Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, July 29, 2011

Blue Gold: The privatization of water leaves everyday citizens fighting for a substance they need to survive http://bit.ly/pmT25w

Tapped - The high cost - to both the environment and our health -- of bottled water - http://bit.ly/o4c3sb

Thursday, July 28, 2011

ManageFlitter Automatically Sends Public Google+ Posts to Twitter [Webapps]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5825365/manageflitter-automatically-sends-public-google%252B-posts-to-twitter

We've talked about how ManageFlitter is useful for managing your Twitter account and raising the signal to noise ratio in your stream. The service now also automatically sends your public Google+ posts to Twitter, as long as you have the service connected to your Twitter account.

Unlike previously mentioned Agent G, ManageFlitter doesn't require you share items with circles that include it, and doesn't run the risk of being shut down by Google for being a non-human account. Give ManageFlitter your Google+ profile URL, connect it to your Twitter account if they're not connected already, and you're all finished.

Anything you post publicly on Google+ will be syndicated at Twitter, with a link to the original post. If you want more control, you can add the #twt hashtag to your Google+ posts and ManageFlitter will only republish those entries. Do you want to cross-post across networks or keep them separate? Share your thoughts in the comments.

ManageFlitter | via NirmalTV

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter.

Pixeet's App and Fisheye Lens Shoots Full 360 Degree Photos On iPhones [IPhone]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5825518/pixeets-app-and-fisheye-lens-shoots-full-360-degree-photos-on-iphones/gallery/

There are dozens of strap-on fisheye lenses that you can buy nowadays for iPhones. Blame it on Lomography and Hipstamatic, perhaps. Pixeet's goes a step further though, letting you shoot full 360-degree panoramas with the camera lens and free app.

It works by taking four photos with the iPhone's camera, which are then stitched together with the app, creating that 360-degree panorama which your Facebook profile has (probably not) been crying out for. You can see several examples of the panoramas created, here.

Costing $49 for the camera lens and case to hold the lens in place, the app is only available for the iPhone for now, but Pixeet is readying an Android app which will be out in September. [Pixeet]

Pixeet's App and Fisheye Lens Shoots Full 360 Degree Photos On iPhones [IPhone]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5825518/pixeets-app-and-fisheye-lens-shoots-full-360-degree-photos-on-iphones/gallery/

Costing $49 for the camera lens and case to hold the lens in place, the app is only available for the iPhone for now, but Pixeet is readying an Android app which will be out in September. [Pixeet]

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." [Quotables]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5824923/inspiration-exists-but-it-has-to-find-you-working

Pablo Picasso's quote about inspiration and work reminds us that great ideas and eureka moments arise from everyday work. You have to at least be thinking about a topic or problem before you can find a creative solution.

Whether you work in a creative or other type of field, it's those long hours staring at a blank screen or piece of paper that generate opportunities for inspiration to strike. (Conversely, if you never sit down to write or draw or practice whatever your art is, you'll never give the muse a chance.) Image remixed from an original by uttam gurjar/Shutterstock.

Download large 2560x1600 version of this image.

You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.

Remains of the Day: Mozilla's "Boot to Gecko" Will Be Like Chrome OS for Firefox [For What Its Worth]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5824973/remains-of-the-day-mozilla-announces-latest-project-boot-to-gecko

The team behind Firefox officially begins work on a new web OS, Google's latest updates include improvements to GoogleDocs, quality of sleep proven to be just as important as quantity.

