Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Google News Timeline is a Slick Headline Skimmer [News]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/m4l2JWALYeE/google-news-timeline-is-a-slick-headline-skimmer

Want to track a topic across the web's news sources from the last few years, the last few months, or since yesterday morning? A new Google Labs tool provides an easy-to-navigate headline timeline.

It's an intriguing experiment, though not a complete one by any means. Head over to the timeline site, type in a topic and a time frame, and you get a column-by-column breakdown of certain Google News sources' headlines on the topic. The Timeline can also pull from specific news sources and, in a clever move, dated Wikipedia entries, so you could browse the month-by-month happenings of 1897, if that's how your lunch break goes.

Many major news sources aren't included yet, and the default Time Magazine covers seem a little unncessary—as much as we like to see Kate Winslet in the morning, she has little to do with Google's Android phone. Still, it's an interesting and perhaps mind-orienting view of the news. What kind of timeline tools would you like to have on hand when you're doing research?

Google News Blog: Introducing Google News Timeline [Official Google News Blog]

Know How to Spot an ATM Skimmer [Security]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/M1cuci45hpg/know-how-to-spot-an-atm-skimmer

If you've seen warnings lately about ATM "skimmers"—data-reading devices added onto machines by thieves—you might be wondering how you could tell if one's been rigged up to where you're about to insert your card. The Consumerist blog hosts a PDF copy of a PowerPoint explainer from an Australian security firm (that still applies to U.S. machines). It might not cover what your specific bank's teller machines should look like, but it does point to warning signs to look out for—like the flashing lights on a card feeder being obscured. [Consumerist]

Recipe Puppy Chooses Meals Based on the Ingredients You Have [Recipes]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/uRP7NVqUiio/recipe-puppy-chooses-meals-based-on-the-ingredients-you-have

Recipe search engine Recipe Puppy finds meals by a list of ingredients or keywords, searching through more than 500,000 recipes across dozens of web sites.

Once you've searched using the list of ingredients you want to use, Recipe Puppy will suggest other similar ingredients that you might want to add to your search, a very nice feature to help pick an interesting meal. Since the search engine is powered by Google APIs, you can use some regular search operators to help—for instance, you can add a "-" in front of an ingredient you don't want to see. The popular web site AllRecipes provides a similar find-by-what-you-have feature, but Recipe Puppy's ability to search many sites at once makes it worth a look for anybody trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

Recipe Puppy is a free website, works anywhere. For more, check out how to find recipes to satisfy your cravings, or make the most of what's in your pantry with RecipeMatcher. Thanks, Kris!

SiteShoter Takes Web Site Screenshots Over Time [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/3YPIo98ukR4/siteshoter-takes-web-site-screenshots-over-time

Windows only: Portable freeware application SiteShoter takes screenshots of web sites with a powerful array of features.

Using the utility, which (like all of the excelllent NirSoft applications) requires no installation, is easy—just add the URL to the web site you want to capture, choose a filename to save the image to, and click Start to save the screenshot. What makes this utility great is the wide range of powerful options, including a full-featured command line—you can place special formatting codes in the filename to specify a timestamp or add the URL to the filename, which becomes very useful if you wanted to save screenshots for multiple sites at once.

You can choose how often you want the screenshots to be taken—the default is every 5 minutes, but you could take a screenshot every few hours instead. Rounding out the great feature list is the ability to save your configurations for later re-use—you could use the GUI to save the options and create a command-line shortcut to run that configuration on demand.

SiteShoter is a free download for Windows only. For more great utilities, check out how to customize your right-click menu with ShellExView, or just look through our top 10 tiny & awesome Windows utilities.

SiteShoter [NirSoft via gHacks]

Google Profiles Give You Control Over What Google Says About You [Online Identity]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/5nxVwjOr0gQ/google-profiles-give-you-control-over-what-google-says-about-you

We've always preached about the importance of having a say in what Google says about you, but today Google's making it easier by integrating your Google profile directly in search results.

Last week we pointed out that the new Google Profile page comes complete with a custom URLs designed to make it easy for people to find your profile. Apparently that was a first step in bringing more prominence to your Google profile; as of today, those profile pages will start appearing on the first page of Google search results.

