Print
Here at Maximum PC, we adhere to a few simple maxims: Make it faster! Be thorough. And keep things as simple as possible.
Adhering to that philosophy, we'd like to present to you a mega-ultra-laser-shark mix and mash of features we've published these past couple of months, including some of our favorite websites, Windows Phone 7 aps, and Chrome and browser add-ons that you've been seeing grace the pages of our site recently. Because, after all, we wouldn't want you guys to have to dig around for all these yourselves. Remember. We keep it simple, just for you.
Enjoy!
The last Star Trek TV series was kind of terrible, and they cancelled Firefly before the series had a chance to really come into its own. Sure, Battlestar Galactica was great but now that it’s long over, what’s left to scratch that geeky sci-fi itch of yours? No Ordinary Family? V? Please. No one needs that sort of pain in their lives. What to do? How about taking an in-depth look real adventures of America’s space-based endeavors. Sound good? We thought so too--and that’s why NASA’s impressive online presence has been selected as our Cool Site of the Week.
From news of robots exploring the insides of damaged nuclear power plants in Japan to the in-depth history of every American space mission, NASA’s official website offers a little something for everyone.
Broken down into easily navigable sections such as Universe, Solar System, Earth and Aeronautics, NASA makes it easy to find something fascinating. Within minutes of browsing the site, we managed to locate an HD video on the history of the Space Shuttle program narrated by William Shatner, an interactive 3D sandbox tour of the International Space Station and a gallery of images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. With hours of fascinating videos and reading to captivate site visitors of all ages and levels of education, NASA’s official website is sure to help any downtrodden science fiction fan into an enthusiastic space geek after just one visit.
There are thousands of websites out there that will happily assist you in standing on the neck of your day-to-day productivity, but few can do it as effectively and as addictively as Famous Objects From Classic Movies, our Cool Site of the Week.
Famous Objects From Classic Movies offers visitors to the site to a cinema-centric trivia game that’s so simple that anyone can partake in it, but still manages to delve deep enough down the movie geek rabbit hole that it can prove challenging to even the biggest film buffs. Players are presented with the silhouette of an object from a well known film. To win, all one needs to do is type in what movie the object comes from. The site forces visitors to enter the name of their movie they think the object hails from hangman-style. If the player enters three incorrect letters for any given object, they lose and are moved on to the next object to try their luck once again.
The objects featured on the site run from the obvious to the obscure. In under ten minutes of playing, we were confronted by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the biplane from North By North West, one of Julia Robert’s boots from Pretty Woman, and Neo’s sunglasses from the Matrix.
Best of all, users who fancy themselves to be film fanatics are encouraged to submit their own ideas to the site for new objects to include in the game, making sure that this brilliant Internet time-waster never runs out of steam.
You like stuff. We like stuff. The Government? They’ve got lots of stuff. One of the best ways to get your hands on their stuff is to visit GovDeals, our Cool Site of the Week.
GovDeals is an online auction site that specializes in selling off merchandise gently used merchandise that’s being liquidated or at some point was confiscated by the United States federal or state governments. You may ask yourself, “what makes an online auction site cool?” While the website itself might look like it was flash frozen back in 1997, just take a look at what the swag that’s up for grabs. From awesome conversation pieces to utterly outrageous deals on hardware you never thought you’d have the opportunity to buy, GovDeals has it all. At the time that this story was written, we noted listings for 24 pallets of used computer hardware, seven ambulances, playground equipment, a selection of barber chairs, a lot of tactical helmets and a police cruiser--and that barely scratches the surface of what GovDeals has to offer. Site visitors are invited to register for free and get in on the bidding, but before you place a bid on anything, be sure to read the fine print as many of the items up for auction are restricted to purchasers with specific credentials.
So what are you waiting for? The only thing standing between you and an X-ray scanner for your dorm room’s front door is a fist full of sweaty American greenbacks and the gumption to stay on top of the bidding dog pile!
