MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [July 8th]” plus 11 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [July 8th]
- Join MakeUseOf On Facebook!
- The 7 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Downloading & Installing The Developer’s Build Of OS X Lion [Mac]
- Lightbox Photos – A Sophisticated Camera & Photo-Sharing App [Android 2.1+]
- Exfm Provides An Incredibly Easy Way To Discover Music While Web Browsing [Web & iPhone]
- Hot Tech Deals – Foxconn Barebones Nettop Computer for $124.99 + more
- TamperMonkey Finally Brings Greasemonkey To Android [2.1+]
- 5 Tools To Compare Typefaces & Choose The Right Font For Your Work
- How To Make Your Own Events Listing Using Custom Post Types [WordPress]
- 10 Useful Command-Line IrfanView Tools For Working With Images
- Never Pay For Texting Again With Kakaotalk [Android & iOS]
| Cool Websites and Tools [July 8th] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Cool Websites and Tools [July 8th] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: cool web appsSimilar articles:
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| Posted: 08 Jul 2011 07:31 PM PDT
We also use our fan page to inform you about premium software giveaways and discounts that are not announced on the website. We get a lot of those from software developers and distribute them mainly on Facebook. Simply click on the “Like” button below to get started! So grab some friends and join us on Facebook today! Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Join MakeUseOf On Facebook! is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: announcements, FacebookSimilar articles:
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| The 7 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 06:31 PM PDT
This week the winners are: Best Answer of the Week – Fu Man Chu 1st Runner Up – ha14 2nd Runner Up – FIDELIS Congratulations to the winners! You may not have won this week, but I did notice your answer and I'm looking forward to more! Be next week's winner. Meanwhile, check out the best questions of the week:
For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. The 7 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: answers, Q&A websites, tech support, troubleshootSimilar articles:
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| Downloading & Installing The Developer’s Build Of OS X Lion [Mac] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 04:31 PM PDT
As of this writing, Apple has not indicated that it will provide hard disk copies of Lion. This new method system of updating has its pros and cons, but having downloaded the developer's build of Lion, I think for many previous users of the Mac App Store, the process should further simplify new system upgrades. This article does not address all the questions users may have about the Lion upgrade. After the system is fully released, we will address any other major issues (if any) that may arise with the upgrade. System RequirementsIn order to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion, the Mac you want to install it on will need to be at least an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 processor. I believe most Macs produced in the last five years meet one of these qualifications. To find out which processor your Mac is using, click on the Apple icon > About.
You will need to be running the latest update of Snow Leopard 10.6.6. (See here for more information about the App Store upgrade).
This SL update should include the Mac App Store application in which you use to purchase and download Lion, as you would any other applications in the store.
Download ProcessThe developer's build of Lion that I downloaded is over 4GB, and more than likely it will not be any smaller than that in its final release version. So once you pay for Lion, be prepared for a 30 minute to 2 hour download time, depending on the speed of your network. You will want to make sure you have backed up your existing hard drive onto Time Machine and/or cloned it to another external drive.
If you need to install Lion on other Macs in your home, you can open App Store on those computers and click on your Purchases (located in the App Store menu bar) to download the installer app again to those other Macs. However, instead of another download through a Wi-Fi connection for your other Macs, you probably should be able to copy the Lion installer app via your networked computers or through a FireWire or Ethernet connection so that process is a little faster. Installation ProcessWhat's great about downloading Lion from the App Store is that the process will begin once downloading is complete.
