you're thinking of starting from scratch and want to follow exactly how I did it, check out the sections labeled The Hardware and The Build on my original guide. If you want to a better idea of how well it runs, check out how it benchmarks compared to a Mac Pro and MacBook Pro. If you've got your system together, here's how it works.

Set Your BIOS

The most difficult part of getting this installation to work with my board was getting the right BIOS settings in place. In the course of figuring it out, I made a lot of different small tweaks, so to ensure I didn't miss any, I've taken pictures of every relevant BIOS screen. If you're using the same board as me (an Asus P5W DH Deluxe), just go through screen by screen and make sure that your BIOS settings match mine. If you're using a different board, these settings could still serve as a good guide, but they may not perfectly match up to yours. (I'm having a tough time remembering every BIOS setting I tweaked, so if you're using a P5W DH Deluxe, your BIOS settings match mine, but you're having trouble, let me know and I'll try updating the gallery with more BIOS screens.)

Now that you're BIOS are set, it's time to install.

Install OS X with the Kalyway Install Disc

Floating around the BitTorrents, you'll find a disc image called something like Kalyway Leopard 10.5.1 SSE2 SSE3. Download it and burn it to a DVD—it's what you'll use to install Leopard. If you're going to pursue this I'd still recommend purchasing an actual copy of Leopard, but you won't need it here.

Basically this DVD contains the Leopard install disc along with the EFI software that lets your hardware work with OS X using the vanilla kernels—which is a big part of why you don't have to do any of the command line hacking this time around. You just install the disc and voilà—everything boots up and upgrades normally (or at least that's been my experience so far). So assuming you've built your computer using the original instructions, you've got the Kalyway disc, and you've already prepared your BIOS, you're ready to install.

First, boot with the disc. The disc boot up can take a few minutes, so you'll need to be patient.

Before you go ahead with the installation you need to format your hard drive, so once the disc boots, go to Utilities -> Disk Utility in the menu bar. Find the hard drive in the sidebar you want to install Leopard to, select it, then go to the Partition tab, and select a 1 partition volume scheme, name it whatever you want (I called mine Leopard), and choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Now click the Options button to set the partition scheme. You can choose the partition scheme as either Master Boot Record or GUID (in my previous instructions you needed to set it as MBR). I used GUID.

Click Apply, let it complete the partitioning, and then quit Disk Utility and head back to the Installer. Hit Continue at the Welcome screen, agree to the terms, and then be sure to hit the Customize button before proceeding with your installation. Here's where the point-and-click magic of this installer comes in.

This install package comes with individual settings that match specific motherboards, and one very well supported board is the P5W DH Deluxe I used in the original build. Rather than telling you which checkboxes to tick, just click the screenshot above for a look at all the settings you'll want to use if you're installing OS X on that board.

When you're all set, click Done and then go ahead and Install. When the installation is complete (it'll take a little while), let your computer restart, pop out the install disc, and sit back in wonder as Leopard runs on your PC in full 10.5.1 glory.

If you've been living the Hackintosh life since our first guide, let's hear how it's worked out for you so far in the comments.

Wine 0.9.54 Released

2008-01-27T12:19:00.001-05:00

Wine 0.9.54 was released today, with the following main changes: * Photoshop CS/CS2 should now work, please help us testing it. * A number of RPC fixes. * Various improvements to the debugger support. * Lots of bug fixes.

iPhone Is Taking Over Our Minds

2008-01-27T12:09:00.001-05:00

Embedded Video

Qtrax Promises Legal P2P Music Sharing Service, the Impossible [Music Downloads]

2008-01-27T11:56:00.001-05:00

We have long thought the acronym P2P was the very antonym of the word legal, but Qtrax, a new P2P music sharing service, has plans to rewrite the geek dictionary. Here's the skinny: The service is free, completely. Qtrax offers an unlimited service. It is supported by the four major labels, as well as smaller, niche music groups, and that means it will have a start-up music library of over 25 million songs. That is about four times bigger than iTunes, and about 100% cheaper. We know what you are thinking; is this all smoke without fire? Short answer; we're not sure, but Qtrax is hitting soon. Very, very soon.

