Wrecking Features

MacBook: Greenest Notebook?

2008-11-25T05:15:00.000-08:00

Yet another company using the "Green" bandwagon to sell their products. Have a look at this.

Apple: When we redesigned the new Macbook, our designers and engineers set a goal of making not only the greenest notebook Apple ever produced, but the greenest family of notebooks. So every new Macbook has been built using materials that are highly recyclable and free of many harmful substances present in other computers. Apple engineers also designed the software and hardware to work together, in order to maximize energy efficiency and minimize the carbon footprint of the MacBook. Even the packaging was reconsidered and reduced, so there would be smaller boxes to ship and less material to recycle. The result is exactly what we hoped for: the greenest family of notebooks ever made.

As for the "eco friendly aluminum cases: Refining Aluminum is not the most "eco friendly" process. It tends to result in lots of "carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen fluoride gases and particulates, fluorides, alumina, sulfur dioxide and volatile organics are produced ..." which by the eco people are not "environmentally nice".

Want to be green? Don't buy a new computer!

Read More:

The Encyclopedia of Life

2008-11-20T03:08:00.000-08:00

Encyclopedia of Life is an online collaborative effort by scientist, which encompasses an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all known species on Earth, make accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.

"Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth, available everywhere by single access on command." - Edward O. Wilson

Encylopedia of Life will be a great tool for teaching and learning, for students, scientists and the public.

Free File Compression Utilities

2008-10-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a few free compression utilities as an alternative to WinRAR and WinZip.

1. jZip supports multiple popular archive formats such as Zip, RAR, 7z, ISO, TAR and GZip. It is fully compatible with archives created by other utilities such as WinZip, WinRar and 7-Zip. It is based on the open source 7-Zip with high speed and compression ratios but features superior user interface. [Windows]

2. TugZip is a powerful, full-featured freeware archiving utility for Windows that provides support for a wide range of compressed, encoded and disc-image files formats.

TugZip Features Overview:

Create 7-ZIP, BH, BZ2, CAB, JAR, LHA (LZH), SQX, TAR, TGZ, YZ1 and ZIP archives.
Supports BIN, C2D, IMG, ISO and NRG disc-images.
Encrypt archives using 6 different algorithms. Blowfish (128-bit), DES (56-bit), Triple DES (168-bit) and Rijndael (128-bit, 192-bit and 256-bit).
Create self-extracting encrypted archives.

Other Posts:

Play Any Video with The KMPlayer

2008-10-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

The KMPlayer is all in one media player covering various formats such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg, OGM, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, and QuickTime etc. It handles a wide range of subtitles and allows you to capture audio, video, and screenshots in many ways.

The player provides both internal and external filters with a fully controlled environment in terms of connections to other splitters, decoders, audio/video transform filters and renderers without grappling with the DirectShow merit system. Internal filters are not registered to user's system to keep it from being messed up with system filters.

Key Features:

Low memory footprint
Playback of Incomplete/Damaged AVI file (Skip Damaged Frames)
Playback of Locked Media Files while downloading or sharing (with realtime index rebuilding under certain condition: AVI downloading in consecutive order)
Directshow playback
Incoming Stream delivered via HTTP
Flexible Skin change depending on Playback Status of media
Various audio, video and screenshots Capture Function
Full Unicode Support
Multiple Language Support

The KMPlayer includes almost all the essential decoders required for media playback. Furthermore, to get beyond the limitation of internal decoders, the external ones such as commercial h.264 decoders or cyberlink/intervideo audio decoders can be specified, so that KMP works optimally by the users' own customization. Even though the KMP is based upon directshow structure, it supports Winamp, Realmedia and Quicktime by the internal logic. Thus, it is possible to specify where to try to connect firstly the media in preferences.

In short, the player provides a strong hybrid structure efficient for interconnecting various directshow filters, winamp input&dsp plugin, and internal filters. The most outstanding feature is that the player has the full control of filter connections to prevent a media playback from being messed.

