I was always looking for a good media organizer. Many frustrating attempts googling for a great software failed me. When I stumbled upon this gem of a Open source software, I was just amazed.
Libra is a library software to organize your stuff: Books, Audio CDs, Movies, & Games (for a start). And it does so beautifully, and at an amazing price ($0 for non-commercial use).
There are countless arguments for using open source applications, but one of the strongest is having a single interface to learn when working on Windows, Mac or Linux systems. Web site directory Open Source Living helps you find just those kind of programs. It's not an extensive, all-in-one directory, but it seems to narrow its choices based on quality and widespread acceptance. And while not every application listed at Open Source Living is entirely cross-platform, a good deal of them are. For more free or open source applications.
Open Source Living [via etc.]
Have you ever wanted to show off your keyboard ninja skills by taking down Windows with just a couple of keystrokes? All you have to do is add one registry key, and then you can impress your friends… or use it to convince people to switch to Linux.
This isn't a bug, it's a "feature" in Windows that is designed to let users trigger a crash dump for testing purposes. There's even a whole Microsoft KB article on the subject.
To enable this feature, open up regedit and then browse down to one of these keys, depending on your keyboard type:
USB Keyboard
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters
PS/2 Keyboard
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
Now right-click on the right-hand pane and add a new DWORD key named CrashOnCtrlScroll, giving it a value of 1.
Reboot your computer, and when it starts back up you can trigger the Blue Screen of Death by using the following keyboard shortcut:
Hold down Right Ctrl and hit Scroll Lock twice
To remove this "feature" you can just delete the registry key and then restart your computer again.
Please note that following this article WILL crash your computer… really isn't very useful, but it's lots of fun =)
[Via the How-To Geek]
Gmail users might want to check your filters to ensure your account hasn't been hacked like this designer's. Google has fixed the vulnerability, but if you were exposed before the fix the filter could still exist in your Gmail account.
FlyakiteOSX created a really easy way to transform your desktop into an OS X look & feel without a lot of trouble. Note: This installation will change a lot of files and install a whole bunch of utilities, so proceed with caution if you aren't prepared to deal with any problems that might happen. When you launch the setup you'll eventually get to this screen, where you should check the box for "Create System Restore Point", along with whichever options you want.
After installation and rebooting your computer, you'll be presented with a desktop that looks very much like OS X.
It even updates your shutdown screen… And the login screen… There's an included "System Preferences" application that looks just like the one in OS X, but works differently… when you click on the icons it will launch the relevant Windows settings panel.
If you have problems trying to remove this, remember that you setup a Restore point during setup. You can always return everything back to normal by using System Restore if you need to.
We wouldn't be surprised if you only know AVG for its free anti-virus software. Along with Avast! Avira, and a few other companies that don't start with the letter A, AVG provides a full-fledged virus protection suite free of charge. But AVG also provides a "professional" version of its software that comes with some advanced features like extra scanning and scheduling options.
For example, the free version only lets you schedule a single virus database update per day, and one computer scan a day. You can schedule multiple events with the Pro version. You also get higher speed downloads with the Pro version.
AVG Pro usually goes for $29.95, but Computeract!ve is giving away free licensed copies through Jan 18, 2008. Good luck getting their download link to work, but fortunately CyberNet has pointed us to a couple of mirrors.
For Firefox, it seems that the finest tweaks are the most difficult to find. The browser is full of excellent shortcuts but its upto the user to find the most effective ones. Some of these very cool tips will make your browsing life easier...
1. Quick search - without going to a search engine first.
Are you reading a website and you subsequently discover a word or phrase that you want to put into a search engine? Up until now, I would just open a new tab, type in the URL for Google and manually type the word or phrase in. But it seems there is a faster easier way.
Just highlight the word or phrase with your mouse’s left-click button. Then drag the highlighted text into the address bar in the browser. Then press “enter”. Firefox will now perform a “Are you feeling lucky?” Google search for you.
2. Delete visited URL’s
When you drop down the box underneath the address bar, you can see your recent browsing history. But what if you want to remove one URL from that list? How to delete those ? Just drop down the URL box, highlight the URL you want to zap then press the “delete” button on your keyboard. The URL will then be removed from the list.
3. Navigate to browser tabs using the keyboard
Instead of using the mouse to click on a tab, why not use the keyboard instead? Pressing CTRL + TAB together will bounce you from tab to tab, starting from the one in the far left and working its way along. Or if you want to go to a specifc tab straight away, you can do that too. CTRL + 2 will take you directly to the second tab from the left. CTRL + 5 will take you to the fifth tab from the left.
