Bit Calculator
Convert between bits/ bytes/ kilobits/ kilobytes/ megabits/ megabytes/ gigabits/ gigabytes. Now this is a nice calculator.
Recent Bookmarks Posts
September 10, 2006
July 22, 2006
Freep Jobs Page
I have been here before, but should post it here. The editor for the fall suggested this site, and it is a wonderful suggestion.
The following web site is invaluable for journalists. The links are endless, full of writing advice, resume advice and lot of Q/A just about the journalism field in general.
June 6, 2006
Yet Another Russian Music Site
As if you need something other than Allofmp3.com, you could try out Mp3search.ru. Although I have never used Mp3search.ru before, has anyone else? And are they willing to admit it?
May 30, 2006
Top 10 Strangest Gadgets of the Future
Check out the Top 10 Strangest Gadgets of the Future. A number of them are gaming related, including a fully immersive virtual environment (something that I actually have experience using and coding for thanks to my BGSU education) and the “On Target” Video Game Urinal that is already a reality.
I want a transparent toaster. Just for the hell of it.
March 29, 2006
Book Review: Hacking the PSP
With the complexity of today's gaming consoles, it's no surprise we need books like Hacking the PSP. The amount of things that can be done to this little handheld is astonishing, and there isn't another book out there on this console that covers this much. The flashy, foil cover isn't just for show. It's there to grab attention away from the other books on the same topic because they're nearly rendered useless.
January 20, 2006
SafariTest Mac Browser Compatibility Tester
How does your website look on Apple Safari? SafariTest will return a screenshot of your page as viewed with Safari.
Some notes: frames and Flash movies are not perfectly supported; f your page uses client-side redirection you must enter the final address; to view password protected pages use this syntax: http://[username]:[password]@[URL].
This is a great service for those Windows web based developers who care what their Web sites look like in Safari. It also uses PNG so the screen shots look very nice.
This is also something to bookmark if you want to get a full screen shot of a web site. Meaning from the top to the bottom of the page.
January 8, 2006
1-800-FREE-411
One of the many changes that has taken place in the telephone industry in the last few decades is that while phone companies once generally provided their local customers with free directory assistance (via the 411 phone number), in most cases telephone customers are now charged a fee (typically $1.00 or more) for each directory assistance call. Despite the charges, U.S. consumers continue to avail themselves of the 411 directory assistance service, placing about 6 billion such calls per year.Source: SnoopsNow, however, an outfit called Jingle Networks is providing an alternative directory assistance service — and it's free. Users who call the toll-free number 1-800-FREE411 (or 1-800-373-3411) can navigate a nifty automated voice recognition system that asks for a location (city and state), type of listing (business, government, or residential), and name.
Thanks to Jake for this great tip. I know for a fact that Verizon Wireless charges and arm and a leg for calling 411. I cringe every time I need to use it, but not any more! This number is now permanently in my cell phone.
The voice recognition system was superb in my testing. I did not hear an advertisement (how Free 411 is paid for) on every single call. I am very impressed.
January 7, 2006
Everything You Need To Know About HDTV
Everything according to C|Net that is. It has a lot of great information. This was written a few years ago but is mostly relevant. The TV aspect-ratio converter is a great tool. This lets you see how big a 4:3 picture would look on a 16:9 display, and vice versa.
Writers.com Resources, Tips & Features
While defending my position on the capitalization of words such as Internet, Web, and Net, I found this great resource. The site has some great info on it, and most is found on this page - such as their Cyberwords Style page.
January 2, 2006
Xbox 360 Achievements.com
The site boast to be the "one stop shop" for all of XBox 360's gaming achievements. Sounds nice. But the site is not much right now. So far it just lists the achievements and the associated Gamerscore, plus it has the achievement icons for your viewing pleasure. The site forums seem more useful then the site itself at this point, but I would keep a watch nonetheless.
Whoever decided to add Achievements to Xbox 360 games is a genius. They add even more replay value. It was just a matter of time before a site like this popped up. Although I am sure GameFAQs will have Achievement FAQs up shortly, unless they already do.
October 5, 2005
Java Map of Morrowind
It is amazing that I am still playing Morrowind. I have been playing it since it came out on the PC in May and Xbox in June, 2002. Getting sidetracked by other great games doesn't help. But Morrowind is just that good a game. I am finishing up all the faction quests, and the expansion packs. I really wish the game tracked how many hours you played. It would be frightening to say the least.