Since the dawn of the internet, a single question of black existentialist angst has haunted computer users: “Is this site down for everyone or is it just me?” To find an answer, You could reload the page, check that you’ve entered the URL correctly or try your luck with a different browser. Some might even go so far as to heckle their friends and co-workers into trying to open the URL on their computers. Wouldn’t you rather save yourself the time and energy of jumping through those hoops by simply visiting Down For Everyone Or Just Me? If any of us can get it to load up, it’ll be our Cool Site of the Week.
Down For Everyone Or Just Me is such an brilliant idea for a website, it’s a wonder that no one thought of it eons ago. In order to see whether a site is up and running or off, simply type its URL into the field provided and click the “or just me” link. Boom.
Down For Everyone Or Just Me will test the URL for you. For Opera, Firefox and Chrome users, an extension by the same name is also ready to test seemingly dead websites for you, but if you're working on a computer where installing add-ons isn’t an option, you’ll be glad the original web--based version is still there waiting for you to rely on.
OK, quick show of hands: Who hasn’t hunted down a favorite music video on YouTube or some other streaming video service over the past few months? Right. Now, who of you out there hasn’t discovered new music by stumbling across a band’s video online for the first time? So, we can agree that music videos posted to the web are an inherent good then, right? Right. With that out of the way, let’s get down to business. No matter whether you’re looking to find an old favorite, or have a hankering to discover something new, music video streaming wunderkind HelloDay has something for you.
What makes HelloDay a slick enough viewing experience to warrant it’s being declared our Cool Site of the Week? One word: Choice. HelloDay is a music video depository with a free repertoire of tunes that spans hundreds of artists and a wide variety of genres. From classic pop to trip hop, Abba to Jay-Z, HelloDay’s got it all. Eschewing the use of any search functionality other than breaking the site’s music up into genres, HelloDay forces visitors to discover new music as they search for something familiar.
While this might sound like an exercise in frustration, in reality it makes for a refreshing viewing experience that’ll leave site visitors with a few more musical flavors lingering on their palate than they started off with. And if what you’re looking for isn’t already available on the site, HelloDay’s got you covered there as well, as users are encouraged to submit the URLs of new music videos for inclusion in the site’s collection.
As Robert DeNiro said in The Untouchables, a man should have enthusiasms. Where many of opt to fill our spare time by spending it with friends, playing music or traveling, others find their thrills collecting toys, comic books and other much-loved geek paraphernalia. If you belong to this latter group, you’re going to want to know about Crave, our Cool Site of the Week.
If you’re of a certain age and played with it as a kid, chances are, that you’ll be able to find it again on Crave. Unlike other portals like eBay where individuals are invited to buy and sell just about anything, Crave is a web destinations designed by collectors for collectors. While the site is still relatively new, Crave already offers over 10,000 Star Wars and Transformer products in varying condition. Need a first edition Storm Trooper action figure from Return of the Jedi that’s still in its original packaging? Crave’s got it. How about a well-loved Optimus Prime, complete with it’s original weapons and other accessories? Crave’s got you covered there too. Additionally, the site is getting ready to expand, and will soon offer collectors from around the world a forum to discuss, buy and sell comic books, trading cards, Barbie dolls--even LEGO.
Best of all, Crave also doubles up as a make shift social network, providing collectors a forum to discuss their stuff-based passion with other like minded individuals. We’re certain that in the years to come, frequent visits to Crave will become a no-brainer for anyone that collects anything.
If you’re anything like us, you use Twitter and Facebook multiple times day to check in with friends, share your life and discover what’s happening in the world outside your cubicle. A few of you might even be using them as a result of being in that cubicle--leveraging the power of social media to inform the unwashed masses of what products or services your business provides. No matter what you shout from the social media mountain tops, Klout--our Cool Site of the Week--will tell you whether anyone is actually listening.
Even though it’s still undergoing beta testing, Klout is a social media force to be reckoned with. Users are invited to link up their Twitter and Facebook accounts (with LinkedIn functionality on the way as well), to the site. Once entered, Klout scours your accounts, looking at what you post about, who you talk to, repost, and who is following your every online move. The service then uses this information to provide you with a number of metrics--Score Analysis, Network Influence, Amplification probability and True Reach--to provide you with an over all view of how effectively you’re leveraging your social network contacts.
