MAC OS X ONLY - Whether you’re trying out for the Spelling Bee or wanting to know the words that one Thin Lizzy song, Desktop Lyrics will help you along.
Just as it suggests, DesktopLyrics is an application that displays the lyrics of the song currently playing in “iTunes” right on your desktop.
Now, the app pulls the lyrics out of iTunes. So if you don’t have the lyrics is iTunes, you’ll have to add them. Of course, you can always add “GimmeSomeTune” and you’ll be good to go.
DesktopLyrics is completely free and open source. Rock on!
DesktopLyrics [via Lifehacker]
One of the most common questions I get is about CD/DVD formats and which one is right for that application. Today, I’m tackling this question once and for all.
While buying blank media last week, I noticed that back of the box had a handy little chart.
The big thing to take out of here is that CD-RW’s are great for transferring data, but they will not work in most CD players, making them a no-so-good choice for making audio CDs.
Okay, this is a little more confusing. The thing to keep in mind here is what your burner can handle and what your players will read. If you burner only does DVD-RW and your player only reads DVD-RW, then obviously you need DVD-RW discs. You’ll just have to see what your devices can handle.
Hope that demystifies things for you!
Google took us all by surprise yesterday launched the one product that’s been rumored for the last 3 years: Google Chrome.
Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.
The new Chrome browser is open source and is free to download. The downside? There’s only a Windows version, so Mac and Linux users will have to wait.
Time once again for another Mac Tip. Today, I’ll show you how to do something that I have found very cool and useful with my dock and apps. When you look at your dock, it’s nice to see what’s active and what’s not. To do this, you can make your hidden apps translucent. For this, you’ll need that good ol’ terminal.
Open up terminal and enter the following:
defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Press enter, and then enter killall Dock and press enter again. You dock will restart and any apps that are hidden will be translucent. Want to switch it back? Enter what you just did, changing the YES to NO. Enjoy!
I got into my long Labor Day Weekend so much, I forgot to put up Manic Monday! So without further ado:
• It’s official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1
• Quest has apparently done the same thing- watch out!
• Hope your copy of XP is legit- pirated copies will soon get special treatment.
• On to Apple news, Bloomberg Accidentally Publishes Steve Jobs Obituary.
• Details of Apple’s Multi-Touch computer have leaked.
• And is Apple working on a AT&T tethering plan?
• And the mac clones? They’re calling Apple a monopoly.
• Wikipedia Comes to the iPhone with Wikipanion
• Forgot your password? The recovery link might be the weakest on the net.
• And finally, Facebook has hit 100 million users.
So that’s this week’s Manic Monday. I do appologize for the delay on today’s post, but the sleep felt sooo good! See you tomorrow.
In the past few weeks, I have seen extensive advertising for FinallyFast. Essentially, they promise you a free way to scan your system for virus and trojans, as well as system flaws and hacks that will make your PC go faster. So being the ignorant fool cleaver person I am, I tried.
What I got was less than fast.
So they have you run this 9MB scan file, and then run the scan. The scan, on my WinXP machine, took about 30 minutes. And then it took another 10 min minutes to go through and show me all the errors that allegedly are there. And this is where the screwy part started.
After now wasting about an hour of my time, it tells me I need the Fast Error Remover, software that costs $30.
So what have I learned: First, when the say free, it’s not always all the way free. Second, if you think it is too good to be true, it probably is. And third, if you have tried to use FinallyFast, you got screwed.
One of the major annoyances in Windows XP that I skip (because I always remember to disable it) is the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. In case you really don’t know, every 60 days the wizard goes through and moves icons you haven’t use in a while into a folder on the destkop. A.) I can clean up my desktop myself and B.) the wizard is so damn annoying. Let’s disable it.
1.) Right-click on an open area of the desktop and click on properties.
2.) in the Properties window, go to the Desktop tab, then click on Customize Desktop towards the bottom.
3.) Uncheck the box next to Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days. Then hit OK.
That’s all there is to it- disabling the Desktop Cleanup is easy. (Because you can clean your own desltop. right?)
You know me- I love free software. Today’s pick is BurnAware Free. Just like previously mentioned ImgBurn, BurnAware is the down to earth burning software that just does what you need it to.
BurnAware Free is ideal for users with basic disc burning needs as backup, creating data, audio, video discs and burning disc images. Free, easy to set up and maintain, it enables you to save your files to disc quickly, provides more flexible interface to help you complete your burning tasks much faster.
BurnAware allows you to burn Data Discs, Audio CD’s. and DVD and Blu-Ray Videos. And, of course, you can use BurnAware to burn your favorite ISO file. I’ll quick mention this is a handy program to have if you are looking to get a Blu-Ray burner (this is the only one I’ve seen with Blu-Ray support- very cool).
BurnAware Free is Windows Only Software and is free. Give a try- it’s not like you’re losing anything.
BurnAware Free [via Lifehacker]
MAC OS X ONLY - One of the many advantages of Mac OS X is the dock which shows you every application that is running. That’s great, but what if you don’t want a certain application to ever show up- you’re out of luck- or are you? This is all made possible with DockDodger.
With Dock Doger, removing the Dock icon is as easy as Drag and Drop. Simply drag in the application you want to Un-Dock and Dock Dodger takes care of the rest. When you re-launch that application, it will be sans Dock icon. Want the Dock icon back? Just re-drag the application into Dock Dodger and everything’s back to normal.
Now, that said, this is kinda dangerous. Not only do you have the potential to damage your program, depending on the application whose icon you’re trying Un-Dock, you may get some strange behavior or find some features inaccessible (such as the menu!). Use at your own risk.
But if that stupid preview icon is driving you nutso, this is the way to go. DockDodger is Donationware, meaning it’s free, but they would like a donation, if possible. Dodge on!
Good Morning, everyone. It’s a big week where I’m at with school starting this week. Others have some time to go, and are cringing over this very statement. That said, let’s get right into Manic Monday.
• Intel cuts electric cords with wireless power system. No more extension cables!!
• Dell’s Eee-killer to ship with Ubuntu preinstalled. Take that, Microsoft.
• Speaking of which, one-third of new computers are being downgraded to Vista.
• On to other news, Kevin Rose has new Apple rumors. Oh boy….
• Meanwhile, iPhone 2.0.2 came out this week, hard on the heals of 2.0.1.
• And GeekBrief has found a way to get Copy and Paste on the iPhone, well kinda.
• Meanwhile, A Judge has cleared that Copyright Owners Must Consider ‘Fair Use’ Before Sending Takedown Notice. Yea, sure.
• And the IOC wants Olympic traffic off of Pirate Bay. Good luck with that.
• China Blocked iTunes After Tibet Album Goes on Sale. Good Grief…
• Western Digital is working on 20,000 RPM Raptor. 1TB anyone?
• And the Compact Disc turned 26 this week. And it still won’t die.
And that’s this week’s Manic Monday. Someone wanted to know the status of Manic Monday (i.e.: Is it staying?). After a full year of Manic Mondays (I started it on this Monday last year) it is most definitely staying. Enjoy!