Most users will simply download Lion on top of Snow Leopard, which means that the new system will replace Snow Leopard but all your existing files, applications, songs, movies, and other data will be remain intact, and will appear after you restart your computer with the newly installed Lion upgrade. There will be a Customize button that you can click to selectively exclude any default Lion apps, system foreign languages and the like that you don't want installed in the upgrade (in the developer's build of Lion the ability to customize the installation was not yet available). After you’re done with the installation app, you can delete it from your Application's folder, as once you purchase it in the App Store it will always be there for to download again if need be. The big issue with this App Store process is you won’t have an external copy of Lion on disk to plop into your Mac just in case you need to run a fix on a corrupted disk or partition. Alternative InstallationsIf you need to, you can install Lion on a separate partition or external drive, so that you can have access to both Snow Leopard and Lion. Why might you want to do this? Well, some applications like older versions of Microsoft Word will not run on Lion, and you're not prepared to upgrade the software for Lion just yet. So to create a partition, you will need to make sure you have plenty of internal hard drive space. I would recommend at least 12-20 gigs of space on the partition.
You can create a partition by launching Disk Utility and selecting your hard drive. Click on the "Partition" tab and then click the + button at the bottom of the Volume Scheme. Name the partition "Lion" or any name you like. Set the partition size for Lion to be about 12-20GB. Click the “Apply” button and the partition will be created, similar to how it's shown above. Now when you run the Lion installer app, you will be able to select the partition (see the screen in the previous section.)
You can switch back and forth between systems by opening System Preferences and selecting "Startup Dist" under the System category. From there, you can select the system you want your computer to start back up in. Your Mac will boot in the last system you used. Let us know how your download and installation process goes. Also ask questions and share problems with your Lion upgrade experience and we may be able to address them in future MUO articles. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Downloading & Installing The Developer’s Build Of OS X Lion [Mac] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: install, operating system, os x, osx lion, updateSimilar articles:
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| Lightbox Photos – A Sophisticated Camera & Photo-Sharing App [Android 2.1+] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 03:31 PM PDT
The application launches with a splash, so to say:
No explanation text, no lengthy dialogs. Just one Abe Lincoln graffiti slowly panning across the screen, and two large buttons. If you're not partial to Lincoln, fret not: it's actually a fancy slideshow with all sorts of images (but with no credit for the photographers, I'm afraid). There's not much to do except press that Create Account button, so let's do just that:
Lightbox Photos doesn't use your Google account credentials like other applications (Words with Friends, for example). You're going to need to create an account the old-fashioned way, password and all. All fields are required: It won't even let you leave the "full name" field blank. This may be a bit of a turn-off for some new users. You haven't even started using the app, and you're already required to give away your details and pick a password. Lucky for you, I've done just that so you could see what the app looks like on the next screenshot:
Here you can connect with various social networks. That's a large part of the attraction for many users of this app, because you can share your photos all over the place. For this review, I won't be connecting with any services. Onwards!
The next step has you pick out a profile photo. You can actually skip it – just hit Save and you'll be fine. You now find yourself in the app, looking at a grid of popular photos pulled in from the Web:
The reason you see some blank squares is that the photos took some time to load, even on my Wi-Fi connection. Tapping a photo brings it up in full-screen mode, with full photographer credits:
Lovely image, really. You can then swipe the screen to smoothly transition over to the next image – this time there's no waiting at all. Here it is, mid-swipe:
When you rapidly flick between images, you may have to wait a little bit. But if you actually look at the new photo for a moment, the next one will load in the background, so browsing the gallery would be a seamless experience. But while these photos are very beautiful, they were not taken by my friends. This is what My Lightbox is for:
Okay, so I don't really have many friends (sitting here on a lonely Friday night writing this blog post, violins sadly wailing in the background), but the concept seems rather cool. Next, let's see what image capture looks like:
Confused you there, didn't I? This is actually an image of my screen – of the very application I use to take screenshots of my device. Pretty neat "crazy mirror" effect. Speaking of effects, once you take an image you can apply all sorts of funky effects. Here's what the image looks like after I applied an effect called XPro:
It's very low-fi, but I think it works with my phone's simple camera. Once you're happy with the effect, you get to describe and share your photo:
The UI isn't very standard (one of Android's pitfalls, really), but it's clear in this case. I've chosen to post the photo to my public Lightbox.com wall, which looks like this:
Talk about minimalism! I quite like it, actually. That's a very clean look for a gallery. Bottom LineI've previously used one of Lightbox's primary competitors, Picplz, which we reviewed back in November. Both applications require up-front registration, but Lightbox feels snappier and more responsive than Picplz, at least on my own device. Another thing I like about Lightbox is that it doesn't automatically log my location along with the image – I had some trouble convincing Picplz not to use my location. I also like Lightbox's tight Flickr integration. If you regularly take photos using your smartphone (or want to make it a habit), you would do well to check out Lightbox. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Lightbox Photos – A Sophisticated Camera & Photo-Sharing App [Android 2.1+] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: camera, google android, image effects, photo effects, photo sharing, photography, photography tips, smartphonesSimilar articles:
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| Exfm Provides An Incredibly Easy Way To Discover Music While Web Browsing [Web & iPhone] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 02:31 PM PDT
Does this sound familiar? It happens to the best of us, but I’ve found a great app that was built with this type of behavior in mind. With exfm, you’ll never find yourself in this situation again. What Is Exfm?Exfm is a social music discovery platform that follows you around the web and keeps track of everything you listen to across various websites. Essentially it turns the web into your music library, making it incredibly easy to discover music while browsing, organize that music into a library, and share it with all your friends.