Monday, in fact, is the day the service goes live, and we cannot hold our wee we're so excited. Initially, only Windows Vista and XP will be supported, but the Macboys and girls see some action on March 18th.

The system will work by tracking all downloads, royalties will then be issued accordingly. It isn't too clear how that revenue will be generated, but expect some anal advertising to bombard a PC near you if you do give it a whirl. Still, we can't help our cynical judgement chiming in—how did Noah get two of every species on a wooden boat? He didn't—do you know what I mean? Nevertheless, we wait and hope for a legal, free, P2P music service, but we think eternal world peace is a little more likely by Monday. [Boy Genius Reports]

Like WoW, The Pirate Bay Has Reached 10 Million [Stats]

2008-01-27T11:53:00.001-05:00

Torrent sharing group The Pirate Bay has asserted itself as "World's Largest Tracker," now claiming over 10 million peers sharing 1 million files. Not only is 10 million more than the population of New York City, it's just about equal to the user numbers of the most successful MMO on the planet, World of Warcraft, which not so long ago announced the same user milestone...and may have a thing or two to say about The Pirate Bay's title.

Blizzard, like The Pirate Bay, implements a P2P system. Instead of avoiding issues of copyright, the developer utilizes P2P as an inexpensive way to distribute WoW updates and patches. And the last time we played WoW, which was admittedly some time ago, Blizzard's P2P updater was pretty much mandatory to play the game. So if you're thinking what we're thinking, The Pirate Bay may have jumped the gun with their announcement. And Blizzard may actually be the sleeper king of P2P.

My new dog. Lady.

2008-01-21T22:30:00.001-05:00

Lady's First Night.

Lady and my wife. Lady is very shy.

Like I said...Lady is shy.

New Blu-ray 2.0 spec makes PS3 the most future-proof player

2008-01-20T18:54:00.001-05:00

New Blu-ray 2.0 spec makes PS3 the most future-proof player

By Ben Kuchera | Published: January 18, 2008 - 10:13AM CT

With the sudden and unexpected announcement from Warner that the studio would be abandoning HD DVD titles in favor of Blu-ray, it seemed to many observers that the high-def format war was all over, bar the shouting.

With the upcoming 2.0 player profile requiring Blu-ray players to be networked, Sony finally gets to play its trump card: the PlayStation 3, which has clearly emerged as one of the best Blu-ray players on the market—and is likely to remain so for some time. Why? Because the first player now becomes the most versatile, sporting a future-proof Blu-ray setup.

Before we can understand why the PlayStation 3 is able to so easily deal with new profiles, we must first look at the difference between the 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 profiles to see why a simple firmware update isn't enough to make a player compliant.

1.0 is the launch profile, and secondary audio and video decoders are optional, as is local storage and network connectivity. The majority of standalone players fit into this category.
1.1 is the newer profile, and to take advantage of these discs, players need a secondary audio and video decoder to handle picture-in-picture, as well as at least 256MB of local storage for content.
2.0 is the profile of the future, requiring the two secondary decoders, 1GB of local storage for updates and content, and an Internet connection.

HD DVD players have included networking as standard since the beginning, but Blu-ray has not, and the evolving standard may become a large problem for early adopters. The 2.0 profile actually changes the minimum requirements for full compatibility. In other words, there is only one player currently on the market that will be 2.0 compatible: the PlayStation 3, which, with its upgradeable hard drive, Ethernet port, and powerful graphics capabilities, will be able to adapt to any and all future updates. This is quite the slap in the face to consumers who paid several hundred dollars for players that won't able to be updated to take advantage of the 1.1 profile, much less the upcoming 2.0

What 2.0 brings

The 2.0 profile brings picture-in-picture and online functionality to Blu-ray discs; these movies will have "BD-Live" stickers on the case so you know certain features will require 2.0-compliant players. Discs that only require 1.1 profile players will be adorned with "Bonus View" stickers. Are we confused yet?

In contrast, HD DVD has required an Internet connection and local storage from day one, and certain HD DVD movies already use picture-in-picture and online functionality for their bonus features.