Are you a Specialist? A Networker? Maybe a Broadcaster? Klout will give you the lowdown.
Best of all, Klout rewards your social media excellence with some pretty impressive swag from a wide variety of sponsors, finally giving you a truly valid excuse to push for more online followers.
When it comes to great ways to discover and share new music or the tunes you’ve loved for years, the internet has already set the bar pretty high. From sketchy p2p services like the original Napster, to great services like Rdio, Last.fm and Spotify, modern music listeners are spoiled for choice. Turntable.fm--our Cool Site of the Week--takes everything that makes finding and sharing music online great and turns it up to 11, making for the best musical social experience we’ve ever seen.
While still in a semi-closed beta, turntable.fm is already showing incredible promise. The premise is a simple one: Up to five users at a time are invited to spin tunes in any number of rooms, with other users free to drop in and listen to what your room has at any time. DJs can draw upon Turntable.fm’s vast music repertoire or upload their own songs to add to the mix. As your song is played, the other DJs and users in the room can up-vote your song selection to legendary status, or ramp it’s popularity down far enough to vote it right out of the mix.
Building on it’s already impressive set of social features, each turntable.fm room also offers a chat interface for users to wax about their favorite tunes over, as well as links to Facebook, Twitter and email to send out invites to your friends with.
After using turntable.fm for a mere two days, we’re already hooked, and we’re sure you’ll be too!
Let’s face it, summer is no friend to your brain. When you’re not busy killing it with beer, late night campfire parties or Michael Bay movies (seriously, he needs to be stopped), your poor grey matter gets boiled inside your noggin from taking on too much direct sunlight during weekend trips to the beach. To make up for the annual beating visited upon your poor noodle, we recommend treating it to some of the best free education on offer anywhere in the world. Do your brain a solid and direct your browsers to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's OpenCourseWare Program, our Cool Site of the Week.
In operation since 2001, the MIT OpenCourseWare Program website currently plays host to over 2000 individual lectures covering 33 academic disciplines as taught by some of the greatest minds in the world. MIT provides visitors to the site with full course notes, problem sets and solutions, reading lists and in some cases, even videos. The materials are free to use, copy, and redistribute by anyone, anywhere in the world.
To date, over 71 million individual users from 215 countries have taken advantage of what the MIT OpenCourseWare website has to offer; providing self-learners and educators with access to some of the best educational materials available anywhere in the world.
When you buy a product or invest in a service, it's reasonable to assume that you're going to get what you paid for. Sadly, this doesn't always happen. Computers break down. Credit cards get stolen and baggage gets lost. Often. At stressful times like these, the last thing any of us wants to do is navigate the byzantine phone system of a multi-billion dollar corporation to get the assistance that we, as their devoted customers, deserve. So of course, the first thing you'll have to do in order to get the assistance you deserve is navigate the byzantine phone system of a multi-billion dollar corporation in order to get the help you deserve. Unless of course you pay a visit to NoPhoneTrees, our Cool Site of the Week.
Offering consumers cut-to-the-chase access to thousands of corporate help desk and customer service phone numbers with an actual human being on the other end of the line, NoPhoneTrees is about as mission-specific as a website can get. Have a bone to pick with your car rental company's head office? Sick of paying for cellular features that you didn't sign up for? NoPhoneTrees will have you venting your rage via the appropriate direct dial telephone number in no time.
The site allows users to search for phone numbers by entering the company's name, scrolling through an alphabetical list or by industry. After just one use, we're sure you'll agree that the value of this site cannot be overstated.
Deciding on what to make for dinner can be as daunting a task as actually cooking it. Every day, we stand in front of our refrigerators, freezers and cupboards, waiting for inspiration, and in the end, typically end up making the same meals over and over again--provided the right ingredients for our favorite dishes are all in the house at the same time. When they’re not, many of us would just as soon head out to a restaurant for an expensive meal than sit down to noodle out a new home cooked recipe with the ingredients we have on hand. Fortunately, our Cool site of Site of the week has your gastronomical back. It’s called Gojee and it’s here to make sure we never go hungry again.