The explanation we got when we talked to the folks at Google: Google has always been about information. In this case, searching for a person in Google has always been a bit of a black hole—particularly when you have a common name or share a name with someone famous enough to dominate page after page of results. The new profile integration will fix these problems and make it easier to find someone via Google—or at least that's the idea.

When we asked the obvious question—whether this was Google's first serious step toward competing with Facebook—we were told that it is not (not that they would have laid out their plans either way). As is, though, Google profile pages certainly don't tread too much into the social networking realm. What they do is create a personal homepage from which you can link to all of your important information—like your blog, your nameplate site, your Flickr account, or anything else online that represents you.

If you want to search Google profiles specifically, just point your browser to Google Profiles Search and plug in the name of the person you're looking for. One additional feature for Google profiles: If you were to simply Google "me", you'll get instructions on how to create and build out your own profile. (It's sort of like how "me" always denotes your email in Gmail.)

Search for "me" on Google [Official Google Blog]

LinkScanner Flags Dangerous Search Results [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/GB4wh1KshBw/linkscanner-flags-dangerous-search-results

Windows only: AVG LinkScanner is a free browser plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer that automatically scans your search results and flags links pointing to potentially dangerous content.

Just download and install the plug-in, and from then on LinkScanner will automatically scan search results from both Google and Yahoo in either popular browser. If all's clear, LinkScanner will display a green checkmark next to the result; if not, you'll see a red 'x', indicating a threat. Hovering your mouse over the flag displays more information about the threat. (Two more icons with exclamation points indicate caution, but we never saw these while using it.) LinkScanner is a free download, Windows only.

AVG LinkScanner [via CNET]

Fling Automates Remote Backup and Network Transfers [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/IbhlXIGZfVQ/fling-automates-remote-backup-and-network-transfers

Windows only: If you need to automate local and remote backups, sync folders, or update remote files or websites automatically, Fling is a free and effective solution for those tasks and more.

Fling is an FTP designed to make remote backup and folder synchronization painless. Not only can you use Fling to monitor a local directory and sync it to a remote FTP site or remote folder on your network you can also manage and sync local files on hard drives and removable media. Fling integrates with Windows, you can easily send files to remote and local locations using the right click menu. You can set up Fling automatically update and sync files or restrict it to certain times or only when the transfer is manually started. Fling supports secure FTP via SSL and can be run as a service to ensure it's running even when you're not logged in. For other great file syncing solutions, make sure to check out the Hive Five: Best File Syncing Tools. Fling is freeware, Windows only.

Fling [via Freeware Home]

CometDocs Converts Between More than 50 File Types [Conversion]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/VsFmB7LG_e0/cometdocs-converts-between-more-than-50-file-types

We know of one or two sites (or many more, actually) that provide file conversions between PDFs, Word documents, and a few other files. CometDocs takes the all-in-one approach, supporting more than 50 file types.

That's a pretty catchy selling point in itself—you can convert PDFs to Excel files, huge TIFF images to PDF, icon files into images, and the site even does a little OCR work on certain image-to-text conversions, and the results were comparable with PDF to Word Converter. But the simple-to-use site also can take almost any file type that's lost an extension and tell you what kind it is, as well as compare two different text or document files and return the text lines where they're different. It can pull the ID3 tags off an MP3, convert an HTML file into an RSS feed, and, well, hit the "FAQ" tab below to see what else it can do.

The site's disclaimer says it will never rent or sell your email address. Signing up with an email and password gives you a "Premium Account," though it's not really spelled out what that offers over CometDocs' free conversions. Thanks Martha!

PBS Combines Video Offerings in One Pretty Package [Streaming Television]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/qEtyBtnWMiY/pbs-combines-video-offerings-in-one-pretty-package

PBS has consolidated all of its programs offering streaming video into one slick, probably Hulu-inspired portal, letting anyone search, browse by show or topic, and flip through episodes as with a deck of cards.

You'll find many years worth of PBS archives from shows like Frontline, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Julia Child's inspired cooking work, and many more. That isn't everything, and some programs, like Ken Burns' The National Parks, will limit viewing within a time frame around the PBS airing. But it's still a nice addition to the list of TV providers wising up to the ways of web video. You'll see commercials and banner ads around the site, but they're of the same "sponsored by" variety you've come to expect from public radio and television.

