Monthly Archives: February 2009

Google Earth 5.0 Beta Released, Looks Incredible [Downloads]

Posted on February 2, 2009
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Windows/Mac/Linux: Google’s 3D mapping application Google Earth has just released version 5.0, adding historical imagery, maps of the ocean’s floor, and even better features for touring the world from your desktop.

The demo video pretty much says it all. The historic imagery lets you go back in time to see how the location you’re viewing has changed over the years. For the cubicle-based deep sea explorers, the new ocean features integrate maps of the ocean’s floor along with videos from National Geographic with Google Earth. Finally, if you’ve ever wanted to record a custom tour, a new record feature makes it easy to create and save tours of the globe. Looking good, GOOG.






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Syncplicity for Mac, Windows, Open to All [File Syncing]

Posted on February 2, 2009
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File-syncing service Syncplicity—which recently added invite-only support for Macs—is now open for all users on both platforms. To get started, just head to the Syncplicity signup page, then grab the download. Syncplicity was voted the second most popular file-syncing tool by Lifehacker readers (next to Dropbox), so if you haven’t already taken it on a test run, it’s worth a try.






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Homstie Turns Your Unused Space Into Cash [Storage]

Posted on February 2, 2009
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If you've got space you're not using—from space to park a car to an empty corner of your basement—Homstie can help you rent that space out as storage.

The premise of the site is that self-storage units are expensive and not particularly friendly to the environment—there is over 2.2 billion square feet of commercial space devoted to self storage in the US. Homstie links people with space in existing buildings to people who need space. If you're wondering about the logistics of using the extra space in someone's garage to store your stuff, Homestie provides custom lease agreements—for a $19 fee—based on the arrangement you have. Space-holders are ranked by experiences others have had with them and other information, such as whether or not the space is lockable. Payments are not orchestrated through Homstie but in a manner agreed upon through the landlord and leaser. Currently the majority of listings are in California with a spattering in other smaller states. Would you consider signing a lease to rent out space in a residence instead of a commercial storage facility? Sound off in the comments.






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YourFonts

Posted on February 2, 2009
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With YourFonts you can make a TrueType font from your own handwriting for free. The process is simple, quick and basically idiot-proof. Print out a template from the site, write in your letters, scan, upload and — voila — there you have it. If you’re a real fonthead, you might want more detail and control over the fonts you create. I remember even years ago seeing an ad in MacWorld for a “make your own handwriting font.” The template that software had was a lot more sophisticated, since it asked for examples of different letter combination as well as individual letters. The YourFonts template basically replicates the characters on a standard keyboard, with an optional extension to characters with accents/umlauts etc.

By far, this is the best, quickest, easiest and cheapest option I’ve found thus far. YourFonts offers proper font creation software that can be purchased at what seems to be fairly reasonable prices. But the free font creation tool is heaps of fun and available for use without any form of obligation. I’ve already gone back and improved my first efforts, opting to fiddle with character heights and positioning in GIMP a lot (see below). I’m now keen to create a couple more fonts for my fledgling web site. This is quite possibly the start of an addiction.

– Craig Shaw


YourFonts

Here’s my somewhat egotistically-titled font “Shaw Hand” in various iterations. Being a bit anally retentive, I wanted to improve the uniformity a bit and improve the look of some characters. Because there’s no direct control over kerning, etc. the width of the character is important — nothing “tucks in” under/over adjacent characters. Note my somewhat idiosyncratic “g”, and how my initial “e,” “w” and “h” were a bit wide. I also found matching the template guides for height was important. Since it can be hard to achieve this on paper (despite practice!) I did the best I could and then — since the template is scanned as a .jpg, — I actually ended up using GIMP to do some editing, such as stretching individual characters vertically or horizontally, or making minor improvements to their shape. Below are just improvements on the one style. I haven’t even started to create a new style yet. :-)

yourfonts2sm.jpg

Related Entries:
MyFonts

1001 Free Fonts

Elements of Typographic Style

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MergePDF Combines PDF Documents for Free [PDF]

Posted on February 2, 2009
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If you don’t have access to Adobe Acrobat or other PDF manipulation tools, MergePDF is a quick and hassle-free online tool for combining your documents.