While looking for some remote cave in the game, I came across this great java based map of Morrowind. It has it all, right down to the ancestral tombs. It loads a rather huge background image that takes a long time. It's not broken, it just takes its sweet time. It is well worth the wait, however. Oh, I almost forgot: you can search the map too.
I wish I had found this three years ago.
September 27, 2005
Screenshot settings in Mac OS
I get so tired of people asking, and I have to explain the keyboard shortcuts in OS X to take screenshots. Even though they could (gasp!) look it up in Mac Help or even Google.
Here is a nice article by Dan Frakes that talks about everything you would want to know, from 1st party to 3rd party, freeware to shareware.
Now please, stop asking.
For the quick and dirty methods:
Command+Shift+3: Full-screen screenshotAnd for those who are still using OS 9, you don't get the fancy 3rd option. Upgrade to OS X and you can actually save those screenshots in a real file format to boot.Command+Shift+4: Crosshair to allow selection of screenshot area
Command+Shift+4, then spacebar: “Camera” to capture a specific screen object
August 28, 2005
The Word Detective will fix your spells
I'm fascinated by languge and words, like the origin of words and phrases, especially obscure ones. So stumbling across The Word Detective the other night while searching for the origin of the overused term "irony" was a trip; I ended up spending half the night browsing the archive of about 5,000 words. Not sure if the guy's always right (Evan Morris, from Columbus; his parents also wrote about word origins in some famous book ,I am made to understand), since sometimes his explanations don't jive with what I've read (he says "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" involved decorative little brass monkeys, but what I read elsewhere about it having nautical origins, involving canonnballs and the "brass monkey" doohickeys that held them on deck), but he does offer several different theories on a lot of words even when he can't say which is right.
Picking an example at random: He says the word "nincompoop," in use since at least the 17th c, is possibly a butchering of the Latin "non compos mentis," or "not of sound mind." However, he notes, earlier forms of the word included "nicompoop" and "nickumpoop," which bear a bit less resemblance to the Latin.
August 3, 2005
Is he dead or alive?
I am going to have to call him on this one, (sorry) Paprocki asked me today if Jimmy Buffet was dead. He's not. But I found this Dead or Alive Info site in the processes of proving a point. As one quote on the site says, it's very useful in a very limited, specific sort of way.
After you found out that someone is dead, you should head on over, as Matt was quick to point out, to Find A Grave. And yes, you too can add to the Find A Grave site.
Now that I think about it, I have gone to The Blog of Death before, but have never heard of the above two links.
July 2, 2005
10 Bad Project Warning Signs
One of the great things about being a freelance web designer is the ability to turn down projects. I’ve come across a few projects recently that sounded interesting but made me feel nervous... As such I’ve written up a list of bad project warning signs.Source: Blogography
Some sound advice for web designers our any freelancer.
June 12, 2005
KnightCite 2.0 Beta Released
In February The BG News picked up a wire story about KnightCite, and I found it to be such a great site I had to post it here.
The author just sent me an email which outlines some new, great, features.
From the email:
My name is Juice Searls, and I'm the developer of KnightCite. I had noticed you picked up the KRT wire story for use in BG's newspaper along with a link from your homepage and wanted to thank you for that by giving you the exclusive first look at KnightCite's first major upgrade.Saving Word and RTF files is just amazing. A lot of hard work and programming has gone into this wonderful site. The iBook story is just icing on the cake.I really do mean exclusive. Normally I'd start getting the word out about this project through my school's PR department, but because we want off campus users to be the ones to really start testing it over the summer, I decided to contact someone on the outside to make the announcement. The site just went live onto our production server about an hour ago, at 4pm EST.
Here's what you can do in the new version:
-Create a user account
-Save virtual papers and citations
-Fully featured with Organize/Manage/Edit/Delete functions
-The ability to export entire bibliographies into *.rtf and *.doc files already formatted and ready to print (e.g. already bolded, underlined, italicized, and with the hanging indent in there).KnightCite has generated nearly a quarter of a million citations to date and with this project we're hoping to open the floodgates and win some converts from the professional crowd who use procite/endnote. I'm also beginning planning for KnightCite's next upgrade, which will work to create a single streamlined database of every useful citation created by its users and fully accessible to everyone through a unique approach to search.