What will Blu-ray do to compete with these features? At CES, FOX Home Entertainment showed off a Blu-ray version of Aliens Vs. Predator that featured an online, multiplayer game that had you throwing virtual knives and shooting at the aliens on the screen using the remote and competing against other players remotely. Other exhibitors were showing off trivia games with a PlayStation 3 as a demo unit. In other words, vendors and Blu-ray partners already have the 2.0 profile running on the PS3, allowing them to use the PS3 controller and remote to design BD-Live titles.

While HD DVD may have done a better job of future-proofing their players, the immaturity of the Blu-ray spec hasn't proven to be an insurmountable obstacle. At CES, the Blu-ray Disc Association announced that 3.5 million Blu-ray players had been sold to date. Of those, 3 million were PlayStation 3s, the most future-proof Blu-ray player on the market. Still, this means that roughly 15 percent of the early adopters are going to be frozen out of the latest and greatest Blu-ray features with BD-Live. That's bad news for current owners of stand-alone players, but with the price of the PlayStation 3 now down to $399.99 and the format wars shaping up nicely in Blu-ray's favor, the system may actually be less expensive and more powerful than the latest-generation standalone players.

This is quite the odd turn of events: it was assumed when the PS3 launched that the gaming system would be the Trojan horse that brought Blu-ray into the homes of the mass market. Now? The inexpensive and future-proofed Blu-ray functions of the PS3, matched with the high-quality upscaling the system brings to normal DVDs, may be the Trojan horse bringing gaming to home theater enthusiasts.

News.com Extra: Top 75 essential sci-fi terms

2008-01-19T10:58:00.001-05:00

Textbook barons Houghton Mifflin have of late proclaimed 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, probably in an attempt to shame and terrify the average student into purchasing an appropriate SAT study guide. For those of us who grew up reading science fiction and/or comic books, the list reads like the margin notes of every classic supervillain’s world-domination handbook. For some actual enlightenment, I recommend a different guide, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, the polished dead-tree version of the OED’s Science Fiction Citations Web site (found via SFSignal).

From the latter resource, with the addition of some personal selections from Wikipedia, I have gathered a list of 75 Words Every Science Fiction Fan Should Know. Because if you’re going to learn obscure words and concepts, it may as well be terms you’re actually likely to use.

NASA considering making a virtual world

2008-01-19T10:54:00.001-05:00

The space agency is looking into creating a massively multiplayer online game as an educational tool.

NASA considering making a virtual world

Posted by Daniel Terdiman

There are all kinds of virtual worlds these days: Those for kids, for adults, centered around fantasy battles, and even those centered on space.

But no one has a better hold on space than NASA, and that agency is now considering creating its own virtual world, according to the BBC.

"The virtual world would be aimed at students and would 'simulate real NASA engineering and science missions,'" the BBC wrote, adding that the space agency has put out requests for vendors interested in producing the virtual world.

The idea behind the so-called massively multiplayer online game would be to help train future scientists and foster a broader interest in space among students.

Already, NASA has a presence on an island in Second Life.

"We at NASA are working hard to create opportunities for what I might call participatory exploration," the BBC quoted the director of the project, Simon Worden, as saying. "We are looking at how this island can be a portal for all to fly along on space missions."

Cnet.com

Judge: Mobile phones in tiger attack may be inspected

2008-01-19T10:52:00.001-05:00

Calif. judge says that the San Francisco Zoo may look for incriminating photographs on cell phones owned by two men who were mauled by a tiger last month.

A California judge has said the San Francisco Zoo may inspect the mobile phones of two brothers involved in a deadly tiger attack on Christmas Day.

Superior Court Judge Socrates Peter Manoukian in Santa Clara County ruled late Friday that the city and the zoo can review the devices for photographs that might provide clues about what happened that day, and for logs of conversations near the time of the 911 call.

He wrote: "Under the maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words the Court believes that the allegation of existence or nonexistence of any photographs is specific enough to justify an attempt to perpetuate them."

The defendants in the civil lawsuit are brothers Kulbir Dhaliwal and Amritpal Dhaliwal. They were mauled during the tiger attack and their friend, Carlos Sousa Jr., was killed. The tiger pen's wall was only 12.5 feet high, 4 feet below generally accepted safety standards. The Siberian tiger, Tatiana, was shot dead by police that day.

