Month: September 2007

Techcrunch has an exclusive preview of the new version of the famous social bookmarking service, Del.icio.us. I quite like the crisper look of the new interface, which will now be divided into four categories: Home, Bookmarks, People and Tags. With the new code rewrite a great deal of new features are being added like bulk editing, contextual search, and new sorting options. If you’re already a Del.icio.us user, go ahead and sign up to the limited preview.

I’ve been using Del.icio.us for two years now, and although I don’t visit it that frequently, I quite like using it to find what similar links people have bookmarked. I’ve also organized all my tags into bundles to make it easier to find links. If you have a Mac, you can also use a few different apps to extend your Del.icio.us experience. The Cloud.lic.io.us Dashboard widget displays all your tags in a cloud with more popular tags shown in bigger fonts. Pukka is another Mac app I quite like. It lets you post links to Del.icio.us, add tags and a little description. Cocoalicious brings your Del.icio.us bookmarks right onto your desktop. A similar application is Socialist, a mix between an RSS reader and a Del.icio.us client for your desktop. You can also use Delibar, which I think works slightly better, as it shows all your bookmarks from the system bar. Last but not least, dead.licious is perfect to clean up your Del.icio.us bookmarks of any dead links.

If it wasn’t for Pavorotti singing the catchy 1990 World Cup theme, Nessun Dorma, I don’t think I would have ever become interested in classical music. So, after hearing the sad news about the great tenor’s passing, my enthusiasm for the genre has been revived. As a tribute to the big fella I thought I’d compose him a little ditty, and noticed that there’s plenty of software around that can help you compose classical ensembles.

Unfortunately I can’t sing for toffee and my goldfish has more of an ear for music than me. No matter though, because with Sight Singer you can train your voice to become as good as the bearded crooner himself. The program has voice pitch recognition capability and gives you the opportunity to look at a piece of music written down and hear it in your mind. Clever stuff. Once you’ve got this licked, then try Note Attack – a fun game that sees you blasting notes to help you learn to read sheet music.

After learning how to read music, you’re ready to start working on your ode to Pav. I found that Finale is a particularly useful application for creating musical scores. It includes revolutionary features for teaching students how to create, evaluate and shape ideas into songs, arrangements and compositions. Melody Assistant is a slightly more simple composing solution, which boasts its own embedded synthesizer featuring hundreds of different instruments.

Once your composition is complete you might want to have a crack at playing the thing. There are lots of tools you can install to help you learn various instruments, including Piano Hero, Guitar Pro, and the remarkable Bendometer Playing System, which teaches you how to master the harmonica. Now simply gather your instruments together, run Fast&Soft Metronome to keep you in time and give it up for the greatest tenor in history…

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I personally hate how my PC gets clogged up by an ever growing amount of startup items. Now the best solution is often to go straight into the options menu of these programs and uncheck the “launch on startup” feature. You can also use any good cleaning application to see a full list of all startup items and remove the ones you don’t need. It’s fairly important to do this as having too many startup items on your PC will slow it down considerably every time you launch it.

I found two good apps that focus on the task of identifying startup items: Arrange Startup and Quick StartUp. The first lists up all items and lets you add, update or delete them thanks to a list of buttons on the left of the interface. I slightly prefer Quick StartUp as it offers a nicer interface and lets you uncheck startup items you don’t want. You can also refresh the list of startup items and temporary disable the ones you don’t want to see for the moment.

I often get really annoyed when people ring me. Not just because I hate talking to people, but also because I get really fed up with hearing the same ringtone all the time. ClipTone provides a great way to make receiving calls interesting, by allowing you to use videos instead of tones to signify an incoming call. You can either choose from one of the three preset videos (not advisable, as they’re rubbish) or add your own.

How many times have you gone to a concert only to find yourself waving open-handed when the man on stage starts slowing the night down? Well now even non-smokers have no excuses, especially not as this smoking ban seems to be dangerously close to wiping out bad health across Europe. Because with Rock Lighter, mobile users can now download an authentic looking cigarette lighter flame which flickers exactly like a candle in the wind.

Even if you don’t go in for the arm in the air group sentimentality it’s worth opening just to look at on your PC. I’ve been staring at mine for the past half an hour, mainly because I can’t seem to blow it out.

ChatFX is an unusual plugin that adds a bit of spark to your iChat, making it feel like the new version of the conferencing program for Leopard. Add any sort of background to your chats, from underwater scenes to landscapes, city centers or the cool blue screen effect. If you have Quartz Composer you can even create your own effects.

If you share your PC then sometimes it’s nice to know that you’ve got some control over what happens on it when you’re not there. Maybe you want to stop your kids accessing certain sites, or maybe you’ve got some confidential information on there that you don’t want prying eyes looking at. Whatever the reason, there are tons of mini-applications out there to give you a bit more peace of mind.

• Folder Lock – Protect folders and files from unauthorised access

• Folder Guard XP Edition – Make your folder invisible until you enter a password

• Anti-Porn – Prevent your kids and minors from viewing explicit pornography

• Clean Slate – A network administrators dream – roll-back any activity performed on a PC

• Winguard Pro Free – Restrict access to installed programs on your PC

• PC Locker Pro – Block access to your PC whilst you’re away from your machine

• USB Lock Auto Protect – Prevent another user from storing data on an external device

• Disk Drive Security – Hide internal and external drives connected to your PC

• iNet Protector – Restrict both internet and program access for children or employees

• BananaScreen – The ultimate security procedure? Unlock your PC with your face!

ConceptDraw MindMap enables you to design charts, diagrams and maps for any kind of project, from organizing your work prior to sitting an exam to creating the organizational chart for your company. It includes a handful of ready-to-use templates and can export your map to a variety of formats. Just in case, there’s also a thorough tutorial that explains everything you need to know about the program.