Mozilla Announces Boot to Gecko: Mozilla's latest project aims to build a "complete, standalone operating system for the open web." The Wall Street Journal's TechEurope blog pegs the project as a possible Android competitor. [MozillaWiki]
Facebook for Business: The social networking site launched Facebook for Business today, helping companies build their own pages and run ads. [Facebook]
Google Apps Highlights 7/22/2011: Google's latest highlights entry recaps the changes that the company has implemented over the past few weeks, including the latest updates to Google Docs: support for .pptx files and a spreadsheet shortcuts menu. [Official Google Blog]
Barack Obama Thinks Your Password Sucks: The President seeks to up cyber security with the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). [Gizmodo]
Fragmented sleep 'harms memory': A research study at Stanford University recently found that disrupting sleep negatively affects memory. [BBC News]
Nook for iTunes Adds 175 Magazines and Newspapers to its Library: The addition includes publications like Esquire, Forbes, and Newsweek. The Barnes & Noble ereader app is also offering free two week subscriptions. [iTunes]
Twitter Symbols: Add some iconographic flair to your tweets. [Twitter Symbols]

How to Set Up a New iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad [Emailable Tech Support]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5825052/how-to-set-up-a-new-iphone-ipod-touch-or-ipad

So you've finally splurged on a new iOS device for yourself, or gotten it as a gift from the Apple lovers in your life. Sadly, you can't just open the box and start using it—it requires a bit of set up. Here's what you need to do.

If you don't already have iTunes, you'll want to head to apple.com/itunes, download it, and maybe even rip a few CDs while you're at it. When you're ready to start using your device, though:

Grab your sync cable (the one that came with your device) and plug your device into your computer. If iTunes doesn't start up automatically, start it up and click on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad in the left-hand sidebar.
When prompted, pick "Set Up as a New iPhone/iPod/iPad". From there, you'll be able to choose whether you want to automatically sync music, photos, apps, or all of the above to your device. Hit the Done button and it will start syncing your media. This will take awhile, so go get a cup or ten of coffee and wait for it to finish.
When you're done, you'll be able to use your new device. If you had music in iTunes when you set it up, you should see it in the "iPod" app on your iPhone or iPad, or the "Music" app on an iPod touch (note that your music won't be in the "iTunes" app on your phone, that's only for buying new music—yes, it's a little confusing).

If you chose to sync any apps you had downloaded, those will appear on your device on the home screen. Now that you've got everything working, though, you can buy apps at any time from the blue "App Store" icon, or buy music from the purple "iTunes" icon.

It's also worth noting that you can sync more than just music, photos, and apps to your device. If you plug it back into iTunes and click on it in the sidebar, you should see a row of categories on top of the main pane ("Summary", "Info", "Apps", etc.). If you click on "Info", you can sync contacts, calendars, and email accounts from Outlook, Apple Mail, and more. You can also sync your bookmarks from Internet Explorer or Safari.

By clicking on the Apps, Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Books, and Photos tabs, you can selectively sync certain artists, playlists, or genres to sync to your device, if you don't have enough room to sync everything. Whenever you make changes to your device's preferences, just be sure to hit the "Apply" button at the bottom of the iTunes window to sync it again using your new settings. Enjoy your new device!

Emailable Tech Support is a tri-weekly series of easy-to-share guides for the less tech savvy people in your life. Got a beginner tech support question you constantly answer? Let us know at tips@lifehacker.com. Remember, when you're just starting out computing, there's very little that's too basic to learn.

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

Enable Direct2D and DirectWrite Hardware Acceleration for Better Graphics Performance in Firefox [Firefox]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5825280/enable-direct2d-and-directwrite-hardware-acceleration-for-better-graphics-performance-in-firefox

With a few about:config tweaks, you can turn on Firefox's built-in hardware acceleration and improve both graphical performance and the look of your fonts.

If you have a decent graphics card (DirectX 10-capable) and Windows 7 (or Windows Vista with the Vista Platform Upgrade), you can make graphics processing a bit more efficient with these tweaks:

Type about:config into your address bar and promise Firefox you'll be careful.
Type render in the search box, and find the following two keys:
gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled
mozilla.widget.render-mode
Double click on the gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled entry so that it's set to true.
Double-click on the mozilla.widget.render-mode entry and set the value to 6. If you can't find this key, right-click anywhere in the window, hit to New > Integer, set it's name to mozilla.widget.render-mode, and value to 6.
Restart Firefox

Now, you should notice that your fonts look a little bit nicer, and certain pages (like Google Maps) move a little bit smoother. To revert back, just go back into about:config, disable gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled, and set mozilla.widget.render-mode to -1. Hit the link below to read more.

