Monday, October 23, 2006
Make your lost USB drive call for help
Make your lost USB drive call for help: 
Web site Daily Cup of Tech offers a custom autoplay program for your USB thumb drive that tells the user what to do if it is lost and found.
Much more effective than a boring old IfFoundPleaseReturnTo.txt text file, this customizable .exe offers a "Help! I'm lost!" Autoplay option when someone plugs in your thumb drive. I especially like the bribery tactic: "You will receive a shiny USB drive twice as big as this one for your trouble." Nice.
(Via Lifehacker.)
Download of the Day: Free "You've got mail" sounds
Download of the Day: Free "You've got mail" sounds: 
Wow your friends and annoy your co-workers with a custom new email sound: web site I Love Wavs offers 38 email .wav files, from the X-Files' Agent Scully ("Have you checked your email this morning, Mulder?") to Austin Powers ("You've got mail, baby, yeah!")
Mac user Tim Gaden offers instructions on changing Mail.app's default sounds here. Thunderbird users should check the General tab in the Preferences pane - hit the Advanced button near "Play a sound" to set it up. (Man, those Lifehacker editors will use ANY excuse to get Gillian Anderson on the front page...)
(Via Lifehacker.)
Remove any ink stain
Pop quiz, hotshot: your favorite shirt has got a ginormous Sharpie stain on the collar. What do you do? Why, you check out housekeeping guru Sarah Aguirre's guide to ink stain removal, that's what.
First, you'll need to determine what kind of ink stain you're dealing with: water-based, permanent, ballpoint pen, etc. After that, you've got a plethora of various stain removal remedies available to try out; and if the piece of clothing you're working on is sentimental to you, it's worth the effort. What are your best tried and true stain removal methods? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
(Via Lifehacker.)
Ms. Dewey - search slow
Why make a search engine that loads in just a second or two like Google, when you can make a really annoying search engine in flash and lots of video animations. Check out this unusual search engine called Ms. Dewey.
Ms. Dewey[msdewey.com]
via [Gizmodo]
(Via Fosfor Gadgets.)
Convert a photo to a sketch
Web site Graphic-Design.com has a nice tutorial for turning a photograph into a fairly realistic pencil sketch using Photoshop.
The process is a bit complicated, but the instructions are detailed, so even a Photoshop novice should really have no problem following along. For a quicker photo-to-sketch conversion, you might want to try out previously-mentioned software Photo to Sketch. Keep in mind, though, that the results you will get from the Graphic-Design tutorial will be a lot higher quality than the one-click software solution of Photo to Sketch. (Though you might want to check out the comments of the Photo to Sketch post for other good recommendations.)
(Via Lifehacker.)
New noise canceling from Sony
New noise canceling from Sony:
Sony announced a new product today that is supposed to cut ambient noise up to 75 percent. The premiere product to come with the new technology is their new Walkman media player Sony NW-S700F. More pictures and information inside.
Full press release from Sony
Sony’s Noise Canceling Technology Injects High-Quality Sound Into Walkman-Headphone Combo
System Cuts Ambient Noise up to 75 Percent
NEW YORK, Oct. 12 — For a world filled with noise, Sony today announced its first digital music player with built-in noise-canceling technology. The NW-S700F Walkman(R) player ensures high-quality sound, to help you find your quiet place.
“While Sony has offered noise canceling headphones, this is the first time that we’ve integrated the technology into the player itself,” said Koba Kobayashi, general manager for personal audio at Sony Electronics. “We’ve created an entirely new category and are confident that even audiophiles will be pleased with this Walkman digital music player.”
By embedding the noise-canceling technology in the player and headphones, Sony offers a high-quality listening experience. The player’s clear stereo technology creates sound clarity that maintains the same quality as the original source. The clear bass technology enhances the deep sound with no distortion. Because the system diminishes intrusive noise; listeners can avoid pumping up the volume.
The player comes with a long, reliable battery life of up to 50 hours at full battery capacity. The quick-charge feature, which offers up to three-hours of playback with just a three-minute charge, works wonders for fast-paced lifestyles. A built-in FM tuner lets you listen to your favorite radio stations and includes pre-sets for the most visited stations.
