Posted 11/19/09 at 06:10:45 PM by David Murphy

Ever have one of those moments?  You know the one: When it's so difficult to teach someone how to accomplish an everyday task in a particular application that you up and grab the keyboard and mouse yourself and just get 'er done, as it were. Isn't that frustrating?  Doesn't your passionate rage for simplifying the art of attaching files to email terrify your coworkers, friends, and loved ones?  Wouldn't you like a better way to show someone how to accomplish desktop tasks, one that doesn't actually require you to get up from your chair or, better yet, even pick up a phone?

In a move that's sure to sooth the savage beast that's been identified as a computer expert by his or her flock of advice-seeking peers, the Web app ScreenToaster is a perfectly packaged solution for showing people how to get stuff done on a PC. It does this by taking a live video (complete with audio, if you so choose) of whatever it is you're doing on your desktop, straight out of your Web browser--no additional software installation is necessary, save for a requisite click on the "accept" button for a piece of Java.

But surely the app can't be just that easy?  There has to be another catch!

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Posted 11/18/09 at 05:30:12 PM by David Murphy

It's a pretty slick deal of Amazon to open up its Kindle library to devices beyond those of the company's handheld book readers.  But just because the Kindle software has gone multi-platform doesn't mean that it's a sure winner.  No, it's the ease-of-use and almost iTunes-like functionality of this simple e-book reader that makes it a great piece of software for your desktop or laptop PC. 

You can't do very much with Kindle for PC aside from read books purchased through Amazon's extensive library--which, in itself, makes sense.  You wouldn't really want another piece of software to read PDFs, right?  Joking aside, the one thing this software does, it does well.  Grabbing new book titles from Amazon is as easy as logging into the Web site, hitting download, and waiting for the book to quickly refresh itself in your Kindle for PC home screen. Your collection of digital novels appears as the front covers of each title, and you can sort this list by the order in which you downloaded the e-books, their names, or the author's name.

Read on for more details!

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Posted 11/18/09 at 12:00:00 PM by David Murphy

Half the internet says The Pirate Bay is dead; The other half says the first half has no idea what it's talking about. Popular BitTorrent index The Pirate Bay is never without controversy, it seems. But is the site's latest move to kill its BitTorrent tracker for good really that much of a white flag? I don't think so, because decentralized BitTorrent tracking has already been here for quite some time now. If anything, The Pirate Bay is just trying to cover its poop deck from additional legal threats.

Here's the deal. For the last many years, anyone could head on over to The Pirate Bay site, do a quick search for a piece of content, download the associated .torrent file, and connect up to The Pirate Bay's tracker. The tracker would, in turn, find you a number of peers to connect to and your BitTorrent client of choice would commence the download of bits and pieces of your file from these multiple sources. Easy.

When a tracker fails to work--or gets forcibly removed from the Internet--you can keep on transferring bits and pieces of a file to those you're already connected to. If you want to start a new download, however, you'll be unable to find any peers seeding the file for you. The same holds true in reverse: Without a tracker, others on the Internet won't be able to connect to you either.

To solve these problems, BitTorrent has embraced two technologies that, together, transform the art of downloading files into a truly peer-to-peer solution: DHT and Mirror Links.

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Posted 11/17/09 at 03:30:18 PM by David Murphy

I don't know about you, but the last thing I enjoy doing in Mozilla Firefox is surfing through about:config. While can't complain about the various performance boosts and other clever tweaks that this massive configuration database can provide, trying to make any sense of the about:config screen sans helpful guide is, in a word, impossible. If you're trying to stumble in there blindly, you're in for a world of confusion--and, depending on how much you fiddle with the settings, one broken browsing experience.

Thankfully, a clever developer has finally translated the arcane about:config language into real-world speech. And by that, I mean that an awesome add-on now exists that lets you edit about:config settings while being told exactly what it is that you're doing to your browser. In a sense, Configuration Mania is like one big guide to about:config that's built directly into Firefox. Tell the add-on what it is you want to do to enhance or otherwise alter your browsing experience, and the add-on will automatically configure the associated about:config string without forcing you to deal with confusing preferences or values.

 Read on for more details!

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Posted 11/16/09 at 10:30:00 AM by David Murphy

What, you ask, is Jetpack?

Right now, it's just an add-on for Mozilla Firefox. But it could also represent the future of browser-based extensions as we know it, depending on how much developers can twist and craft this new open framework to their advantage. Unlike normal Firefox add-ons, which require a decently skilled knowledge of Javascript and XUL, Jetpack add-ons use a combination of HTML, CSS, and Javascript to deliver new features and functionality directly through the browser. According to Mozilla, one could theoretically write an easy-to-use Jetpack add-on in "under a dozen lines of code." And the benefit for the casual Web browser? Jetpack add-ons promise universal compatibility with different versions of Firefox and, the kicker, require no browser restart to function.

Mozilla just launched the official gallery for this new framework last week. As you might expect, there aren't a ton of browser add-ons to play with. However, I'm going to take a look at five of the more innovative, interesting, and downright install-worthy of the Jetpack add-ons that are currently available in this week's freeware roundup. And remember--you can install and uninstall these add-ons without mucking up your browser session whatsoever, so feel free to be a Firefox Rocketeer and grab as many as you want to try out!

Read on for our picks!

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Posted 11/13/09 at 06:30:34 PM by Norman Chan

The newly released Chumby One arrived in the mail today, and we couldn't wait to see how it compared to the original digital connected companion device. The Chumby, in case you haven't heard of it, is a multi-function gadget that can serve as an alarm clock, RSS reader, gaming device, or music player. It connects to the internet with Wi-Fi, and runs user-created widgets to do cool things like read your Gmail or send you Twitter updates. You interact with it through a 3.5 inch resistive touchscreen, but it also has an accelerometer inside, since it's made to be held and encourages user interaction. 

We liked the first Chumby an awful lot, and the One doesn't look like it's meant to be a successor or replacement for that. In fact, we're not sure not exactly sure how the Chumby One is being positioned in the marketplace. One the one hand, it's a budget model, sacrificing the original's squishy appeal for a significant price cut.

On the other hand, it also adds new functionality that makes it a better device than the Chumby Classic. 

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Posted 11/12/09 at 03:15:00 PM by David Murphy

If war movies, zombies hordes, or stormtroopers have taught us anything, it's that there's power to be had in numbers--well, maybe not the stormtroopers. Regardless, a number of Web apps take advantage of this philosophy to offer increased functionality, awesome services, or cheap deals for those who are part of a herd. Kickstarter, for example, allows groups of people to team up and pledge funding for a number of independent projects. If a project meets its funding goal, then everyone who pledge an amount has to pay. If not, nobody pays a dime.

But you don't want to pay money. No, you want to save money. Have no fear--there's a Web app that takes this altruistic function and spins it on its head. Instead of pledging to donate, you're pledging to buy at group-discount prices!

 Read on to find out how it works!

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Posted 11/11/09 at 02:00:00 PM by David Murphy

Earlier this week, I took a look at a number of free tools designed to give your Windows 7 desktop a bit of a makeover. One of these, Rainmeter, is a comprehensive application that can substantially alter the look and feel of your desktop beyond anything you could possibly modify with Windows' default settings.

Just how much can you mess around, you ask? If this week's "Download of the Week" is any indication, then the possibilities are near-limitless. For DeviantArt user UltraBE has transformed the plain ol' Windows desktop into a HUD from the popular zombie shooter Left 4 Dead--and this new look isn't just cosmetic. It's a fully-functional statistics engine for your system.

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