And in one note that I hope you will appreciate, this project is what converted me to the Macintosh. I got started on it last summer and realized that I was getting a lot more done in a smaller amount of time when I was working on my studio's Mac as opposed to its PC. I picked up an iBook and a copy of BBEdit and I'm proud to say that the entire project was coded on a Mac and primarily tested in Safari.
Thank you so much "Juice" for helping so many people out of migraine headaches. I wish I had such a tool earlier. I have had a couple papers to write for school, and I now use and recommend this tool all the time.
Be sure to register at the KnightCite site to be able to check out these new features.
May 7, 2005
Tiger software update summary
Macworld will routinely update this page with information on Tiger-related software updates.MacCentral
Here is something handy to bookmark.
February 24, 2005
Anti-DMCA Website
The DMCA is being used to silence researchers, computer scientists and critics. Corporations are using it against the public. Public/College radio stations can no longer afford to webcast. - Anti-DMCA Website
February 20, 2005
Mac Developer Directory
Easily find contract developers with Mac or Mac related skills in the Mac Developer Directory.
KnightCite formats citations for students free of charge
If you've struggled with lengthy research papers, chances are you've faced your fair share of late-night frustration trying to follow strict citation formats.Source: The BG NewsGuidelines set out by the Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA) or Chicago Manual of Style, can be difficult to follow. Title underlined? Author italicized? It's hard to keep straight.
We picked this story from KRT Campus and ran it in the paper last week. You need to check out KnightCite. It is amazing. You just plug in the data, for any kind of source, and it churns out the correctly formatted listing.
When writing research papers I hate making the bibliography page. This Web site makes that job a breeze.
Why didn't I think of this?
February 16, 2005
iPod Troubleshooting & Service
EDITORS NOTE: This was originally posted on November 24, 2003. It was updated with much more information and links on February 16, 2005. I want to welcome everyone who has been coming here from the search engines, and mainly Google (I have just been too busy to update this post). I cannot imagine any other reason for so many comments, so it must be because of the search engines.
UPDATE: 02/16/05: I have added one tip specific to Windows and USB/FireWire devices, as well as how to perform a hard reset of the iPod.
UPDATE: 02/22/05, Neil confirmed a few things, please see end of post.
What a great page, that is hard to find! There is also a iPod Service & Support page I just found. If you go to either of these pages and search for things, most, if not all, of your questions will be found.
I would also highly suggest the iPodLounge.com Forums or forums at Macworld, Mac OS X Hints, or Apple Discussions.The aboe Apple links and iPodLounge.com have great tutorials if you are unfamiliar with anything.
February 13, 2005
NameVoyager name finder
Explore the sea of names, letter by letter...watch trends rise and fall, and dive in deeper to see your favorite name's place in the historical tides.Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager is an "interactive portrait of America's name choices. Start with a "sea" of nearly 5000 names. Type a letter, and you'll zoom in to focus on how that initial has been used over the past century."
Thanks to Rob for the link. Its a pretty cool Java app.
January 11, 2005
Apple launches IT Pro Web site
Apple today launched its new IT Pro Web site, which provides a wide variety of information and resources for IT professionals. Subject areas include profiles of companies using Macs, feature articles, Government resources, Education information, a High-Performance Computing section, and more.Source: MacMinute
December 1, 2004
The CMS Matrix
CMS Matrix now has 200 products for you to compare, making it the single largest CMS listing site anywhere.
November 21, 2004
Mac OS Error Codes
I know nothing gets your blood pumping like error codes, but when you need to know, you need to know. I went googling today and found this great reference.
Its not as good as Bleu Rose's Black & Bleu, but it also does not cost $29.99. Which reminds me, I had a license for that app a while ago, I need to search for that!
November 7, 2004
POPFile Tips, Tricks and Secrets from About.com
I know its information you cannot live without! Well I found some of these tips helpful. Now if more people would use POPFile...
October 27, 2004
File size download speed calculator
I have posted about OnlineConversion.com before, but I have never seen this slick calculator.
Thanks to Matt for this link.
October 25, 2004
Amazon.com Phone Number
1-800-201-7575
Save that number. You will have a very hard time finding it on their web site.
I wanted to cancel an order when I found a better price elsewhere and the web site would not let me cancel the order.
The gentleman I talked to was American, and was very nice and helpful. He canceled my order right away with no problems. I told him the web site said "Sorry" and I was told it must have been a technical error. Duh!