Manoukian said, however, that the city and the zoo could not inspect the contents of the car. (There have been reports that a bottle of alcohol was present.) Their attorney has called these efforts a fishing expedition.

It's unclear what the real impact of this ruling will be--that's because the San Francisco Police Department has obtained a search warrant allowing them to examine the car and mobile phones in conjunction with a separate criminal investigation.

Cnet.com

<strike>Steal Download Music From Any Shared iTunes Library with OurTunes [Featured Download]

2008-01-13T14:04:00.001-05:00

Windows/Mac only: Freeware application ourTunes downloads music from any shared iTunes library on your network to any folder on your computer. There's a good chance you've heard of ourTunes (or a similar app, myTunes) before, as it used to be the go-to app for sharing music with your peers using your iTunes library, but every time Apple updated iTunes, ourTunes would die another death. Well, it's back, and it works with iTunes 7. I hadn't used ourTunes in a while, and things seemed to be working differently, so to get you up and running, here's how it works.

First you'll want to download the ourTunes.jar file from the Save OurTunes web site. If it's not already installed, you'll also need to download and install Java on your computer.

Now fire up iTunes and ourTunes on your computer. Before you go any further, I'd recommend choosing a download folder for all that music you're about to download. Done? Then let's move ahead.

If there are other computers on your network, you'll see them start popping up in the ourTunes (and iTunes, for that matter) sidebar. In ourTunes, click on the name of the library you want to download music from. ourTunes will work a little magic, creating a duplicate entry for this shared library in your iTunes sidebar. Click on the duplicate library in iTunes, let it load the library, and then you're ready to go.

So how do you download songs? Easy—just play the song in iTunes and ourTunes will start sucking down the file to the folder you chose above. It downloads quickly, so you don't have to listen to the entire song before moving to the next. Generally songs just take a few seconds to land on your desktop.

Problems?

I only ran into one problem testing ourTunes, and it only appeared on my Mac (Windows tests went without a hitch). When you choose the download folder, for some reason ourTunes was incorrectly saving the folder with a weird sort of duplication. That is, if I chose ~/Documents as my download folder, ourTunes tried saving to ~/Documents/Documents. The way I got around this was to create a second Documents folder inside the original Documents folder, then choose ~\Documents as my download directory. I'd assume this bug will be addressed eventually, but in the meantime that workaround should do the trick.

If you're sick of the restrictions Apple places on iTunes music sharing on your local network, ourTunes will do the trick. ourTunes is freeware, Windows and Mac only, requires Java. Thanks EricTJ!

Silence Your Xbox 360 with a New Fan [Hardware]

2008-01-13T14:02:00.001-05:00

Whether you're using it for video games or as part of a media center powerhouse, all of our Xbox 360s have one thing in common: They're loud. Hardware site ExtremeTech walks through how to replace the stock fan unit (which screams like a 747) with a whisper quiet, $25 alternative. This is one of those warranty-voiders, so you'll have to decide whether or not a little peace and quiet is worth it.

Learn Online: Access Free University Lectures at LectureFox

2008-01-13T13:56:00.001-05:00

LectureFox is a cool resource if you have an interest in academic subjects and want to kill some time. The LectureFox site contains a growing catalogue of links to lecture materials (video, audio, and notes) from distinguished universities such as Harvard, Yale and Oxford.

The lectures are skewed towards the sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Math, and Computer Science) but they also have a section with all sorts of subjects from copyright law to modern poetry.

5min - The Deadliest Display of Nuclear Power - Video

2008-01-12T13:23:00.001-05:00

5min - The Deadliest Display of Nuclear Power - Video

Stream Music from BitTorrent Downloads with WeStream [BitTorrent]

2008-01-08T22:48:00.001-05:00

BitTorrent applet WeStream plays individual songs from a BitTorrent stream in your Java-enabled browser. Brought to you by BitLet, the in-browser BitTorrent client, just give WeStream the URL of the torrent file to get started. WeStream is a really interesting idea, but it's currently got a couple of restrictions. First, it only works with OGG- and MP3-encoded music. Second, it can really only work on well-seeded torrents, meaning if you want to listen to something with just one or two seeds, you're probably out of luck. But if you can get a good speed (like this), WeStream is a perfect tool for previewing music before you download it.

