I mentioned artrage some time ago. They’ve just updated, adding a host of features and a paid version of the software. A slightly updated free version includes some of the new features and a very reasonably priced ‘Full’ version comes with tons of new stuff for only $19.99. MacOSX and Win32, and well worth a look if you’re interested in natural media painting apps.
Magwerk – using flash for magazine publishing
Check out Magwerk, a flash-based platform for delivery of magazine-style content. I’m not a big fan of flash for this kind of stuff but I have to admit there are some interesting things this enables – check out the advertisements in the Probe gaming magazine for example, where there is footage and sound of the games being advertised. They also include a playable asteroids game right in the ‘pages’ of the magazine, another excellent example of the kinds of interactive content this provides. While I don’t really see the idea taking off it’s still pretty cool to play around with.
The best windows file launcher
Ok. This time for real, it’s the best possible windows file launcher, a pretty much straight up port of the most useful feature of Quicksilver on the mac (namely the file launching). It’s called Colibri and it works pretty much exactly like quicksilver in terms of file launching capabilities. Free, a tiny download, a relatively small memory footprint (~18k on my machine), and it’s super speedy. The only downside is the lack of documentation, but operation couldn’t be simpler – hit your control key sequence (ctrl-space is default), begin typing the name of whatever it is you need to be using, then hit enter for the default behavior for that object type (for programs, this will launch the program) or hit tab to select from a list of actions for that object type. Right now this is where it’s lacking, in operations (mostly if not exclusively all it does is launch things) but hopefully it will come along in this department. Meanwhile you can stop putting icons of every single program installed on your computer on your desktop.
Interesting visualization model for forum threads
This approach wouldn’t really scale well for a busy forum with deep and broad threads, at least not without some additional javascript to allow expanding and collapsing the threads, but check out fugi. Responses to the original topic are shown horizontally and followups to responses to the original topic are shown vertically below them. Sounds confusing I know, but check it out, it makes sense when you see it. I’d really love to see this enhanced with some ajax/javascript to allow for expanding and collapsing threads.
Sundays without football are made for hiking
First Sunday of the season without football to watch, so Soolin and I went for a hike for the first time in months – since our fall hike in the southern tongue mountain range to be precise. A variety of things – football, illness, deer hunting season, the holiday season, and the weather, have all conspired to keep us out of the woods. It was great to get out again. The weather was fortuitous – it threatened rain and even sprinkled on us a couple of times, but as I was driving out of the park at the end of the hike it really started to come down. We just missed a drenching. Since I couldn’t get my rear out of bed this morning we only did a short hike, roughly 3-4 miles. They recently opened up a trail system abutting Lake Moreau State park northeast of Saratoga Springs which meanders along the range separating the park from the Hudson river. We went up to the first overlook and then headed back. It’s a pretty easy hike but a bit of a cardio buster as most of it is pretty steep. The views are not all that great from the first overlook as they look back east and south instead of towards the mountains to the north and west. I’m going to head back again the next time the weather’s warm enough and do a longer stretch. You can do an 8-9 mile look that takes you all along the ridgeline which looks to have some pretty good views over the Hudson and towards the heart of the Adirondacks. Anyway I took a few photos and posted them in the gallery, including a panoramic shot from the high point of the hike.
Surf safe and anonymously
TOR has been around for a while. If you’re not familiar with it, it provides a pretty high level of anonymity to your internet use by routing all your network traffic through the TOR network. You sacrifice speed as the tradeoff, and for daily use most folks probably won’t want to use this unless they’re highly suspicious. There are plenty of contexts where you might prefer to remain anonymous however, and here’s a great solution to that – Torpark, a small (less than 20MB) package you put on a thumb drive. Take the thumb drive with you and when you’re in a circumstance where you feel like you’d rather do your surfing anonymously, launch firefox (included with the package) from the thumb drive and all your traffic will get routed through Tor. Simple, free, safe, and effective. Unfortunately it’s also win32 only, at least for now.
Cheap and safe remote controlled plane
If you have kids or cats, or like me you’re still a child at heart, check out this inexpensive little remote controlled plane. $22 gets you a plane constructed of light weight foam, an engine, and an infrared control pad. I’m amazed at how inexpensive this is. Once you can get these in the US I’ll definitely be picking one up.
Friday fun link – GunMaster
This is flash-based so it should run anywhere. It’s a simply shoot em up that evokes the old ‘airborne’ game from the 80’s, except you’re mobile instead of being stuck in the middle of the screen. In GunMaster, you’re a marine. You have a variety of guns. Move around with the keyboard, use the mouse to aim, and blast anything else that moves. The graphics won’t win any awards but the gameplay mechanics are solid. Simple and fun. Check it out.
[via bluesnews]
Sticky paper – why didn’t I think of this
At this point pretty much everyone has encountered a paper jam in a photocopier or printer. They can happen for a variety of reasons. One of them is the buildup over time of the dust from the paper (and toner if you’re using a laser printer). If you’ve ever had to support printers you’ve gone the can of compressed air/soft brush route to get the dust out of there and clear the paper path. akihabaranews.com has a post about a pretty cool solution to this issue – sticky paper. The idea is to run this sticky paper through the printer routinely to help clear out the dust – as the paper runs through, the dust adheres to it. Clever. It doesn’t seem like a 100% solution since the dust ends up in all kinds of nooks and crannies that the paper never physically touches, but if you used this regularly I can’t see but that it would help.
Perfect birthday gift – tripod/walking stick combo
I’ve been looking for something like this for quite some time – the Trek-Tech, a combination walking stick/tripod that makes it super easy to attach and remove the camera. At $139 this sits very high up on my personal wishlist. It would make shooting the panoramic photos I’m so fond of so much easier and much less prone to distortion.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 