The player can set multifarious audio and video effects, slow down or increase playback speed with regular tone, select parts of a video as favorites, do an exceptionally powerful A-B repeat, remap the keys of remote interface for HTPC including overlay screen controls, change a skin dynamically depending on a media type playing, and many more. It is completely customizable thanks to a wide selection of skins and color schemes, and the configuration options are extremely extensive.

I discovered The KMPlayer some time ago, and now it's my default video player.

Get your free copy of The KMPlayer here and other skin mods here.

Other Posts:

Google Master Plan

2008-06-24T03:17:00.000-07:00

Interesting short movie directed by Ozan Halici & Jürgen Mayer from the University of Applied Sciences Ulm, Germany titled "Master Plan, about the power of Google".

The graphics are awesome. Watch it and decide whether any conspiracy involved.

Other Posts:

Web 2.0 and Beyond

2008-06-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

An excellent presentation by Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University entitled The Machine is Us/ing Us.

It says it all regarding how Web 2.0 works. And as Wesch put it:

Web 2.0 is no longer just connecting text, but it is linking people to share, trade and collaborate. We will now have to rethink on copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, ourselves.

Here is the final version of the video.

This does make us to think differently that "we are the web" and not just simply consumer of knowledge and information.

Related Post:

Future Mobile: The Morph Concept

2008-03-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some slick concept from Nokia utilizing nanotechnologies. It's featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition.

Morph is a concept demonstrating some of the possibilities nanotechnologies might enable in future communication devices.

Newly-enabled flexible and transparent materials blend more seamlessly with the way we live
Devices become self-cleaning and self-preserving
Transparent electronics offering an entirely new aesthetic dimension
Built-in solar absorption might charge a device, whilst batteries become smaller, longer lasting and faster to charge
Integrated sensors might allow us to learn more about the environment around us, empowering us to make better choices

Other Post:

A New Way to Discover Music

2008-03-02T02:49:00.000-08:00

Here are a few interesting sites to discover new music.

1. Musicovery is an interactive web radio that let you explore new music based on mood, genre and time period. You will then get visual representation of your music selection in form of loop and bubbles. Mix and match the filter to suit your music taste.

2. MusicMesh is a cool online mash up web application, in which you can listen to music, discover music similar to what you've chosen through a visual network of CD cover images. You can also browse thru any available music videos or performances from whatever track you chose and gather information about an artist.

3. Deezer (previously Blogmusik) let you browse through the current top lists and listen to popular artists for free. They have smart playlist option to generate song list automatically based on a song or artist.

4. Jango is a fresh internet radio streaming with interesting spin on social networking dynamic.

Related Post:

Free Stuff for your Mobile Phone

2008-01-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few mobile community to get your free ringtones, message tones, themes, wallpaper, java games and other apps for your mobile phone.

1. Zedge.net is a mobile-centric social networking community that offers free stuff for your mobile.
Key features:

Clean and simple design
Free galleries for themes, ringtones, games, video and wallpapers
Tool for customized screensavers and themes
Support various mobile brands and models
Limit download of 30 items per day

2. Lasyk Networks

Key Features:

Offers free software, wallpapers, ringtones, games, themes and screensavers
Support Nokia and Sony Ericsson phone models
Features mTC (my Theme Creator) which let's you add transparency and other effects to images [runs on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux]

Other Posts:

Have Fun With Facebook

2007-12-20T03:05:00.000-08:00

Watch this two hilarious videos on Facebook.

The Facebook Skit by Penn Masala

Facebook Infomercial Parody

An Essay about the Future of Telecommunication

2007-12-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

A little girl recites her essay about the future of telecommunication to a group of adults. Watch this video to see their reactions.

Other Posts:

Burn CDs and DVDs for Free

2007-12-14T03:30:00.000-08:00

Here are a few applications to burn your CDs and DVDs for free.