I asked the guy why it is hard to find the phone number on the web site and his response went something like this "we found that people were calling to make telephone orders, and that is not possible, it must be done online." He also told me that they have a limited phone support staff. Well if they in fact do have a limited phone support, ill take it as long as the voice on the other side of the line is that of an American.
October 15, 2004
Bushisms at About.com
"I heard there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." —George W. Bush, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Flash video of quote)
This and so many more on the About.com page dedicated to Bushisms. There are even pages for 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. There are a couple funny shots of Dubya too, like that pretzel bruise shot.
September 22, 2004
Solving PostScript errors
Solving PostScript errors is never fun. But I have done my fair share at the newspapers I have worked for. Here is a great list of solutions to the problems. I wish I had found this earlier, it could have helped! There are some great explanations here.
September 20, 2004
Font Wars blog now online
Everybody knows about Gutenberg, but how many people know about Stanley Morison, the legendary type designer who created Times New Roman.
Explore kerning, baselines, character widths and all the other technical considerations of modern document fraud with some of the world's leading typography authorities on Jules Siegel's Font Wars blog.
Although the reconstructed Bush Guard memos have been exposed, the search continues for the original documents that Marian Carr Knox, Killian's secretary, says she remembers typing. Today, Font Wars is looking at an authentic Pentagon memo written by George W. Bush and endorsed by Jerry B. Killian. Will the others look like this? If so, how was this document created?
As you'll see, we have contributions from Adobe's Thomas Phinney and other folks with awesome expertise in the art, technique and history of digital typography.
I'm hoping that this very specialized blog will evolve into a general gathering place for people who love type. This is all so exciting that my little heart is going pitter-pat. Kerning on the Evening News? I never thought I'd see that in my lifetime. I mean, it never even occurred to me. How could it?
September 7, 2004
Mac OS X Hidden Files & Directories
Mac OS X volumes contain quite a few files and directories (aka folders) that are invisible from the Finder (and many other interfaces). For the most part, they're hidden for good reason -- you generally don't need to worry about them, and in fact, probably shouldn't muck with them unless you know what you're doing. But just in case you find yourself needing to deal with them, here's a quick summary of what they're for...
Source: Westwind Computing
What a great list! People always ask me questions about hidden files/folders in OS X, and now I can say something other then "so you cannot see them."
Color schemes generator 2
Another great hex color picker. This one allows you to choose a color scheme and then display pastel and pale variations.
Ten CSS tricks you may not know
8. Vertically aligning with CSS
Vertically aligning with tables was a doddle. To make cell content line up in the middle of a cell you would use vertical-align: middle. This doesn't really work with a CSS layout. Say you have a navigation menu item whose height is assigned 2em and you insert this vertical align command into the CSS rule. It basically won't make a difference and the text will be pushed to the top of the box.
Hmmm... not the desired effect. The solution? Specify the line height to be the same as the height of the box itself in the CSS. In this instance, the box is 2em high, so we would insert line-height: 2em into the CSS rule and the text now floats in the middle of the box - perfect!
and other great tips...
Source: evolt.org
A Faster, Better Behaved Windows XP
If you've been hunting around for stuff on Windows XP lately, you've surely noticed that there are about 500,000,000 web pages with material on the subject. maybe 500,000,000 and 1... but that might be stretching it. Why then am I adding to that number? I'm not in this just for the cheap thrill of building a new web page; I have a suspicion (now confirmed by some emails I've gotten) that the effort will turn into something worth the while of someone other than the author. Then too, I like to gab about computers, Windows in particular, and I don't get to do a lot of it in real life. So here is where I will talk about Windows XP and imagine that someone is listening. And you are (you're here after all, right?:)), so thanks for dropping in...
Source: Gord Braun
August 10, 2004
Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See
Like many editorial consultants, I've been concerned about the amount of time I've been spending on easy fixes that the author shouldn't have to pay for.
Sometimes the question of where to put a comma, how to use a verb or why not to repeat a word can be important, even strategic. But most of the time the author either missed that day's grammar lesson in elementary school or is too close to the manuscript to make corrections before I see it.