There are a small number of limitations on the tool, which shouldn’t be deal breakers for most people in need of a quick PDF merge. You’re limited to ten files that are 5MB or less for each merge you perform. Once you finish the merge and download the combined document, the original files are deleted. While the process wasn’t as fast as combining them on a local computer with professional software in our tests, it was fine for deadlines that aren’t in two minutes. The file merge pictured in the above screenshot took thirty seven seconds from the time the merge started until the file was downloaded to my computer.

If you find yourself merging PDF files frequently, a free desktop solution might be in order. Previously reviewed PDFSame is a Java-based cross-platform tool that merges, and separates, PDF files in short order.

MergePDF is a free to use, doesn’t require registration.






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Get Acronis True Image 10 Free [Deals]

Posted on February 2, 2009
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Acronis is giving away copies of Acronis True Image 10 Personal Edition because it’s got a new version out. That means you (or backup-needing friends) get whole disk image backups from a friendly interface.

The give-away of Acronis’ cloning software, normally $50 per license, is intended to inspire users to get familiar with Acronis’ backup systems, and possibly upgrade to Acronis True Image Home 2009. For most folks planning to re-install Windows, or just create one-file backups of entire drives, True Image 10 Personal will probably fit the bill. Its interface and step-by-steps don’t seem to give you as many options and geeky switches as DriveImage XML, which we featured in our guide to hot-imaging a hard drive. But True Image does offer backup archive validation, a recovery disk creator, a startup interrupter that can re-apply a backup image, and other tools for those shaking their fists at the Windows gods.

To grab your copy, hit the registration link below, fill out a minimum of the First Name, Last Name, email, and other magazines read sections (along with the privacy policy checkbox), and be patient and click back if you get a timeout. You’ll get a registration email, then be asked to log in and download, and have to enter a serial number after installing. The giveaway was launched for users of Personal Computer World, a UK tech magazine, so grab it sooner rather than later if you don’t want to chance losing the offer after this month’s PCW leaves the overseas shelves.






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What You Should Know About 2008 Individual Income Tax Returns

Posted on February 2, 2009
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taxicon2009.jpgThe cliché goes that there are only two things remain constant in this world: death and taxes. With this year’s April 15 deadline approach, do you know some important tax law changes that might affect your individual income tax return?

Below is a concise compilation from CCH CompleteTax of what you need to know about your 2008 tax return:
 
Exemptions

• Personal exemption. This increased to $3,500 per person for 2008.

• AMT exemption. The AMT exemption increased for 2008 to $69,950 for joint filers and surviving spouses, $46,200 for single filers and $34,975 for married persons filing separate returns.

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Read more news like this from PFBlog.com, The Unique Personal Finance Blog Since 2003.

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Simple Crock Pot Recipes Save Time and Money [Cooking]

Posted on February 1, 2009
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Crock pot cooking is dead simple and has the capability of turning basic ingredients into delicious meals with little time actually spent in the kitchen. These simple five-ingredient recipes will help you get started.

Photo by baykes.

Trent at The Simple Dollar blog shares some crock pot recipes that share a common theme: they all have five ingredients, are made with basic and inexpensive cooking staples, and require very little prep time. Beyond adding the basic five ingredients, the only instructions for the recipes are:

Combine all of this into a crock pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn it on low and walk away for eight hours. Add a quarter of a cup of water for every additional two hours you intend to cook it.

His pot roast recipe for instance—assuming you're a speedy vegetable chopper—could be prepped from the fridge to the counter to the crock pot in under five minutes. If you have some simple and tasty crock pot recipes of your own, share them in the comments below.






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Change Company Name in Xcode

Posted on February 1, 2009
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Although covered many other places on the net, I recently had to make a change to the name that Xcode automagically inserts when creating new files, so I figured I’d also pass on this tip to readers of this blog as well.
By default, Xcode inserts a company name something similar to the following in all [...]

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