How to Enable Direct2D & DirectWrite Hardware Acceleration in Mozilla Firefox | Tweaking with Vishal

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

Enable Direct2D and DirectWrite Hardware Acceleration for Better Graphics Performance in Firefox [Firefox]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5825280/enable-direct2d-and-directwrite-hardware-acceleration-for-better-graphics-performance-in-firefox

With a few about:config tweaks, you can turn on Firefox's built-in hardware acceleration and improve both graphical performance and the look of your fonts.

If you have a decent graphics card (DirectX 10-capable) and Windows 7 (or Windows Vista with the Vista Platform Upgrade), you can make graphics processing a bit more efficient with these tweaks:

Type about:config into your address bar and promise Firefox you'll be careful.
Type render in the search box, and find the following two keys:
gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled
mozilla.widget.render-mode
Double click on the gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled entry so that it's set to true.
Double-click on the mozilla.widget.render-mode entry and set the value to 6. If you can't find this key, right-click anywhere in the window, hit to New > Integer, set it's name to mozilla.widget.render-mode, and value to 6.
Restart Firefox

How to Enable Direct2D & DirectWrite Hardware Acceleration in Mozilla Firefox | Tweaking with Vishal

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

Online Accounts, Search and Replace, and Tag Pages [From The Tips Box]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5825307/online-accounts-search-and-replace-and-lifehacker-tag-pages/gallery/

Readers offer their best tips for keeping up on the online services you use, searching and replacing text in certain programs, and navigating to Lifehacker's tag pages.

Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, email it to tips at lifehacker.com, or share it on our tips and expert pages.

Use Your Birthday to Catalog Your Online Accounts

Photo by Will Clayton.

Jryan727 discovers an easy way to take stock of the online services you're signed up for:

So, today's my birthday, and many of the services, forums, and other miscellaneous websites I belong to are sending me Happy Birthday e-mails, which made me realize that your birthday is a great day to take an accounting of what services you belong to. If you were planning on compiling a list, or spreadsheet, your birthday is a great day to start! I've already gotten e-mails from more than a few that I had long forgotten I even had accounts with.

You probably won't get emails from all those services, but you'll probably get a few from ones you had forgotten about. This is also probably a great time to unsubscribe or remove your account from a few of these services if you don't use them anymore.

Search and Replace Text in Any Program with AutoHotkey

Slpk shares an AutoHotkey script perfect for bloggers and other writers:

I created this Autohotkey script for those situations when you need to work with text on applications that lack a basic search&replace function.
Use it to have Ctrl+Alt+R give you a search&replace wherever you need.
^!R:: Gui: Gui Destroy Gui, Add, Text,, Search: Gui, Add, Edit, r1 w210 vSearch Gui, Add, Text,, Replace: Gui, Add, Edit, r1 w210 vReplace Gui, Add, Button, x+-50 y+5 gReplace Default, Replace Gui, Show, W230 H130, Ctrl+R Everywhere return

GuiEscape: Gui Destroy return

Replace: Gui Submit previous := % clipboard Sleep 100 Send ^a Sleep 100 Send ^c newtext := RegExReplace(clipboard, Search, Replace, count) MsgBox, 4, %count% occurrencies., %count% occurrencies. Continue? IfMsgBox Yes clipboard := % newtext Sleep 100 Send ^a Sleep 100 Send ^v clipboard := % previous IfMsgBox No Gosub Gui return return

Keep An Eye Out for Tag Page Links All Around Lifehacker

Conflicted commenter Java-Princess shows us an easier way to navigate Lifehacker tag pages:

If you're on the #tips page and want to go directly to #openthread, a similar collection of user-submitted stuff then instead of hitting the Lifehacker title image to get to the links and then clicking #openthread, consider the uses of adversity. A lot of commenters double post their stuff in both #openthread and #tips, something I find annoying. But, you can just go to the nearest tip and click the #openthread link the user inserted for you in his/her comment.