PBS Video [via Bits/New York Times]

Amazon HD Video On Demand Offically on TiVo [TiVo]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/IVBd_C1fApA/amazon-hd-video-on-demand-offically-on-tivo

We knew TiVo was beta testing Amazon HD VOD,so it's not a huge surprise it's actually official today. TV shows and Movies will be available in HD with most videos supporting 5.1 surround sound.

Starting today TiVo lovers can expect to see Amazon HD availability on their Series 3 / TiVo HD boxes. HD content is priced about the same as normal SD downloads with HD TV shows starting at $3 and newly released HD movies at $4-$5. There's no details yet as to the quality of the picture or download speeds, but from the beta testing HD downloads are supposedly "outstanding" and handle surround sound very well.

With Amazon HD VOD, Netflix streaming HD, and the recently announced Blockbuster OnDemand, TiVo is slowly working to make paid internet content available on your TV. This is all great news but what about some Hulu love? Please TiVo, we beg of you...

THE FUTURE IS CRYSTAL CLEAR: HIGH DEFINITION DOWNLOADS FROM AMAZON VIDEO ON DEMAND COMING TO A TIVO DVR NEAR YOU
ALVISO, Calif. – April 21, 2009 - TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in televi! sion ser vices for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the availability of HD movies and television shows for download from Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) directly to their television set. Starting today, broadband connected subscribers with a Series3™, TiVo HD, or TiVo HD XL will have access to high quality HD downloads available from Amazon Video On Demand.

Movie and television lovers from coast to coast can browse through hundreds of selections, all without having to leave their living room and at the fraction of the cost of purchasing a Blu-ray disc. High definition episodes of current TV seasons will be available for purchase at $2.99 and top new release HD movies will be available for rental from $3.99 - $4.99. The experience is made even better with the vast majority of titles providing Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, offering a full surround sound experience.

"Consumers are seeking affordable entertainment alternatives to an expensive trip to the movies. With HD downloads for movies and TV shows, TiVo and Amazon can transform any night into a memorable movie experience, all for a fraction of the cost of the theater," said Tara Maitra, general manager and vice president of content services and advertising sales at TiVo Inc. "Our customers now have access to a new world of ultra high quality HD television and movie choices available when the DVDs are released, something no other DVR, cable, or satellite company can match."

TiVo Search, which is optimized for HDTVs with a wide screen display, will include HD results from Amazon along with broadcast and cable programs when a user performs a search.

"TiVo is enabling customers to access our unparalleled library of hit movies and TV shows, bringing them directly into the home where friends and family can watch from the comfort of the couch," said Bill Carr, Amazon vice president music and video. "Together with TiVo, Am! azon Vid eo On Demand is excited to offer HD and increase the selection, quality, and convenience for the TiVo community."

To activate their broadband-connected TiVo DVR, subscribers can log onto Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/videoondemand/tv. After a one-time registration, they can use the remote to search and browse the Amazon selections right from the TV screen, then download the selection directly to the TiVo DVR. To receive more information on how to download HD content from Amazon via your TiVo DVR visit www.tivo.com/amazon.

A $500 PC That Rocks Out Crysis [PC]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eQwNQ-Q4Mqk/a-500-pc-that-rocks-out-crysis

Okay, for $699, you might not be able to buy the best laptop in the world. But for $500, you can build a PC that plays Crysis at a solid 40 frames per second.

Except for the RAM, I'm actually fairly impressed with the components Maximum PC picked out: an ATI Radeon HD 4870 at $175, $71 Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz Wolfdale, $90 MSI Neo3-F LGA 775 motherboard, $21 2GB DDR2-800 RAM (with a rebate, you can go up to 4GB of RAM for $7 more, which I'd recommend), $25 optical drive and $50 320GB hard drive (for $10 more, you can go up to 500GB). Finally, for the case and power supply, a Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black, which is a good pick since Rosewill makes decent power supplies (I also like Seasonic, which is what I rock in my PC) and it's only $75 for the whole package. After rebates, that's just $479, although that doesn't include Photoshop or Geek Squad ! visits.

