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Makerbase knows who built your favorite website
Makerbase, a new site from Lifehacker founder Gina Trapani and former blogger Anil Dash that's being billed as the IMDb of web design, has just launched. Just as IMDb maintains archives of the people that help produce television shows and movies, Makerbase focuses on those that create the sites and tools that make the web what it is. You won't find listings of corporate stuffed shirts and legions of VPs here. Instead you can get information on the likes of Tracy Chou of Pinterest or Buster Benson from Locavore.
The Daily Grind: What real-world lessons have you learned from MMOs?
Back in January, a Lifehacker op-ed chronicled six things the writer had learned from playing World of Warcraft -- useful, real-world things, not just how to spec out a frost Mage. For example, he learned that things you like can feel like a grind, and he learned how to quit something wonderful with grace. I've learned even more practical things than that from my years in MMOs. I've learned leadership skills, honed math and spreadsheet skills, and worked on mastering the art of patience -- OK, so I'm still working on that one. I've also watched ESL guildies perfect their language and writing skills and seen still others parlay this hobby of ours into careers in gaming and coding and journalism. What about you? What real-world lessons or skills have you learned thanks to MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Yes, there are real life lessons to be found in World of Warcraft
If you read Lifehacker, you probably read it for information on getting stuff done in the real world -- which is why it's surprising to see an article about World of Warcraft headlining. But the article makes a good point: there are real life lessons you can learn in virtual life. We've written before about how WoW can be a teaching tool in schools (on more than one occasion), but it can help teach you, too. No, you won't learn calculus by slaying virtual dragons and playing WoW instead of washing the dishes won't get your chores done, but paying attention to the game can teach you some useful life lessons. So just what lessons can you learn? We won't recount the whole post, but definitely appreciate this point: even things you like can be a grind. We may enjoy WoW, but dailies are only fun for so long before they become tedious -- and the same can hold true for real life, too. The things that we love, when turned into do-every-day job-like tedium can be just as un-fun as things we don't even like. But because we like getting paychecks (or gold or valor or reputation), we persevere. For more, read the post on Lifehacker.
Lifehacker video describes OS X Mavericks secret features
It's always fun to find out what all the new hidden features that an operating system upgrade provides, and OS X Mavericks is chock-full of goodies. The folks over at Lifehacker put together a quick video that shows off a number of features that you may not have known about. If you've come up with any interesting shortcuts or features that aren't widely known, let us know in the comments.
Nifty tip for retaining the detachable plug on an Apple Power Supply
Have you ever lost a "duck head"? That's the term for the detachable plug that comes with Apple power supplies. You can remove the duck head and install a full extension cord, but it's quite irritating to lose the plug if you occasionally want to use just the power supply and its thin cable. Thorin Klosowski at Lifehacker points to a clever idea to attach the duck head to the side of the power brick to avoid losing it. The idea is relatively simple -- all you need is some Sugru, which is a self-setting rubber material that can be shaped by hand, and a round head paper fastener (below). In fact, the tip originated on the Sugru website. The head of the paper fastener is wide enough sit inside of the groove that connects the duck head to the power brick, and the legs of the paper fastener are bent to either side to form a base that is attached to the brick with the Sugru. Several Lifehacker commenters took issue with the tip, one saying that "as soon as the brick gets hot, its (sic) going to come right off." As commenters are the bane of bloggers everywhere, I looked into this and found that Sugru works fine up to 180°C (350°F). If an Apple power brick ever gets that hot, there's something very wrong with it. Do you have any tips for keeping your duck head close to the rest of your Apple power supply? Let us know in the comments (and keep it nice, OK?).
Omnimo: desktop Windows given fashion makeover with Phone 7 Series flair
Can't wait for Windows Phone 7 Series, but can't hack the emulator, either? Don't lose hope, Windows junkies -- you can still bring some semblance of WP7S order into your life with this Metro UI-inspired desktop HUD. Based on the open-source desktop customization platform Rainmeter, the "Omnimo UI" will overlay your desktop with a minimalist, tiled interface not unlike the one you've been drooling over for weeks, with live hooks into many useful services (including Gmail, iTunes, Steam, Twitter and SpeedFan) as well as the usual widgets and a host of program shortcuts. The best news of all? It's available now for all versions of Windows since XP, completely free of charge; simply follow the source links or flit over to Lifehacker, where good folks will teach you how it's done.
Most popular free Mac apps of 2009
Lifehacker has put together their list of the 15 Most Popular Free Mac Apps of 2009. Keep in mind, these are Mac OS X apps, not iPhone apps. The list is based on the popularity of apps they've covered in 2009 and don't represent total download numbers. Here are some of their choices (in no specific order): Magnifique Picasa for Mac Pollux doubleTwist Thunderbird Google Chrome PwnageTool/QuickPwn Namebench Quicksilver Glims While I don't agree with all their choices, it is a rather interesting list. But what about you guys? Tell us your favorite Mac apps of 2009 in the comments!