Source: Holt Uncensored
August 1, 2004
Mnemonic Techniques and Specific Memory Tricks to improve memory, memorization
Mnemonic techniques are more specific memory aids. Many are based on the general memory strategies that were presented earlier. Although it can be easiest to remember those things that you understand well, sometimes you must rely on rote memory. The following techniques can be used to facilitate such memorization....
Pretty cool read. Check it out!
July 9, 2004
First Dual 2.5 Ghz G5 Benchmarks; Productivity Calculator
You can get it strait from the horses mouth or get the watered down version from Apple. The one strait from Pfeiffer Consulting is a 57 page pdf and the version of the study on Apple's Web site is only 8 pages. It all depends on if you want short and concise or really in-depth.
At that Apple link you can find a G5 productivity calculator as well.
palmOne introduces new resource center for Mac users
palmOne Inc. on Wednesday will introduce a new resource center to help Mac users get the most out of their handhelds and smartphones. The Web site will feature tips on wireless connectivity, an array of photo album opportunities and other resources, according to the company.
Source: MacCentral
It is nice to see that palmOne still publicly supports the Mac. In the past few months/years it has been rumored many times that plamOne will drop Mac support. This new site has great info. I am really glad to see this site.
July 8, 2004
Power Mac G5 (June 2004) CIP Instructions
Ooooh, there is nothing like a good KB article to read :P
Power Mac G5 (June 2004) Customer-installable parts Instructions.
June 22, 2004
ASCII Table.com
I was looking for the HTML number codes to display them as an example on a web page without having to put spaces in-between them. Doing a google search came up with this site as the first result. Although what I am looking for has nothing to do with the ACSII table, the site does have two great pages for reference. One is the images on the home page, the other is the larger chart on the "HTML Codes" page. The site is framed (grrr) or I would link directly to that page.
Example: @ = @
What The Font.com
Ever wanted to have a font just like the one used by certain publications, corporations, or ad campaigns? Well now you can, using the WhatTheFont font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and we'll show you the closest matches in our database!I was asking about a type face, and was directed to this site. It did the job, very well I might add. Back when I used Mac OS 9 I used an app called Font Expert. The "new" version of Font Expert has come out and it still does not have OS X support. So screw them, I will just use WhatTheFont.com.
June 5, 2004
Tips for Writing Reviews
I am now writing book reviews for Blogcritics.org. In the last go round of review materials I plucked two books from the list. The first is Up Periscope Yellow: The Making of the Beatles Yellow Submarine and then Wicked Cool Shell Scripts. Ironically I just watched Yellow Submarine in my animation history class.
This will be the first time I have ever reviewed a book. So I went googling for some info, and this is what I found. Some links, be them indirectly related, do have good information.
Prewriting Questions for Book, Movie, or Play Reviews
Steps for Writing a Good Book Review
The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It
Write a Book Review With Rodman Philbrick
Robert Wright ~ Tips on Book Reviews
May 6, 2004
DVD Demystified
Get the FAQS ma'am!
DVD Demystified is a great site, and I found it has a ton of useful (or useless, depending) info on the plus and the minus formats, etc.
March 7, 2004
A Recipe for Learning Web Design
I get asked "how can I become a Web designer" all to often, and guess what, thats how this article starts! Written by the same guy, D. Keith Robinson, who pens the Asterisk blog (which is a good read, by the way).
Web design and its related fields are still relatively young in the grand scheme of things and are still developing. One of the questions I’m often asked is, “how can I become a Web designer?” The answer isn’t simple. There are many different paths one can take to become a professional Web designer, each as different as the individuals that make up the Web design community.Source: Digital Web Magazine His point about web technologies changing so rapidly that traditional classes are not enough are spot on.Today, many successful Web professionals are self-taught and many of these have jumped into the Web via another industry. These are also the ones who are most likely to have been at it the longest. Only recently have we seen large numbers of people come straight into Web design from formal education programs. In most cases, this formal education alone doesn’t prepare one for success...
March 5, 2004
Dark Deal: 4GB Microdrive for about $200
You can get this tiny hard drive for less than $200 (MSRP: $499 with a PC Card adapter). This deal requires a bit of a hack.
First, purchase a Creative MuVo 2 for $199 and then disassemble it. Inside, you will find the Hitachi 4GB Microdrive. There are a few more steps, so before you get started, visit these sites.
Source: The Screen Savers
February 13, 2004
How To: By You
I love the web sites that Cat comes up with for Call For Help (and she is getting a PowerBook G4 - yay!).
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