Create your own QTVR movie on the cheap
Submitted on January 24th, 2006 by admin
Filed under The Mac Side and Video
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Have you ever seen those cool panoramic videos usually available at real estate sites and wondered how you could do it yourself? Check out this detailed tutorial on creating QTVR movies using some pretty inexpensive hardware, a bit of time, and some ingenuity; the results are pretty cool.
[Via Boing Boing]
[tags]quicktime, qtvr, camera, video, tutorial[/tags]
The iTunes signature maker
Submitted on January 24th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Audio
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Anyone who regularly browses forums is sure to have a signature banner of some form, but if you wanted to be a little different, why not create an iTunes signature? Now you can with the iTunes Signature Maker. This little Java applet will scan you music collection and create a sound file a few seconds long which mixes some of your most listened to tunes. Maybe a little useless, but definitely neat.
[Via Metafilter]
[tags]itunes, signature, music[/tags]
Connect to AIM, MSN, & Yahoo w/ Google Talk
Submitted on January 24th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Networking and Software and Windows
No. of comments (3)
One of the big Google announcements while TipMonkies was on that crazy hiatus was that Google Talk would now work with other Jabber servers, a term dubbed federation. As a result of this, it was only a matter of (short) time before people started trying to connect to other IM protocols through Google Talk. See, Jabber clients can connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and other networks through server transports, which not many people may know about. BigBlueBall has put up a very easy to follow article on connecting Google Talk to AIM, MSN, and Yahoo using the free Jabber client, Psi. Once done, you’ll have your AIM buddies available right from Google Talk.
[tags]gtalk, google, im, aim, jabber, msn, yahoo, tips[/tags]
Read books as they’re written w/ Roughcuts
Submitted on January 24th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Shopping and Books and Resources
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Roughcuts is an interesting new book service from O’Reilly, the same folks who publish some of the most popular tech books in the industry. So what is it exactly? By paying for a Roughcuts subscription, you are allowed access to drafts of books as they’re being written and have the ability to send comments, and feedback to the writers and ediors in order to improve the book. Once the finished product is published, you also receive a copy of the book. You’ll be paying a bit more for the online access, but it’s still quite an interesting experiment, and for those of us who have libraries of O’Reilly books, it’s definitely a nice little extra.
[Via Boing Boing]
[tags]o’reilly, books, text, preview, services[/tags]
Yahoo! Maps, now with traffic reports
Submitted on January 24th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Resources and Portables and Services
No. of comments (1)
While I may be a Google fanboy, I know good software when I see it, and as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the updated Yahoo! Maps is fantastic even though it’s still in beta. The latest update of the service has some great new features such as live traffic reports and the ability to send driving directions to a mobile phone. The traffic reports don’t work in all areas, but is still a fantastic feature for bigger cities.
[tags]yahoo, maps, traffic, beta, mobile[/tags]
Get TV listings through RSS
Submitted on January 24th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Services and Video
No. of comments (1)
There are dozens of different uses for RSS feeds including news, events, weather, traffic reports, package tracking, and more. One pretty cool site I found today is called Bootleg RSS: TV Edition (kind of a long name), which provides RSS feeds for show listings of some of the more popular local and cable channels. You can select different feeds depending on your time zone, though only listings for US channels are currently available. If one of your favorite channels isn’t listed, you could always make a request and hope it shows up in one of the updates. I only watch a short list of shows, but it’s good to know when I’ll be able to watch reruns of them.
[tags]tv, listings, rss, feeds[/tags]
Capture webpages with IE Snapshot
Submitted on January 23rd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Graphics and Software and Windows
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IE Snapshot is a cool little tool I happened upon today by mistake but which impressed me enough to want to write about it. IE Snapshot is a Windows application which lets you take screenshots of a webpage and save it into a PDF file, or an image format like JPG, BMP, or GIF. Sure, you could always hit the Print Screen on your keyboard and paste the image into your favorite image program (or just Paint), but with IE Snapshot, you can select a particular section of a page, and preview what you’re screenshot will look like as the application has a built in web browser (hence the IE part of the name). It’s totally free, though donations are accepted.
[tags]ie, images, screenshots, windows[/tags]
Google news out of beta; new feature
Submitted on January 23rd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Resources and Services
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After something like three years as a beta product, Google has finally announced that Google News is finally out of beta! Those of you who have not yet used the service, it is a news aggregator where news articles are scanned, written, edited, and posted entirely autonomously by computer algorithms (sexy!). So what new features can we expect? The main new functionality connects the Google News homepage to Google’s Personalized Search so that if you’re signed in with your Google username, Google will automatically recommend and present new stories based on your past news reading habits, very much like sites like Findory. Great news indeed!
[Via Google Blog]
[tags]google, news, services, aggregator, search[/tags]
Hard to find 800 numbers
Submitted on January 23rd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Resources and Services
No. of comments (1)
Almost every company offers at least one 800 number which customers and clients can call in order to ask questions, get tech support, etc. but many companies don’t make these numbers readily available, probably because they don’t want to have to pay extra people in order to answer your phones. When e-mail contact forms just aren’t quick enough for you, check out Hardtofind800numbers.com, an amazing website which lists those hidden numbers for you.
[tags]tech, support, phone, 800 numbers, contact[/tags]
A first look at Windows Mail Live
Submitted on January 23rd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Reviews and Email and Services
No. of comments (3)
So Microsoft is revamping Hotmail. They are changing the name to Windows Live Mail and going to a whole new interface. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to get invited to the beta so read on for a Tipmonkies’ first look at the new Windows Live Mail.