While there are thousands of recipe sites floating around the internet, Gojee stands apart in that it suggests recipes to you based on the ingredients you have on hand. Just enter what food you’ve got left in the house and Gojee will tell you what sorts of dishes you can whip up with it and what you might need to complete the recipe. If you’ve got a food allergy or despise a particular ingredient, you can add it to a list of disliked foods and Gojee will adjust its list of ingredients and subsequent list of recipes accordingly.
Gojee even allows you to mark your favorite recipes so that you can return to them time after time. What could be better?
While cellphones might be the go-to photographic device for many people these days, Many of us choose to stick with a mission-specific device to capture the moments of our lives. Whether it’s a fancy DSLR that cost us more than our first car or 
a trusty point-and-shoot that simply gets the job done, the investment of time and money that a photographer outs into their camera is substantial enough that seeing it lost or stolen is unthinkable. Should such a crisis ever arise, you can curse the gods of photography for not equipping your shooter with GPS transmitter, or you can attempt to track it down using Stolen Camera Finder, our Cool Site of the Week.
Stolen Camera Finder is a site dedicated to--you guessed it--locating stolen cameras. Users are invited to drag and drop a photo taken with their missing camera to the website’s interface. Once the image has been uploaded, Stolen Camera Finder will attempt to read the camera serial number information stored in the photograph, matching it against the serial numbers of images found elsewhere online. If you’re lucky, a serial number match may lead back to user name or image service account, giving you some vital information to feed to the authorities for investigation.
If you’ve no photos to submit to the service, Stolen Camera Finder also allows for manual input of your camera’s serial number--provided you’re lucky enough to have it on file.
Straight forward and easy to use, Stolen Camera Finder is a must bookmark site for all shutterbugs.
Traditional print publishing may have been in some choppy waters these past few years, but the ship’s no where close to going down just yet. Ironically, the best proof of this out there comes to us from the interwebz. Thanks to a site called Newspaper Map, those of us who still love the smell and feel of newsprint with our morning coffee will always know where to find a newspaper, no matter where in the world we might be.
The website offers its visitors a map of the world, with markers indicating Cities and towns print newspapers where--as well as their online presence--are still published. Each of the markers is color-coded to coincide with the newspaper’s printed language. This as it is, would be a thoroughly useful tool, but newspaper map does its users one better: Just click on any of the markers, and you’ll be presented with the option to read that newspaper’s online edition in a wide variety of languages, with the translation provided by Google.
Going to the extreme, we translated Moskovskiy Komsomolets, a newspaper published out of Surgut, Russia into Gaeilge and English, and found to our surprise that what we ended up with in both instances was surprisingly readable. For dedicated news hounds, expatriates or those that looking for a new window on world events, Newspaper Map is a must-visit site.
Playing host to an infinite number of cat videos, game demo downloads, poker portals and celebrity gossip sites as it does, it’s easy to forget that the internet can also be a bastion of knowledge, education and innovation. Fortunately for web surfers interested in leveraging the online universe for more than rocking a fews choice memes, Zooniverse has got you covered.
A bastion of citizen science, discovery and education, Zooniverse invites individuals from all walks of life to take part in scientific endeavors that stand to benefit us all. After signing up for an account, users have the opportunity to assist scientists from a wide variety of disciplines to wrangle the massive amounts of data they deal with as part of their work. Currently, research topics include searching for planets outside of our solar system, mapping our galaxy, recovering weather data from the turn of the 20th century, attempting to capture a supernova on film and transcribing 1000 year old writings of the citizens of Oxyrhynchu. If those sorts of things won’t make for some interesting dinner conversation, nothing will.
All that’s required to take part in most of the citizen science projects hosted by the site is a willingness to offer up some of your free time and the desire to take part in a search for knowledge that in the days to come could help to shape how we understand our world, or even our universe.
Comments are closed on this article
reutnes
August 11, 2011 at 6:20pm
That GovDeals website sells firetrucks. I think I'm going to have to delay my next gaming rig a little longer...
