We all have our favorite browser, many of us switch between a few, especially for specific tasks. This Applescript will open any link you click in whichever browser is currently running, rather than always opening with your system default. More »
Blog Archives
Open Links in Your Mac’s Current Browser Instead of the Default [Annoyances]
Posted on May 7, 2010
WolframTones Generates Unique MIDI Ringtones for Your Cellphone [Ringtones]
Posted on May 4, 2010
If your phone’s ringtones just aren’t doing it for you anymore, or if everyone at work is sick of that one MP3 snippet, WolframTones can generate original, 8-bit-sounding ringtones based on genres you select and send them to your phone. More »
The Best and Worst Hotels for Wi-Fi, 2010 Edition [Hotels]
Posted on April 29, 2010
On some trips, free and reliable Wi-Fi at the hotel is crucial. The HotelChatter blog’s annual review of Wi-Fi at hotel chains dishes on who’s charging, which services you can depend on, and which chains want $15 for checking your Gmail. More »
FamilySearch Beta Finds Historical Records on Your Family [Genealogy]
Posted on April 28, 2010
FamilySearch, the online arm of the Family History Library, has a new beta search service that lets the public dig around to find documents and facts on their relatives and ancestors. It’s a pretty huge index of data, and it’s free. More »
Learn How Google’s Search Algorithm Learns From You [Google]
Posted on February 23, 2010
There’s a whole lot of mystique, paranoia, and guessing as to how Google comes up with its generally best-in-class search results. Steven Levy at Wired digs in to discover what really makes Google’s search engine different, and how it learns from us.
PageRank, the generally accepted metric of, among other things, how often a page is linked to, is only a small part of the larger story at Google. Talking to Google’s engineers and tracing the history of publicly announced search features, Levy discovers that a good deal of what Google has learned about search comes from the searchers themselves.
Take, for instance, the way Google’s engine learns which words are synonyms. “We discovered a nifty thing very early on,” Singhal says. “People change words in their queries. So someone would say, ‘pictures of dogs,’ and then they’d say, ‘pictures of puppies.’ So that told us that maybe ‘dogs’ and ‘puppies’ were interchangeable. We also learned that when you boil water, it’s hot water. We were relearning semantics from humans, and that was a great advance.”
If you’re at all intrigued by what Google gets right or wrong, Levy’s piece is well worth the read. It’s a lot of straight talk from inside Google about search, written up in plain English.
Sweet Home 3D Models Your Home, Rearranges Your Furniture Without Breaking a Sweat [Downloads]
Posted on February 18, 2010
Windows/Mac/Linux: Next time you get the urge to rearrange your furniture, don’t strain your back randomly shoving your sofa around the room. Download Sweet Home 3D and do the heavy lifting on your computer screen before moving a stick of furniture.
This slick free interior design app recreates the dimensions of a room, and displays the furniture you add in 3D. Drag and drop tables, chairs, and plants around the room until you find an arrangement you like. Drop in windows, doors, and even change the color of the walls to replicate your room as closely as possible.
If you happen to have a blueprint available of the room you're redecorating, Sweet Home 3D will accept an import of the file in BMP, JPEG, GIF or PNG formats. Sorting through the furniture is easy—it's arranged in a tree view, just select the room you're decorating and drag what you like onto the 2D room grid. The app displays a 3D representation in real-time in a pane directly underneath. Check out an overhead view, or walk through the room as a virtual visitor for another perspective.
If you want to try out Sweet Home 3D before you download, there’s an online version you can try out for free. Register to save any plans you create, or play with the app without signing up. Check out the video below to see Sweet Home 3D in action.
Sweet Home 3D [via Download Squad]
TouchMouse Controls Your Computer’s Mouse and Keyboard via iPhone or iPod touch [Downloads]
Posted on February 2, 2010
iPhone/iPod touch: TouchMouse is a free application for the iPhone/iPod touch that, when paired with its accompanying control software on your Mac or Windows computer, turns your touchscreen into a mouse and keyboard.
Once you download the software to your iPhone or iPod touch and pair it with the server software—Logitech has versions of the TouchMouse Server software available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 as well as Mac OS X—you'll be able to use your device as a mouse for controlling your computer. The interface allows you to click the mouse buttons, move the cursor via the touch screen, and pull up a small keyboard to enter text on the computer.
While such an arrangement isn’t a practical replacement for a full-out wireless keyboard, it is a great tool for presentations or for pairing with one of the awesome media centers we’ve highlighted. If you have another app for turning your iPod touch or iPhone into a remote or clever things to do with them once you have them set up as remotes, let’s hear about it in the comments.
TouchMouse [iTunes App Store via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]
GDrive Is Here-ish: Google Docs to Allow Users to Upload Any File-Type [Gdrive]
Posted on January 12, 2010
Google users will soon be able to upload any file type to Docs (as long as it's under 250MB)—as opposed to the very limited slate of document types currently supported (like images, Word docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations).
Photo from TechCrunch
Because Google Docs now supports files up to 250 MB in size, which is larger than the attachment limit on most email applications, you’ll be able to backup large graphics files, RAW photos, ZIP archives and much more to the cloud. More importantly, instead of carrying a USB drive, you can now use Google Docs as a more convenient option for accessing your files on different computers.
Tech news blog TechCrunch quotes Google Docs product manager Vijay Bangaru emphasizing that this is not the much speculated GDrive, but they appropriately point out that—regardless of what they're calling it—it sure sounds like the GDrive people were expecting. Users will get 1GB of free storage to hold whatever they want, and they can buy more storage space for $0.25 per GB.
Upload your files and access them anywhere with Google Docs [Official Google Blog]