Major Nelson article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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A recent post on LifeHacker mentioned a little program called MPlayer, which allows you to play nearly any media file (like RealAudio/Video, Ogg, & M4A) on your Windows Mobile 5 or 6 phone. However, the post mentioned the program was a rough port of a Linux version of the app, and was somewhat of a killer on processor (and thereby, battery) usage. However, a commenter mentioned another program called Conduits Pocket Player, which they liked better, so I thought it was worth checking out. The Conduits Pocket Player, although not free (it’s $19.95), supports all Windows Mobile devices and offers a myriad of features. The Pocket Player supports MP3, WMA, WMV1 2, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, Protected WMA, u-Law, A-Law, AU, &ADPCM WAV formats. It also has a Media Browser menu system with touch scrolling & gesture support; a Media Library with ratings, an auto-imports up to 1000+ tracks; an [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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Sure, you’ve been good all year, and you know you need to kick some love up to the bearded one. But as a techie family, what are you going to do, write a letter and snail mail it? Of course not! All you have to do is add northpole@live.com to Windows Live Messenger and you can be chatting live with Santa, about how good you’ve been, what the temp is at the North Pole, or what he wants on the plate you set out for his visit. Santa is happy to chat as long as you like and you can even play some holiday games with Howard the Elf. Brought to you by Microsoft’s cafemessenger.com.
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Larry Larsen article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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OK, I’m not a huge fan of the goofy name, but this website/newsletter has a lot of cool stuff that makes it worth checking it. Photojojo is primarily a newsletter (and they house their newsletter archives on their website) where you can find tutorials, do-it-yourself projects, camera/camera accessory reviews, contests, and much more. Some recent posts on Photojojo include a customizable version of the Monopoly board game, where you can add your own photos; a how-to post on making a doggie cam; tips on de-pixelizing your photos using VectorMagic; and a handy how-to on removing extra people from your photos. Whether you’re just getting into photography or already an enthusiast, you can learn a lot the Photojob site. There’s even a store where they have cool photo-related tools and gifts and a forum where you can chat with other shutterbugs like yourself.
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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SEAMonster, a personal project of Mike Swanson’s, has nothing to do with the cool SeaDragon technology, despite the similar name. Instead, SEAMonster is an app that lets you perform seam carving on your photos. What is seam carving? It’s a photo-resizing algorithim developed by Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir that reduces or enlarges pictures by intelligently removing pixels. If that’s a little confusing, this video demos the technique quite well. According to the seamcarving.com website, seam carving removes the pixels that carry little importance - something that is determined by measuring a pixel’s contrast when compared to its neighbor pixels, as well as by more advanced techniques. By performing seam carving, you can scale photos by a wide range, while retaining the details. (Normal scaling techniques normally can’t go beyond a factor of 2 or less than 0.5.). The SEAMonster application uses Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0, so you’ll need [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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Had I found this earlier, I would have added it to my Zune hacks post. With this registry hack, you can enable playback of your Zune over your laptop’s speakers. First of all: warning - don’t edit your registry if you don’t know…oh blah, blah, blah…you know the drill. 1. Add the following key to your registry, either by creating a reg file with the text, or go there yourself and create the binary value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\Settings\filter\SpeakerHp]
“EnableInputMonitor”=hex:01
2. Reboot
3. Enable the input monitor by going to “Control Panel” –> “Sound” –> “Speakers/Headphones.” Click on “Properties,” then click on the “Levels” tab and enable the input monitor button.4. You’re done - rock out!
Thank you, Dell Community Forum poster and .netDEvHammer!
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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I have to say, I’m good at finding ways to waste my time. I just spent a good 5 minutes goofing off here playing a Silverlight demo game called Breakout. I stumbled across Vectorform’s Silverlight Demos site thanks to Steve Clayton’s blog post. After watching the Silverlight Twitter widget for a while, I spent a minute demoing this cool video player that automatically resizes itself as the browser resizes. Next, I checked out the photo viewer and flickr photo viewer as well. You can view all the demos from this link. Nice! I can’t wait to see more of these in action on the web.
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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The Windows Live team recently released a new service called Windows Live Community Builder. With this service, you can offer your community members, whether for business, non-profit, or anyone, customized versions of Windows Live services like Windows Live Search, Windows Live Photos, Windows Live Contacts, Virtual Earth mapping, & Silverlight technologies. The service also includes the features of Windows Live Admin Center, which brings Windows Live Hotmail, Live Calendar, Messenger, Spaces, & SkyDrive services to your users branded with your own domain name. For a killer example of the Community Builder in action, check out The Group Inc. Real Estate’s website. Built with Live Services, the site features map-based property searches. A bunch of other mashups are listed here. And if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of the Live services that Community Builder uses, this PDF has a color-coded chart showing the platform’s web controls, service APIs, and data.