A good 22-inch monitor can be had for $150 easy, and obviously a keyboard and mouse can be found for under $10 a pop if you really wanna scrimp. For the OS, Windows 7 beta is freeeee. Or you can find a copy of XP lying around somewhere, I'm sure.

Depending on the resolution you wanna roll with, at 1280x1024, Maximum PC got an average framerate of 44.42FPS, and at 1900x1200, a still respectable 36.22FPS.

If you've never ever built a computer before, check out Lifehacker's first-timer's guide to building your own PC. It's a pretty excellent Saturday activity. And obviously a PC can do way more than play Crysis. [Maximum PC]

EagleTec Nano 4/8GB Flash Drive is Pri-Tay, Pri-Tay Small [Flash Drives]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qfXUHMlYWHI/eagletec-nano-48gb-flash-drive-is-pri+tay-pri+tay-small

I used to want a Super Talent Pico flash drive, but now I want an EagleTec Nano. Even though they take a few steps back on the metric naming scale, this thing is small.

Now that every press release anyone gets handed comes on a USB flash drive, I've found it hard to actually purchase one. But an unobtrusive 8GB on my keychain for $33 ($22 for the 4GB) is appealing. At least it looks like I can use it with my MacBook and still have room for something in the other USB slot. [Brando]

MSI's CULV-packin' X-Slim X340 ships this month in US

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/21/msis-culv-packin-x-slim-x340-ships-this-month-in-us/

MSI already told us that its ultraslim, super-sexy, WiMAX-ready X-Slim X340 would be starting at right around $1,000, and now we're being told that the planet's first laptop to be based on Intel's CULV (consumer ultra low voltage) platform will be shipping in April. As in, this month. For the forgetful souls in the crowd, this here ultraportable will ship with an SU3500 CULV processor that consumes just 5.5 watts of power and a 4-cell battery. Now, to find a retailer 'round these parts willing to let you pre-order one...

Filed under: Laptops

MSI's CULV-packin' X-Slim X340 ships this month in US originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bluetooth 3.0 + HS gets official, adds speed with 802.11

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/21/bluetooth-3-0-hs-gets-official-adds-speed-with-802-11/

The rumors were true, and today's the day that the Bluetooth SIG gets official with the latest, greatest version of Bluetooth. Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, as it'll be called, promises to be markedly faster than prior iterations thanks to the reliance on 802.11, which is the same protocol used by WiFi modules, routers, etc. The new standard obviously catapults Bluetooth into a new dimension; rather than being good for nothing more than sending images from one phone to another or syncing a fitness module to a DAP, v3.0 is nimble enough to handle camcorder-to-HDTV, PC-to-PMP and UMPC-to-printer transfers. In fact, the inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers "at the approximate rate of 24Mbps." We had sit-downs with Mike Foley (executive director of the Bluetooth SIG) and Atheros CTO Bill McFarland in order to find out a few more details about plans for the protocol -- if you're eager to hear what they had to say, not to mention see a demonstration of BT 3.0 at work, follow us past the break.

Continue reading Bluetooth 3.0 + HS gets official, adds speed with 802.11

Filed under: Wireless

Bluetooth 3.0 + HS gets official, adds speed with 802.11 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skytone debuts ARM-based, Android-powered netbook / tablet

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/21/skytone-debuts-arm-based-android-powered-netbook-tablet/

Well, after months of nothing but hacks and proof of concepts, we now have not one but two Android-powered netbooks -- neither of which are actually available just yet, of course. This latest one comes from Chinese firm Skytone and, unlike the I-Buddie, boasts a slightly more unique convertible tablet design, which the company was apparently able to make happen by cutting corners in every other area. That includes a slightly underwhelming 533MHz ARM processor, a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, a mere 128MB of RAM, 1GB of storage, an SD card slot for expansion, and even optional 3G (although that could just be a dongle). What's more, it looks like Skytone is saying that the netbook, dubbed the Alpha-680, could sell for as little as $100 if and when it's actually released -- which, as far as we can tell, could happen next week or never.

[Via The Inquirer]

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Skytone debuts ARM-based, Android-powered netbook / tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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