1. CDBurnerXP - a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface.

Key Features:

burn all kinds of discs on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/ DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/BD/HD-DVD, including double layer mediums
audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks
burn and create ISO files
burn on-the-fly and with buffer-underrun protections
data verification after burning process
create bootable discs
multi-language interface
bin/nrg → ISO converter
simple cover printing feature for data- and audio-discs
Support Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

2. ImgBurn - a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. It's an excellent free tool for burning data discs and has simpler interface.

Key Features:

Several 'Modes' for performing different tasks - Read, Build, Write, Verify and Discovery
Supports a wide range of image file formats - including BIN, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.
Automatic Write Speed feature
Supports all the Windows Platform (including all the 64-bit versions)

3. InfraRecorder - open source and does almost everything the above-mentioned programs do. It has small footprint too.

Other Posts:

New Advancement in Silicon NanoPhotonics

2007-12-14T02:22:00.000-08:00

IBM has achieved new breakthrough in computing utilizing photons instead of wires to relay data in the chipsets.

IBM Researchers from the T.J. Watson Research Center reached a significant milestone in the quest to send information between the "brains" on a chip using pulses of light through silicon instead of electrical signals on copper wires. The breakthrough -- a significant advancement in the field of "Silicon Nanophotonics" -- uses pulses of light rather than electrical wires to transmit information between different processors on a single chip, significantly reducing cost, energy and heat while increasing communications bandwidth between the cores more than a hundred times over wired chips.

The new technology aims to enable a power-efficient method to connect hundreds or thousands of cores together on a tiny chip by eliminating the wires required to connect them. Using light instead of wires to send information between the cores can be as much as 100 times faster and use 10 times less power than wires, potentially allowing hundreds of cores to be connected together on a single chip, transforming today's large supercomputers into tomorrow's tiny chips while consuming significantly less power.

Here is another video giving an insight of the silicon photonics technology in the future.

Other Post:

Useful iTunes Utilities and Add-ons

2007-12-06T23:01:00.000-08:00

Here are a few add-ons to use with iTunes to manage and sync your music files in Windows.

1. Music Bridge 2 - good freeware application that offers a variety of synchronization options.

It copies music meta-data (artist, album, ratings, and album art) in both directions between Windows Media Player and iTunes.
Includes Play Count and Playlist syncs
Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista
Requires iTunes 7+

2. iTunes Export - an open source Windows utility that

exports only songs from certain playlists from your iTunes Music Library to create separate new playlists (in .m3u / .wpl files format) and
transfer / copies the actual song files of individual playlists out of your library for playing anywhere (WinAmp, foobar, VLC, WMP and etc)

Choose your iTunes Music Library

Select Output Directory and Format

3. Moody - an iTunes Music Tagger based on Mood with colour cues. Moody will write the mood to the comment section in the song meta-data.

Here Comes Another Bubble

2007-12-06T02:52:00.000-08:00

Yet another awesome viral video to reflect how Web 2.0 has turned out! And i guess the second bubble is near.

Other Post:

Alternative to RealPlayer

2007-10-29T08:49:00.001-07:00

Real Alternative is a codec package that allows you to play Real Media Files without having to install RealPlayer.

Some advantages compared to RealPlayer :

Quick and easy install
Proper uninstallation
No background processes
Use media player of your own choice
Low resources usage
No advertising, no registration forms, nothing annoying

Features Overview:

Play RealMedia files in all DirectShow enabled players.
Supported Real Media Format includes: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp).
Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Mozilla.

Real Alternative comes in both Regular Version (6.14MB) and Lite Version (4.40MB). The Lite version does not include Media Player Classic.

Grab your free copy of Real Alternative here.

Other Post:

Free Firewall Security for your PC

2007-10-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a few free firewall application to secure your PC.

1. Comodo Firewall Pro is a free security program designed to keep your PC safe from hackers. It provides protection against both internal and external attacks. Comodo also recognizes over ten thousands applications, meaning you don't need to configure them individually. [Support Windows Only]

Sleek design gives an at-a-glance overview of your security status

Grab your free Comodo Firewall copy here.