Whenever you browse a site with MP3s, they will automatically be added to your library. This is especially useful if you visit a lot of different sites and constantly have trouble remembering where you heard “that one song”. Exfm will also go ahead and tag everything for you automatically, making it easier to find in your library once your collection grows. When you find a song you really love, you can “note” it. Noting a song, which is a lot like Liking something on Facebook, will place it into your Noted tab and display it on your public exfm profile page.
As exfm is social, you can view all of the great music your friends are sharing as well. You can refer to your activity stream to catch all the latest updates from the people you’re connected with. Lastly, exfm allows you to connect with your Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts to easily find your friends and begin sharing the songs you like with them. How Do I Get exfm?Exfm is currently available as a browser extension for Google Chrome. If you head over to exfm’s homepage you can click the ‘Install Now‘ button to get started.
As of recently, exfm is also available as an iPhone app, allowing you to take the app with you wherever you go. With the exfm iPhone app, all of your friends, feeds, music, and sharing options are right there with you, on your phone. Imagine being able to trap songs from the websites you browse and then listen to them once you leave your computer from your mobile device. Amazing. ConclusionAfter playing around with exfm for a while I got really excited about this extension. It had everything I’m looking for from a social perspective and it makes keeping track of the music I find on various sites a breeze. I was impressed with it and I think you will be too. Let me know what you think in the comments! Do you like using exfm in your browser or on your phone? Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Exfm Provides An Incredibly Easy Way To Discover Music While Web Browsing [Web & iPhone] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: discover, mp3, music, music library, music sharing, social media, songsSimilar articles:
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| Hot Tech Deals – Foxconn Barebones Nettop Computer for $124.99 + more Posted: 08 Jul 2011 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Hot Tech Deals – Foxconn Barebones Nettop Computer for $124.99 + more is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: dealsSimilar articles:
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| TamperMonkey Finally Brings Greasemonkey To Android [2.1+] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 12:31 PM PDT
TamperMonkey is the tool you need to get your favourite Greasemonkey scripts working on your Android phone. What’s more, it’s free and it makes it easy for you to search for your favourite scripts from Userscripts. Getting TamperMonkeyTamperMonkey for Android can be found in the Android market and the free install only takes up 130KB of room. The application itself consists of a GUI for controlling and searching for new scripts, which doubles as a browser for you to use with your favourite scripts.
Using TamperMonkeyThe application launches with a Google search page. Clicking on your menu button will take you to the various options for managing scripts, searching for scripts and browsing the Internet.
To install more scripts, the easiest way is to head to “Context” from the menu and click on “Get new scripts” and it will take you to the Userscripts webpage.
Browse away and click on install when you’ve found the script you want. TamperMonkey will verify that you really want to install the script and then you’re ready to roll.