The Ultimate PC for Aunt Lili: Daniel Sellers gift.

2008-01-06T23:44:00.001-05:00

Check out these specs!

Processor

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor.
64 bit Support: Yes
FSB: 1066MHz
Hyper-Threading Support: No
L2 Cache: 4M shared

$279.99

Case
Antec Sonata III Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply.

$129.95

Heatsink

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

$21.99

Memory

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

$129.99

Graphics Card

ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

$279.99

Hard Drive

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFDRTL 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

$259.99

Motherboard

ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU Type: Quad-core / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo / Pentium
FSB: 1333/1066MHz

$179.99

Total = $1281.89

RIAA: Personal Use is Stealing

2008-01-06T18:58:00.001-05:00

We couldn't bid 2007 a proper farewell without one last bonehead move by our friends at the major labels. For some time now, it's largely been considered legal to rip electronic versions of music that you purchase, so long as they're for your own use. When you buy a CD, that music becomes your personal possession.

Desperate times, however, call for desperate shifts in litigation. According to The Washington Post, the RIAA has sent a letter to an Arizona-based music fan, accusing him of "illegally" transferring his CD collection to his hard drive.

During the trial of Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota woman who was ordered by the court to pay $220,000 in damages for the 24 songs she was sharing online, Jennifer Pariser, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, testified, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." He added that when one makes that copy, it's "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy.'"

While recent consumer wins with regards to technologies such as VCRs and DVRs may set a precedent on the matter of copying your own entertainment, the RIAA just wouldn't be the RIAA if it backed down. Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the organization, told The Post that it would continue to bring on the suits: "It's not our first choice, but it's a necessary part of the equation. There are consequences for breaking the law."

The Ultimate Toilet for Troubled Butt Wipers

2008-01-06T18:56:00.001-05:00

Have trouble wiping your butt? Or maybe you're just lazy, or think it's unsanitary. Whichever the reason, the Ultimate Solution ComfortSeat (SCS-5000) can help you conquer your worse toilet nightmares. It's a special kind of toilet seat that cleans your butt with the touch of a button. That's right folks: a self-cleaning nozzle extends from the bowl and washes your butt with a sweeping motion. Best of all, the wash motion, nozzle position, water pressure, and water temperature are all adjustable. Because, well, we only deserve the best when it comes to the potty, right?

The SCS-5000 works with the included remote, which is attached to the side of the toilet seat. It's color-coded, making it easy to remember which button does what, such as pink for front wash and yellow for air dry. The system is so advanced that it even remembers your preferred settings. For instance, after a good pee, you might like a nice, frontal wash with low water pressure.

The ComfortSeat also features a heated soft-closing seat, a user sensor (so that you don't get accidentally sprayed if you're not sitting on the toilet), a warm air dryer, an automatic energy-saver mode, and an antibacterial plastic construction.

Just for the ladies, the SCS-5000 has a rear and feminine frontal wash that features a back-and-forth sweeping motion for, according to the site, a "wider and more effective cleaning."

You can get all of this loo luxury for $1,099.95. Make sure you select either an elongated or round toilet seat style.

Identify and Set Rules for Unwanted Phone Calls [Distractions]

2008-01-06T17:41:00.001-05:00

If you're like me, you probably get unwanted mobile phone calls often from people who accidentally but habitually dial the wrong number. You can ask your carrier to block the repeated offenders, but that option is not supported by all carriers. The Baby Toolkit blog has an alternative that may be just as good. For people who repeatedly call the wrong number, create a contact called "Wrong Number" and set your phone to silent. That way, you can save your cell phone minutes and avoid being distracted when you get a call that isn't intended for you anyway.