As a side note, Comodo Firewall 3.0 is currently under development and will feature "Host Intrusion Prevention System" to shield computer from unknown attacks.

2. Jetico Personal Firewall -uses multiple level filtering scheme to provide highest protection level. It outperformed Zone Alarm, Outpost and others; ranked first on Global firewalls 'outbound application filtering'. [Support Windows XP and Vista]

Get your free Jetico Firewall copy here.

Opera 9.50 Beta Released

2007-10-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Opera once again demonstrates its prowess in browser innovation with the new feature list in Kestrel

Major performance improvement
Synchronize your bookmark, Speed Dials, and Personal toolbar across multiple computers
New ECMAscript (i.e JavaScript) engine, which is faster and less-memory intensive
Full history search: search the complete content of the webpages you visited directly from the URL toolbar
Improved site compatibility- Fixed thousands of bugs in Opera’s rendering engine
Added support for the CSS3
Added support for JavaScript 1.5 Getters and Setters
Releasing Opera in 64-bit version
Added “Drag to scroll” feature
Improved platform integration
Access for everyone
and more here

Go and grab your copy of Alpha Release here.

Updated: 25th October 2007

Opera 9.50 Beta features the all new Opera Link, providing access to your bookmarks and Speed Dials everywhere. Grab your own copy of Opera 9.50 Beta here.

Read More:

Opera - Get to know Kestrel
Opera Snapshot Changelogs: Windows, Mac, Unix

Information R/evolution

2007-10-21T01:15:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting presentation by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University entitled Information R/evolution.

This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.

Credit: Digital Ethnography

Related Post:

Amazing Windsuit Flying

2007-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

Basejumpers wearing windsuits flying inches from mountain walls. It's the craziest thing I've seen in a while. A must see!

And I don't understand how they could sleep in this situation.

Dare to try?

Other Posts:

Switcher 2.0 - An Exposé App for Windows

2007-10-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

Swithcer 2.0 is an application that will bring Apple Exposé like features to your Windows workstation. Here are a few snapshots of Switcher 2.0 in action.

Tile view arranges the windows.

Switcher treats the desktop as a window.

Download it here. And it requires Windows Vista and Aero.

Via: Download Squad

Super Mario Brothers Live

2007-10-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

These college students perform a "live-action" skit of the old school super mario brothers video game at a talent show. It's hilarious!

Here are the latest clips/trailer from the highly anticipated 3D Action Games for Nintendo Wii - Super Mario Galaxy.

Feedburner Bug - Pimp your Reader Stats

2007-10-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

FeedBurner has a major bug! Now with this tool you can add as many subscribers as you want!

Try it here.

Credit: deeario.it

"If you visit a feed with a modified user agent like this:

Bloglines/3.1 (http://www.bloglines.com; 4317 subscriber)

it will add 4317 subscribers to your feed. "

We realized a web app to “boost your feed readers” just for fun and to show how it works. You can find it here: Tessarolizr. Just add the last part of your FeedBurner feed (that after http://feeds.feedburner.com/) and the number of readers you want to add and click “Tessarolizzami!”.

Upload to multiple file sharing sites with one click

2007-10-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

Are you tired to upload your files onto different file sharing sites? Here are a few free web service to upload your files/documents to these sites automatically.

1. MassMirror.com - provides upload tool that will automatically distribute/mirror your files to multiple file sharing sites from just a single upload. It makes automatically mirrors on: -

www.badongo.com
www.megaupload.com
www.picshome.com
www.rapidshare.com
www.sendspace.com
www.zshare.net

2. ShareOnAll - offers free service to reupload your files onto these file sharing sites automatically:

www.rapidshare.com
www.megaupload.com
www.filefactory.com
www.depositfiles.com
www.easy-share.com
www.zshare.net

Opera vs Firefox vs Internet Explorer

2007-10-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a funny comparison of Firefox, Opera with Internet Explorer.

Which web browser do you prefer?

Other Post:

Via: myconfinedspace