Limitations & ThoughtsTamperMonkey is the first application to bring Greasemonkey capabilities to Android, which is a move many people are extremely happy about and will hopefully be copied and improved on by many other players in the near future. It’s still in beta, so it’s not entirely polished and perfect just yet. Not every script will function as hoped, which is to be expected in a beta application release. The biggest limitation of TamperMonkey is that the Greasemonkey scripts will only work while you’re browsing in the TamperMonkey application. While that’s great if all you want is scripts running, most people have already put some thought into their favourite Android browser and have chosen something with far superior browsing features than TamperMonkey’s simple interface. Ideally, TamperMonkey should run in the background and aim to provide Greasemonkey script usage for users in whichever browser they happen to prefer. It’s a tough problem, but I’m sure someone will work out how to do it.
In the meantime, TamperMonkey has opened the doors to scripts in Android which is a promising step in the right direction and should be applauded. Now we’ll be watching eagerly to see how this develops. More Greasemonkey TipsYou love Greasemonkey, right? Well, so do we:
Which Greasemonkey scripts do you think are best for mobile use? Do your favourite scripts work in Tampermonkey? Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! TamperMonkey Finally Brings Greasemonkey To Android [2.1+] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: google android, greasemonkey, Mobile Apps, mobile browsing, scripts, smartphonesSimilar articles:
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| 5 Tools To Compare Typefaces & Choose The Right Font For Your Work Posted: 08 Jul 2011 11:31 AM PDT
I am using the term 'font' here because it is the more used term, though the accurate one is – typeface, when we talk about its appearance. As Type Designer Norbert Florendo put it – font is what you use, and typeface is what you see. Semantics aside, when we attempt to select a font, we do quite a lot of comparing between the different fonts available to us. Here are seven tools which might help you to pick the right font for your work. Typetester
The online font application is primarily designed for web designers who spend an awful lot of time getting the right screen font. The tool not only lets you select fonts from different lists (web safe list; Windows list; Mac list; Google list) but also gives you a few dropdowns to play with and modify the font properties. You can enter your own sample text and also play around with the color. You can also pick a variety of other fonts that may not be there on these lists. You can experiment on the sample text by comparing three different fonts at one time or picking one font and customizing the properties in the three columns. The slick application gives you a useful view side-by-side. (See Directory mention) FontComparer
Font Tester
Font Tester is not as visually pleasing as the first web app on our list, but there's no denying its usefulness as it comes with a few more options that allow you to preview and pick the right font. You can use the font comparison and check out three styles side-by-side. You can use the default text or again enter your own. Next, play around with the CSS properties (all font related ones are included) to get just the right look you want for your web design. A color picker allows you to further fine-tune the appearance. There's also a character map which you can use to quickly find the matching HTML Entity for a particular character. Designer Plaything
Experiment with different typefaces and color combination on this online tool. Tweak the text that relates to body copy and headlines, and play with the background and body text colors. The plus is that you will be given an instant feedback as to whether your chosen combination meets with World wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations. You can set the width of the sample article along with the length of the article and the paragraphs. Designing for different environments is also helped by the instant color contrast and brightness accessibility recommendations from both W3C and Hewlett Packard. Font Dragr
This font comparison tool is an experimental but interesting application of HTML5. Therefore it will only work in browsers that support the new standard. Right now it's Firefox 3.6 and above. You can simply drag and drop any truetype (ttf), opentype (otf), scalable vector graphics (svg) or Web Open Font Format (WOFF) fonts from the desktop to the left hand side bar and it changes the font-family of the text. The default text can be edited to include your own. You can select the fonts on the left panel and observe the changes. So far we have looked at five online web apps that let us preview and select the right font. If you are looking for a desktop freeware instead, take a chance with FontViewOK (ver.2.15). It's a Windows only app and as our brief review will tell you, it's simpler than the web apps we have covered above. Are you a web designer who needs a font comparison tool in his web design toolkit? Which are the other font related apps you would like to recommend? Image Credit: Shutterstock Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! 5 Tools To Compare Typefaces & Choose The Right Font For Your Work is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: comparison, fonts, web design, web development, webmaster toolsSimilar articles:
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| How To Make Your Own Events Listing Using Custom Post Types [WordPress] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 10:31 AM PDT
Let's take a look today at what you could do with them, as well as a quick practical example of how to create an events listing using a Custom Post Type called Event. What Are Custom Post Types?Typically, a WordPress blog consists of three types of content – blog posts, blogroll links, and static pages. Most of us are familiar with the fact that pages should be used for things like about me or contact information, whilst regular posts go to your blog. But beyond that, what if you want to add another special kind of content that doesn't really fit into the chronological order of the blog and certainly isn't static – like events? That's where custom post types come in. A fairly common request for club or group sites is to have some kind of events calendar. One solution that could be applied is to create a separate Events category, and just post everything in there. The problem with this is they'll be displayed in the main blog timeline, and we really ought to separate the two concepts entirely. For that purpose, let's create a new post type called event, which will have it's own separate section of the admin interface. Create A Custom Post Type In WordPressWe'll do this by adjusting your theme files directly. You could achieve the same effect through a plugin, but to demonstrate the concept and practice it's just easier to write them directly. Open up your theme's functions.php file, stored in the theme folder inside wp-content/themes. At the end of the file, add this code: add_action('init', 'events_init'); function events_init() { $args = array( 'labels' => array( 'name' => __('Events'), 'singular_name' => __('Event'), ), 'public' => true, 'rewrite' => array("slug" => "events"), 'supports' => array('thumbnail','editor','title','custom-fields') ); register_post_type( 'events' , $args ); } Be sure to do this before the closing php tag. Take a while to read over the code, but essentially it’s just declaring some properties (like labels for the interface), how the URLs (rewrites) should be handled, and what particular features this post-type supports (in this case thumbnails, a content editor for the event description, an event title, and custom fields). That's it, now if you save your theme and reload your blog, assuming you don't have any errors you should now see a new events section on your admin sidebar.
Add some example events now, and create a custom field called 'date' to indicate when the event is.
Note that we need to use custom fields to specify the actual date of the event rather than the date of the post, because the date of the post is when it will be published. Since you'd presumably be adding events that will occur in the future, setting the publishing date to the actual event date would be useless. If you try to view the event at this point, you may get a 404 error. This is because WordPress needs to regenerate your Permalink structure to account for this new post type. Head over to the Permalinks settings page, make sure it's set correctly as sometimes it can go back to defaults, and save. You should now be able to view the individual event post. Create A Special ‘Events Listing’ Page, Ordered By DateNow that you have all these fantastic events in your blog, it would be nice to actually list them somewhere. For that, we will create a special page template, so you can then add that page to your regular menu items alongside About or Contact. First, make a copy of your page.php or index.php if you don't have one. Rename it custom-events-template.php or something similar. Open it up and add this to the very start of the file. This tells WordPress it's a special page template, and will let you select it in the templates drop down. <?php /** * Template Name: Events Page */ ?> Next, find the line that's similar to this: <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> and just before it, add this: <?php query_posts( 'post_type=events'); ?> You should be able to see pretty simply what we're doing here if you followed the last tutorial on making your own widgets – we've created a new query, and simply restricted it to be our new event post type. To use this special page template, just create a new Page, name it whatever you like, and choose the template from the page attributes box. You needn't add any content to this page, just publish and view it. With any luck, it will display your Events. Let's make one more adjustment to the query – to show events in order of the actual event date, rather than the date the event was published. To do this, replace the query with this: <?php query_posts( 'post_type=events&meta_key=date&orderby=meta_value&order=ASC'); ?> Also, it would be helpful to display the date for the event in the actual post. Add this just after the_content(); function in the template: <?php $date = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'date', true); if ($date){ echo 'This event will be held on: '.$date; } ?> That little snippet will attempt to grab the event date from the meta, and display it if it exists. Here's how the final product looks on my new events page, sorted by date and displaying the date of the event on the listing:
Extra HomeworkWhen we created the event post type, we added support for featured thumbnails. Use the tutorial I wrote last time to grab and display this image on the events listing. ConclusionI hope this shows you just how easy it is to extend WordPress functionality beyond the basic Posts and Pages. Can you think of any other post types that you might want to use? How about ‘asides’ for your sidebar when you have something to say but it doesn’t warrant a full post? Anyway, let me know in the comments if you’re having problems or you’ve tried custom post types on your blog, and make sure you check out the rest of the WordPress tutorials on MakeUseOf.com. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! How To Make Your Own Events Listing Using Custom Post Types [WordPress] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: custom post types, event listing, wordpress event calendar, wordpress pluginsSimilar articles:
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| 10 Useful Command-Line IrfanView Tools For Working With Images Posted: 08 Jul 2011 09:31 AM PDT
If you’re familiar with IrfanView, and think that it’s only a simple image editor and screenshot app, then I invite you to take another look. All of the following script commands can be run from the command prompt, so long as you are working in the directory where IrfanView is installed – which is typically “C:\Program Files(x86)\IrFanView\”. All of the following commands will work from there, or you can include that directory in your system PATH variable so that the “i_view32.exe” command will be recognized no matter where you’re working from. Running IrfanView CommandsYou can find a long list of script commands from within the IrfanView application when you click on Help and search for ”command line options“. I want to point out 10 of the most powerful and useful commands that are available. You can issue these from the command prompt (or from within a Windows Script or Batch file). Create An Instant SlideshowThe first command I want to show you is one that creates an instant slideshow from a whole bunch of pictures. These can be pictures that you have stored in a directory, or from a list of files defined in a text file. The command is as follows:
The way this works is simple. You could replace ”c:\mypictures\*.*” with “c:\mypics.txt“ if you like if you want to use a text file filled with a list of pictures with the full path for each.
Pictures show up in the center of your screen on a black background. The /closeslideshow parameter tells the app to close automatically after the last picture. The nice thing about being able to launch a slideshow with one command line is that you can display your slideshow instantly without any work. Just type the command and start scrolling! Look At All Images In A DirectoryThe next command is a fast way to take a look at all images within a directory without the need to open up every one of them.
This instantly launches IrfanView in thumbnail mode, and defaults to the directory that you’ve defined.
Resize Lots Of Images At OnceThe third command I want to cover is my favorite. One thing that I find annoying and time consuming is resizing a large collection of images. Instead, just issue this command and you’re done in seconds.
Let me break this down. The first part defines your source directory and image type. Then you define the resize parameters. The last part of the command will convert the output images to any format. In seconds, all images are done.
Send Image Collections To The PrinterThe fourth command is pretty simple. Want to send a collection of images to your default printer? Just issue the following command.
Take Instant Screenshots With A File TimestampAnother pretty cool command is one that takes an instant screenshot and saves as a file with a time stamp.
The capture=0 could be 1 (current monitor), 2 (foreground window), 3 (client area), 4 (rectangle section), or 5 (launch in capture mode).
Once the full screenshot is saved to file, you can email it or process it using other Windows Scripting or Batch commands. The potential of this command is pretty powerful. Search For Images Quickly On Your ComputerThe sixth command is a fast and easy way to search for images on your computer. Just type:
This will open IrfanView in thumbnail mode, using the file pattern that you defined.
Deny User PermissionsThe next command I wanted to show you is probably the coolest. Let’s say that you’re writing a Windows Script and you want to display a picture to the user, but you don’t want to let them modify or change the file. You can accomplish this with the following command:
The “hide” value is a combination of what parts of the window you want to hide. Just choose 1 (toolbar), 2 (status bar), 4 (menu bar), or 8 (caption). To combine multiple parts of the window, just add the numbers together!
Be careful about using 15, because if you hide everything, the user will have no way of ever closing the window at all. Output Text Files To A TIF FileSome other wonderfully useful commands include outputting text files to a TIF file:
Create A Panorama ImageCreating a panorama image from multiple images – 1 is horizontal and 2 is vertical.