Presented By

Yosemite, Sequoia and Tahoe Slated for the Next Big Segway Tours by Segway of Oakland

Segway of Oakland innovates turn-key Segway rental program for California Parks. (PRWeb Jan 6, 2008)

Post Comment:Trackback URL: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/UHJvZi1Qcm9mLVNxdWEtUGlnZy1Mb3ZlLVplcm8=

This year of Google blogging

2008-01-02T12:43:00.001-05:00

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team

It's that time again, the end of a year - time to tote up Google's blogging activity for the last 365 days. First, a few bits of data about this particular blog:

Number of posts this year: 300
New product announcements: 15 (not counting our April 1 release)
News about upgrades and additions to products: 87
Announcing products in more languages and countries: 30
Acquisitions: 12
Unique visitors: 6,738,830 (for 8,655,830 visits)
Languages: 511 (preferred language configured on computers)
Top non-Google referrers: Yahoo, Digg, Slashdot, Fark

Beyond these basics, this year saw many more posts on privacy (9), accessibility (10), and energy and the environment (11). We blogged a good deal about Google's people and culture, our various offices around the world, and the pastimes and passions of Googlers (26, including 2 recipes). We talked about healthcare issues that challenge consumers (5). There were competitions including Google Code Jam and events for developers, educators and others (29). Through YouTube, there has been much political activity (7) in the U.S. as well as in Australia.

The posts that elicited the most reaction in terms of views and linkbacks include:

- the much-discussed "Gphone" news
- our thinking about the upcoming FCC spectrum auction
- what the OpenSocial APIs could mean
- how a black screen might not save energy
- announcing the Knol test project
- building your own Google homepage

Of course, there's more than business to write about. We celebrated National Gorilla Suit Day, deconstructed the Valentine's Day doodle, and then a snake went missing.

As for the Google family of blogs, there's been lots of growth this year: 42 new ones launched, for a total to 83 active company blogs. Increasingly, Googlers want to quickly and regularly convey product news and updates to various constituents, and blogs are a great way to do that. Among the most popular of this newest crop are the Gmail blog (nearly 1.5 million unique visitors), the Orkut blogs (in English - 3.5 million uniques; and Portuguese - 8.8 million), and Google Lat Long, with 824,000 unique visitors, which covers everything geographical. In addition, readers can now turn to new product blogs including those for Google Finance, Google News, and Mobile. Reflecting keen interest in activity outside the U.S., the YouTube blog had the greatest number of comments for its June post about the fact that YouTube is available in 9 more countries, followed by the August post announcing InVideo ads.

On the ads side: there are now 6 more non-English blogs for AdSense publishers (French, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Chinese). The AdWords team opened blogs for Brasil and the Netherlands, Japan now has its own Analytics blog, and there are now German and Chinese versions of the popular Webmaster Central. (The most popular ads-related blog is the one for Analytics, with nearly half a million unique visitors, followed by closely Inside AdSense and then Inside AdWords.)

To keep current and share their work, developers got a raft of new blogs, too, including those focused on APIs for YouTube, Checkout, Gears, Mashup, and Gadgets. Needless to say, there are now also blogs for Android and OpenSocial.

Two new country blogs, for the Czech Republic and Australia, went public, to talk about all things Google in their regions. Yet more readers congregated around the new Public Policy and Google.org blogs, as well as one dedicated to online security and malware.

Despite all this activity, and the fact that a growing number of companies also host corporate blogs, the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki (a collaborative project begun by Wired Magazine and SocialText) indicates that even today, just 46 of the Fortune 500 companies (about 9%), have active public blogs produced by company employees that focus on the company and its products. Let's hope in 2008 that number goes up. We think such blogs can serve users, journalists, critics, investors, and fans more effectively and directly than more traditional approaches. Apparently, so do 41,395,926 people around the world - the number of visitors to all of our blogs this year.

Watermark Your Pics with PicMarkr [Image Editing]

2008-01-02T12:41:00.001-05:00

Flickr's a great place to share your digital photos, but if you're concerned about others stealing your best work without crediting you, you might want to try watermarking your images. Webapp PicMarkr watermarks any selected Flickr pic or any image you upload from your desktop quickly and relatively painlessly, then lets you choose between uploading the results to Flickr or saving them to your computer. You'll have to authorize the app with Flickr, and once you do you can browse Flickr sets, select pics to watermark, and choose from several different watermarking methods. Once you're finished, you can upload the watermarked image to your Flickr account or save it to your computer. PicMarkr is a nice idea, but it'd make a lot more sense to see something like this integrated into Flickr's new editing tools.