4. Start downloads instantly
Instead of right-clicking on a download link, choosing “save to target” and pressing enter, just drag the download link to the “downloads icon” in the toolbar. The download will start automatically.
5. Grab files off webpages, even protected webpages
Have you ever wanted a picture, file or video off a webpage but you can’t, because it’s been protected? Just right-click on the page, choose “View Page Info” then the “media” tab. Find the file you’re looking for from the list and click on “save”. (note : this doesn’t work for everything but I have still had a pretty high success rate nonetheless).
GTalk Profile is a site for finding Google Talk related profiles that makes use of the recently launched Google Profiles.
GTalk Profile uses the Google Maps API to pinpoint locations of users worldwide. Each pinpoint has a link to a users Google Profile, including their interests, location and profile photo. The site is relatively young, but there are already over 7400 users that have chosen to include their GTalk profiles.
While checking in with the site over the past few days, it seemed that they might have an inadequate hosting plan. There were numerous instances where the site was either offline, or the map and profiles were not showing up at all. Since Google Profiles are on the move to becoming an emerging way to identify each other in a social setting, it might be time for GTalk Profile to rethink their data plans.
Open source keyword launcher Launchy grows up a little with a 2.0 release. Most of the changes seem to be in the interface—polished icons, better skinning support, transparency and fade effects, and other visual tweaks. But program options have been condensed into one window, plugins are more customizable, and the launcher seems more configurable overall. It's important to note that any plug-ins and skins Launchy users currently have won't work with 2.0 (yet), and your configuration file will be wiped away, so you might want to make a few notes before upgrading Download : Launchy
|Mozilla is continuing its march toward an official launch of Firefox 3 with the release of Firefox 3 beta 2. This update features more infrastructure improvements than major new features, but it packs all the goodies of earlier beta release plus a few new items including:
You can find a complete list of updates in the release notes. There are still some kinks to work out, but that's to be expected in any beta release (with the possible exception of a Google beta product). We're not quite ready to give up on Firefox 2 as our everyday browser, but Firefox 3 is tempting us a bit more with every beta release.
If you want to try out Firefox 3 beta 2 without installing it and risking data loss from your Firefox 2 profile, you might want to check out the portable version.
favorite web-based task manager Remember the Milk has released a Firefox extension that integrates your to-do list into Gmail. This extension doesn't just embed your list into Gmail for easy viewing—it's pretty full integration. For example, you can label messages "To Do" to automatically make them a task; as well as complete, postpone and otherwise manage your to-do's right inside Gmail. The RTM Gmail extension adds a Tasks tab in Gmail's settings where you can tell it to make starred messages or messages with a certain label a task. It also adds RTM capabilities to Gmail's More Actions drop-down. Cool! The Remember the Milk in Gmail Firefox extension is a free download that works with and wherever Firefox does.
Remember the Milk for Gmail [via Remember The Milk - Blog - Lifehacker]
MyxerTones is directory with thousands of user contributed ringtones and wallpapers for your mobile. While some require payment most of them are free. Additionally, you’re provided with toolset to make your own ringtones and wallpapers from files on your computer.
MyxerTones Features:
Check out MyxerTones @ (www.myxertones.com)
Youtube rocks ! we geeks agree on that. Now is the time to download and rip excellent videos from YouTube(or other online video sharing sites). An awesome list of tools compiled by MakeUseOf tells us how to download, convert and rip videos from YouTube.
WEBSITES that let you download content from popular video sharing sites: here you simply enter video URL, select source website and press search. Once file detected you’re given direct file download link. Websites listed in no particular order. ‘extra’ refers to additional features available on the website
BROWSER PLUGINS that let you download videos as you browse or streaming them, to my knowledge all below listed plugins work for googlevideo and youtube and most of them support other major video websites as well.
PROGRAMS that you can install and use to download desired videos from video websites.
Free FLASH MEDIA PLAYERS to play and manage downloaded videos from your desktop:
VIDEO CONVERTERS that you can use to convert(encode) video files from one format(ex; flash) to another (iPod, PSP, 3GP for mobile phone, etc)
Updates:
YoutTubeCrazyVideos - Free windows application bundle to enhance Youtube experience. Browse, search and play Youtube videos directly from your desktop. Download and convert videos to any popular format. Extract background music. And more …