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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Do you hate dialing those toll-free numbers that force to you to navigate through a phone tree just to get to a real, live person on the phone? Designed to route calls (and possibly to frustrate people to the point of hanging up), complex phone trees waste your valuable time. A service called BRINGO can end the phone tree nightmare. BRINGO navigates phone trees so you don’t have to. To use BRINGO, use the list on the BRINGO website to find the company you’d like to call by category (credit cards, mortgages, loans, health care, etc.) or by name. Enter in your phone number (they company promises to never disclose this information). Wait for BRINGO to call you back. When your phone rings, pick up and you’ll have an actual human being from the company on the phone. Watch this ABC news video to see BRINGO in action. Genius. (Thanks to [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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In the Harry Potter novels and movies, the Weasley family has a magical clock with hands assigned to each family member that move to indicate their current location. Now, scientists have created a real-life version of this clock for use in the home. The “Whereabouts Clock,” tracks family members as being in one of four locations: home, work, school, or elswhere. The clock works by using a software program that is download to the family members’ mobile phones. The software uses signal information from the phones to determine everyone’s location. On first use, the location information must be programmed: as a person arrives at work or school for the first time, they must press the corresponding button in the application. The software then locks in on the signal from the nearest cell tower and stores its ID. Obviously, a naughty kid could easily program the phone to think the mall [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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Hack #1: Multi-Extension Support mod - This hack makes the Zune program support more types of video, audio, and image extensions. This mod converts files for use on the Zune. Files are automatically converted to the exact specifications used on the Zune device, so no guesswork is involved. It also adds the songs and movies to your library. The hack current supports the following: Audio: .aac, .aif, .aifc, .aiff, .au, .cda, .mid, .midi, .rmi, .snd, and .wav files are now automatically added to your library and later converted and synced with the Zune device. They will not play in your Zune program, though. Video: .asf, .avi, .dvr-ms, .m1v, .m2v, .mod, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpa, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, and .wm videos are now automatically added to your library and later converted and synced with the Zune device. They will not play in your Zune program, though. Images: .png, .bmp, .gif, and many [...]
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Major Nelson article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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There are so many things you can do with Outlook, but I have to admit, I’ve never fully explorered all its features. However, the more I “live” in my Outlook at work, the more I’ve become obsessed with finding new and useful ways to get things done as efficiently and quickly as I can. On that note, here are a few Outlook tips I’ve discovered that have been making my work life easier.1. The ClearContext add-in - every since someone told me about this add-in, I’ve been using the heck out of it. Although I can only afford the free version, I’ve found it unbelievably useful for categorizing my mail. Since I had been using a folders system prior to the Outlook 2007 upgrade, I didn’t feel much like redoing this system just to use Outlook 2007’s color-coded categories. Instead, I use a mashup of ClearContext labels and Outlook cateogries. ClearContext lets me [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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MIX08 is a web technology conference where developers, designers and business professionals can engage in a conversation about new technologies, commerce, media, content, services, and security. In its third year, this year’s conference will be held March 5-7 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Subjects like Silverlight, IE, ASP.NET, Expression, Windows Live, and more will be discussed in sessions led by industry experts for designers, developers and business strategists. Additionally, some featured discussion topics will include How can I extend my content and services into the living room?; How can I protect my users from phishers and pharmers?; How can I develop and debug AJAX applications quickly and efficiently?; and How can I effectively monetize RSS? There will also be hands-on labs and workshops for developers and designers, and keynote speeches by Steve Ballmer, Scott Guthrie, Guy Kawasaki, and others. You can register to attend here, and, while you’re at it, pick up some [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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I saw this on The Raw Feed, and, I have to say: I want one! This Robot Suitcase will follow you around without bumping into things. A card you carry in your pocket tells the suitcase where you are and then a combination of its software, a gyroscope, light detectors, and sound and infrared sensors help it to follow you around without running into anything else. If someone steals your card, an alarm sounds (how does it know?). Of course, although you can buy it now, it won’t be released until 2009 according the the Russian catalog where it was found. Well, maybe it’s just a scam, but the people over at iRobot should definitely take notice. This is the robot the world needs next! Well, that, and the one that does the dishes, the laundry, and walks the dog.
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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IM for a cause! Join the i’m Initiative from Windows Live Messenger to help out your favorite cause. Every time you send an IM, a portion of Live Messenger’s advertising revenue goes to one of the program’s partners, which include: the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Humane Society of the United States, the National AIDS Fund, the National MS Society, ninemillion.org, the Sierra Club, StopGlobalWarming.org, Suss G. Komen for the Cure, and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Each organization will receive a minimum of $100,000 and there is no maximum! To get involved, all you have to do is paste the text code corresponding to the organization of your choice next to your display name in Live Messenger (click on your name and go to options). Here’s the list of codes:
*red+u - American Red Cross*bgca - Boys & Girls Clubs of America*hsus - Humane Society of [...]
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Sarah Perez article, brought to you using rss feeds. I found it informative and I think you will too.
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Windows Live Calendar, a new service that replaces MSN Calendar, launched earlier this week in a public beta. The beta offers features like multiple color-coded calendars, shared calendars, email and text message alerts for appointments, and the ability to subscribe to a calendar’s contents via RSS. Built with AJAX, the online calendar offers some desktop-app-like navigation features, including drag-and-drop, single-click to add an appointment, and scrolling through dates using a mouse wheel. Sharing your Windows Live Calendar is easy but has sophisticated rights management processes working on the back-end which let you share out as much or as little of your calendar as you want. You can let people see only free/busy info, you can give them read-only permissions to your appointments, or you can even give them read/write permissions to your calendar. Individual appointments can be set as private, too (click New to display the New Appointment box, then [...]
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