Find Quality Album Art Fast at AlbumArt [Digital Music]

2008-01-02T12:40:00.001-05:00

Got a new MP3 player and decided it's time to gussy up your music library with high quality album art? Web site AlbumArt offers lightning fast search results for CD and DVD cover art for an impressively wide range of artists and albums. A lot of the art appears to come from Amazon, but good luck finding it as quickly by searching the source. We've actually mentioned AlbumArt once before, and though it's not as high quality as my previous now-defunct album art source, it's a wonderful go-to source for quickly filling out your music library with quality art.

Keep Daily Tabs on Your Morale with Morale-O-Meter [Graphics]

2008-01-02T12:39:00.001-05:00

If you could look back on a week, a month, or even a year's worth of how you felt, how you slept, and your caffeine and alcohol intake, what would it say about you? Morale-O-Meter, a free embeddable web app, provides a space to log those morale indicators, graph them, and compare the results with friends, or even embed them in a blog or web site. The site can send daily email reminders to those who tend to fall off the daily entry wagon, and 43 Things users can use their existing login to start their own graphs. If looking back at your results makes you realize your job is wreaking havoc on your life, consider trying a few ways to deal with burnout without quitting.

Test Message

2007-10-03T12:38:00.000-04:00

This is the test message for The Campus.

The Campus Computer Science Classes

Blockbuster vs. AppleTV

Fix Your Achy Body by Walking Barefoot [Health]

BitRipper Converts DVDs to AVIs in One Click [Featured Windows Download]

Get Better Tech Support [How To]

Whiten Your Teeth with Strawberries from Lifehacker

A new look for Google Video: from the Official Google Blog

Google Video gets a facelift

Friday, April 18, 2008 4/18/2008 07:17:00 AM

8 Post Types To Expand and Highlight Your Blog’s Content

8 Post Types To Expand and Highlight Your Blog’s Content

10 Best Online Storage Services

Test Your Geography

Airwaves auction winners named

The Greatest Blogging Skill

Why Meta-Improvement?

3 Keys to Blogger Meta-Improvement

The Blogger Meta-Improvement Motto

Explore the Universe with Google Sky [Launch]

Canada Lessons

FCC auction nears conclusion, so what's next?

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Make your own warrior

Metal Gear Solid 4 Sneaks onto PS3 on June 12

The long wait for an official release date is over. Barring no sudden delays, Solid Snake fans will be able to play MGS4 on June 12, and PS3 sales could get a nice lift as a result.

Wii Owners Will Look to Purchase PS3, says iSuppli

Download and Convert Dailymotion Videos to MP4 for iPod

How to Copy Songs From an iPod to a PC

Introduction

Instructions

Steps

Step One

Step Two

Step Three

Step Four

Step Five

Install OSX guide on PC Hardware

Set Your BIOS

Install OS X with the Kalyway Install Disc

Wine 0.9.54 Released

iPhone Is Taking Over Our Minds

Qtrax Promises Legal P2P Music Sharing Service, the Impossible [Music Downloads]

Like WoW, The Pirate Bay Has Reached 10 Million [Stats]

My new dog. Lady.

New Blu-ray 2.0 spec makes PS3 the most future-proof player

New Blu-ray 2.0 spec makes PS3 the most future-proof player

What 2.0 brings

News.com Extra: Top 75 essential sci-fi terms

NASA considering making a virtual world

NASA considering making a virtual world

Judge: Mobile phones in tiger attack may be inspected

<strike>Steal Download Music From Any Shared iTunes Library with OurTunes [Featured Download]

Problems?

Silence Your Xbox 360 with a New Fan [Hardware]

Learn Online: Access Free University Lectures at LectureFox

5min - The Deadliest Display of Nuclear Power - Video

Stream Music from BitTorrent Downloads with WeStream [BitTorrent]

The Ultimate PC for Aunt Lili: Daniel Sellers gift.

RIAA: Personal Use is Stealing

The Ultimate Toilet for Troubled Butt Wipers

Identify and Set Rules for Unwanted Phone Calls [Distractions]

This year of Google blogging

Watermark Your Pics with PicMarkr [Image Editing]

Find Quality Album Art Fast at AlbumArt [Digital Music]

Keep Daily Tabs on Your Morale with Morale-O-Meter [Graphics]

Test Message