To simplify the music management process, these new devices support ATRAC(R), ATRAC(R) Advance Lossless, MP3, AAC (non-DRM), WMA (non-DRM) and Linear PCM music files. They are compatible with the Sony CONNECT(TM) online music service and include SonicStage(R) CP software to import, manage and transfer music collections.
The player’s compact design includes a three-line color organic electroluminescence display with cover art. The artist, track and album information appears on the screen beside a picture of the album cover.
The NW-S700F Walkman player comes with 13.5 mm diameter headphones with a built-in microphone that reduces most ambient noise. Newly developed drivers produce wide dynamic-range playback and bass. To enhance the sound, you can set the equalizer to match the type of music you are listening to, such as jazz, pop, heavy or custom, or simply turn it off.
Virtual Phone Technology reproduces the acoustic effect of the studio, live in-house, club or arena venue where the music was recorded. Direct encoding allows you to record an analogue audio signal directly from an audio player without using a PC. A cradle or cable accessory is needed to use direct encoding.
Pricing and Availability
The latest Walkman music player can store up to 1,350 songs on the 2GB model and 685 songs on the 1GB model at 48kbps. The NW-S703F player has a total capacity of approximately 1GB, comes in violet and pink and will cost about $169; and the NW-S705F player has a total capacity of approximately 2GB, comes in black and will cost about $199.
The noise-canceling Walkman players will be available in November.
(Via Fosfor Gadgets.)
How to Clean an LCD monitor
Apple offers a simple three-step guide for cleaning your LCD monitor:
1. Turn off the computer or display. You may need to turn off the computer in order to turn off some Apple displays.
2. Dampen a clean, soft, lint-free cloth or paper with water only.
3. Wipe the screen. Do not spray liquid directly on the screen.
This may have been common sense to many of you, but I'd been putting off a much-needed clean for a while because I didn't want to destroy the beautiful, mysterious screen. Since my instinct was to use some rubbing alcohol or glass cleaner (boy was I off!) to get the job done, I'm very glad I checked beforehand. Alcohol on your monitor can cause damage to the coating and dry out and crack the plastic. You can use mild, non-alcoholic detergents (and Apple does endorse one), but I'll probably stick with water for now.
How do you keep your LCDs clean? Let us know in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.
(Via Lifehacker.)
Ten Must-Have S60 3rd Freeware Applications
Ten Must-Have S60 3rd Freeware Applications:
Long time ago, I have compiled a list of Ten Must-Have S60 Freeware Applications. It was mainly dedicated for S60 2nd Edition phones. Now, I have compiled the new list for S60 3rd Edition. I will be updating this list from time to time.
Before going to the list, freeware here means an application that can be used without paying money to the developers. It includes donationware and open source, but it does not include crippleware and trialware.
Here is the list of Ten Must-Have S60 3rd Freeware Applications (in alphabetical order):
- DivX Player - On of the best video players for S60 phones.
- Google Maps for Mobile - You have maps of the whole world in your pocket. You can even query places, such as restaurant, shops, etc.
- Mig33 - Free instant messaging that supports Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. It even supports cheap SMS too.
- OggPlay - Nice music player that supports MP3, AAC and MP4, it’s better than the built-in S60 music player in some areas.
- Podcasting - If you are subscribers of audio blogging, this application is definitely must-have for you.
- Screenshot - This one is the application that I develop myself to capture screenshots. All screenshots in this blog are captured using this application.
- Shozu - Upload your photos and videos quickly to the online blog services, such as Flickr.
- STris-2 - A clone of the popular Tetris game.
- SysExplorer and Y-Browser - File explorer is a must-have application for advanced users. I put two file explorers here because both of them are good. You can download them and try which one you like.
- Widsets - A collection of mini applications, called widgets, that allows us to subscribe feed (RSS/Atom) from many different topics.
Compatible devices: S60 3rd Edition, Nokia N-Series, Nokia E-Series.
Update (05-Oct-06): Added Y-Browser as file explorer together with SysExplorer.
Update (06-Oct-06): Added screenshots.
(Via S60Tips.com.)