Set An Image As Desktop WallpaperFinally, the command that could also make for a pretty good practical joke if you use the right photo, the command to set an image as the computer desktop wallpaper background.
Set wall equal to 0 for a centered image, 1 to tile it, 2 to stretch it and 3 to resize the image proportionally.
You can set the background image on your PC using this command much faster than the number of clicks it takes to do it otherwise. That’s the beauty of the set of command tools you get through IrfanView – you can process and manipulate images on your PC much faster and more efficiently than would ever be possible using the old point and click approach. Give a few of these commands a try on your own PC and see if it helps you save a little time and become more productive when dealing with images. Share your thoughts and your own IrfanView command line tips in the comments section below. Image credits: Kakao Por Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! 10 Useful Command-Line IrfanView Tools For Working With Images is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: command line, commands, image editors, image tools, image viewer, images, screenshot, scriptsSimilar articles:
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| Never Pay For Texting Again With Kakaotalk [Android & iOS] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 08:31 AM PDT
The only problem is the price. On most carriers, text messaging is a bit of a racket. Each message is literally no more than a few kilobytes in size, yet the price for 500 texts per month is often $15 or more. If you have a data plan however, Kakaotalk can make sure you never pay for texts again. Leveraging The Internet
Part of the reason given for the expensive pricing of text messaging is the method used to communicate them. Rather than using the mobile broadband connection available on most smartphones, text messages utilize the same cellular network used for calls. This means there's wider coverage, but there's also less bandwidth, and that's used to justify (accurately or not) the high prices. A way to side-step this is to use mobile broadband instead, and that's exactly what Kakaotalk does. In essence it operates like an instant messenger on a computer. So long as you have an Internet connection on your phone, you have free SMS texting. Identical To SMS – Almost
What makes Kakaotalk a particularly nice solution to the problem of text messaging charges is the way it works. Although you can effectively do the same thing with other apps, such as imo.im, many of those apps give the definite “feel” of being a PC-like instant messenger with a mobile interface. Kakaotalk, however, replicates the SMS interface on a typical smartphone. Conversations appear in the Chats tab of the interface, which appears very similar to the conversations tab of most Android SMS apps. The flow of the messages is the same, with user images appearing next to text bubbles, and the app triggers a notification sound and a message preview whenever you receive a new text.
In addition to texting, you can accomplish everything that would be provided by MMS. This includes pictures, video and audio clips. Indeed, the quality of multimedia sent via Kakaotalk will likely be higher, since MMS often cuts down the quality of media being transferred. It's also possible to invite multiple people to a text conversation, which I find can be handy in work situations where multiple people need to communicate, but can't make a call because the work environment is either too quiet or too noisy. Friends Lists – The Disadvantage
The only real problem with Kakaotalk is the fact that, since it is an online instant messenger, you can only communicate with others who are using this app and only so long as you have access to mobile broadband. This means that your contacts list doesn’t automatically appear. Although the app will make some attempt to locate contacts already using it, that feature seems to require more polish. This app won't be able to help you much if you're trying to text grandma for free – unless grandma is comfortable enough with her smartphone to download and install Kakaotalk, then load it up and add you as a friend. ConclusionI've found Kakaotalk to be endlessly useful. I only subscribe to the base 250 text message plan on my carrier. While the fact that both you and the person you're using need to install this app seems like a pain, it's actually not. I find that 95% of my texts are sent to only a few specific people, so once we all agreed to install Kakaotalk, we saved a lot of money by using this free SMS texting system. Kakaotalk is available for Android and iPhone. It can also be used with the iPad and iPod Touch, but you'll need to verify your account with a phone number capable of receiving SMS messages. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already! Never Pay For Texting Again With Kakaotalk [Android & iOS] is a post from: MakeUseOf More articles about: google android, iOS, iphone, iPhone Apps, mobile, save, SMS, SMS toolsSimilar articles:
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