We've put a bunch of tag pages on the front page in the new design, but this is still faster for certain tags. For example, I've also put a link to #tips at the end of each post I write, for easy access, and you can always click on the lead tag of any post as well. It's just another way to get around.

Distract Runaway Dogs with a Squeak Toy Instead of Treats

Photo by Ali Milteer.

Pinecone99 lets us know a foolproof method for getting your dog's attention:

Dog owners - if your dog runs off and won't come when you call even if you try luring him/her with treats, try a squeaky toy.

My dog occasionally escapes from the yard and decided early on that it was more fun to explore the neighborhood than listen to my voice calling him. The squeaky toy catches his attention and he comes running toward me. Of course he'll gladly accept treats at that point too.

Strangely, I never though to try this, but it makes sense: your dog is probably more excited about a squeaky toy than your own voice, and it can actually tell you have one from far away, unlike treats.

A Wall of 250 Canon Cameras Flashing Their Lights Is a Seizure Waiting to Happen [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5825294/a-wall-of-250-canon-cameras-flashing-their-lights-is-a-seizure-waiting-to-happen

Be warned though, the music ain't for everybody. [Androp.jp via Fast Company]

You can keep up with Casey Chan, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.

Netflix Is for HDTV Buffs, Hulu for Computer Geeks [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5825458/netflix-is-for-hdtv-buffs-hulu-is-for-computer-geeks

Nielsen recently polled 12,000 netizens and asked them about Hulu and Netflix. The survey results suggest that Netflix users are movie-watching HDTV buffs, while Hulu users are TV show-watching computer geeks.

According to Nielsen, Netflix users tend to watch only movies (53%) on their HDTVs via a gaming console (50%). Only 11% of subscribers watch only TV shows on the streaming service. Hulu users, however, prefer the computer (89%) to the big screen and watch mostly TV shows (73%).

Overall, online streaming is exploding. Viewers watched a record 15 billion videos online in May 2010 which is a staggering amount of content flowing through the intertubes. [Nielsen]

You can keep up with Kelly Hodgkins, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.

California May Be Riddled With Poorly Mapped Underground Fuel Pipelines [Wtf]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5825467/california-may-be-riddled-with-poorly-mapped-underground-fuel-pipelines

Since 1998, fuel pipeline owners in California were required by law to give local officials detailed maps of their underground pipe network. Problem is, many companies submitted inaccurate maps early on and haven't updated them.

This major oversight was uncovered after the San Bruno gas fire in 2010. To prevent another disaster, fire departments, construction crews and others called the California State Fire Marshal's Office to find out the location of underground fuel pipes. Astonishingly, the office discovered that most maps on file were old, contact lists were outdated and much of the new information had not been updated properly.

Not knowing the location of an underground fuel pipe puts a construction crew at risk when it begins digging and leaves firefighters helpless when they are forced to fight a blaze caused by a pipe leak. To fix this problem, California may setup a website that would let pipeline owners enter new, accurate pipe information and let emergency personnel access this information when necessary. [The Oakland Tribune]

You can keep up with Kelly Hodgkins, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.

Engadget comes to your TV on Boxee, Roku, Yahoo and DivX starting today

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/27/engadget-comes-to-your-tv-on-boxee-roku-yahoo-and-divx-startin/

Gather round everyone, while you may have gotten used to accessing Engadget via the browser or any one of our mobile apps, starting today we're ready to come home in one more way: on your TV. Launching on Boxee, Roku, Yahoo! Widgets and DivX is a new AOL HD package which includes a channel full of our videos ready for viewing on big screens. This way, when you want to kick back and enjoy a new hands-on video, The Engadget Show or any of our other content it's only as far away as your remote control, which is probably also your phone, PC or tablet. There's plenty more to come in the future -- we'll figure out an in-app Screen Grabs submission tool somehow -- but for now we're happy to have an official outlet on some of the most widely available connected TV platforms out there. The AOL HD app will begin showing up today, check out the gallery for a few screenshots of us on each of the platforms.

Gallery: Engadget on AOL HD