SnowChecker will help you make the jump to Snow Leopard
Most of us here at TUAW jumped aboard the Snow Leopard bandwagon immediately after receiving our upgrade disks -- and I mean immediately. We didn't bother to check out what apps would or wouldn't run, and could have cared less about compatibility with scanners and printers or anything else important like that. No, we just dived into the lake before determining whether or not it was shallow, full of piranhas, or contained hydrochloric acid. That's just us, though -- we like to be able to tell TUAW readers what to expect, good and bad, when a new OS version is delivered. Our friends at Download Squad, however, must still be a little queasy about making the leap, since they posted a quick app review today for SnowChecker. SnowChecker is a free Mac application that does one thing -- it tells you whether or not your applications will run under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. SnowChecker performs a scan of your hard disk for apps, then compares the list of found apps against compatibility info stored at snowleopard.wikidot.com. It displays the the results, noting which apps are OK, which might have slight compatibility issues, and which will be totally hosed under Snow Leopard. SnowChecker uses a simple green, yellow, red color scheme to pass along the information to you, and often provides quick notes telling you about workarounds or updates that will help get all of your apps working smoothly. If you're a bit on the shy side when it comes to doing upgrades, SnowChecker can make you feel a lot better about making the jump to Snow Leopard.
Halo HUD all up in your desktop
(click to Scarab-size) Ever dreamed of seeing the computer world through the eyes of a Spartan? What's that? You woke up just this morning after dreaming of that exact thing? Cast your worry aside then, friends, as Lifehacker reader rykennedyan has created exactly what you've been waiting for in the Halo desktop HUD. Based in the Rainmeter customizable resource application for Windows -- albeit with an expected, fancier skinning -- 'rykennedyan' has personalized each detail of the HUD to access various Windows apps. Looking for Steam? Click each grenade type for various programs. Wondering what orchestral choir music with a rocking guitar solo is playing at the moment? Peer just over the health bar for all the pertinent details. How about a totally rad, interactive desktop featuring a Halo theme? Oh, right, well, we see you've already got one of those.
Anti Keylogger Shield may offer some protection for your account
Hackers are getting more and more brazen lately, hiding various trojans and keyloggers not only in random forum links, but in ad banners and even in electronic devices. Even common sense avoidance of suspicious links and websites doesn't always seem to work anymore. Luckily, there are other tools you can use, such as the Noscript extension for the Firefox browser. Lifehacker reported on a new one yesterday as well: Anti Keylogger Shield for Windows. This freeware program purports to work not by blocking installation of keyloggers, but by preventing them from logging your keys once installed. Lifehacker tested it by loading a keylogger and reported that it seemed to work, at least in that case, as the keylogger's log file was completely empty. Of course, you probably shouldn't just install this program and go off clicking strange links willy nilly, but it does look like it could be one more line of defense in the ever escalating battle to protect your computer and your account from those who would steal it. Plus, it's free, so that's even better. [Thanks for the forward, DrDiesel!]
Widget Watch: Woot!
This Lifehacker comment thread made me go researching on what I might use for Webclips, but save for the front page of my favorite blog (TUAW, duh), I couldn't think of anything I'd really want to keep on my Dashboard 24/7. I did like the idea of putting Woot.com (and Shirt.woot, which I've been looking at a lot lately) on there, but as a few of the commenters say, webclipping (can I verb that?) the entire page makes things a little too big.Fortunately, David Elliot piped up about the Woot.com widget, which easily and quickly lets you monitor the Woot sites from your dashboard, with a minimum of space taken up. And now I've got two instances of it running on my Dashboard, one for regular Woot and one for the Shirt version. I especially like that it includes Growl notification, too -- if I happen to be working around midnight and a really good deal pops up, I won't miss it.Of course, you may not want to have something popping up on your Dashboard all the time tempting you to spend money. But if you're already following the Woot empire (and to tell the truth, I almost never buy anything-- I just like looking), the widget is an easy and simple way to stay up to date.
Quickly relaunch an app with Quicksilver
That's it, Quicksilver is officially The Handiest Utility Ever. This great tip from Lifehacker explains how you can use Quicksilver to quickly relaunch an application that has - *ahem*- unexpectedly frozen. Simply call up Quicksilver, find the target application, tab over to the action pane, type "relaunch," hit return and blammo! The errant app gets a kick in the seat. Thanks, Quicksilver!
Organize your PDFs with iTunes
There's a great tip on Lifehacker today about using iTunes as an organizational tool. We've all got lots of PDFs sitting around; some important, some not. Instead of burying them in a series of nested folders within your Documents folder, use iTunes.Make playlists for your different categories (like "Taxes" or "Parenting Committee"), add your files and you're done! Drop the lot into a "PDFs" folder and you've got organized, search-able files in an application you've probably got running anyway.If you want to take this a step further, follow the full tutorial at Lifehacker and create a PDF-only iTunes library.
Manage your iPod sans iTunes with Floola
Adam Pash over at lifehacker has a great post up on managing your iPod without iTunes. The post focuses on cross-platform tools for adding music and video to your iPod from practically any computer, the most interesting of which is Floola. Floola has a bunch of features, allowing you to copy music (in both directions), manage playlists, podcasts, etc. Best of all, Floola can be installed on your iPod (you must enable disk usage to run Floola), so you can run it on any computer you happen to have access to (including, if you are rather unfortunate, a Windows PC) directly from the iPod. In addition to Floola, Adam also mentions running myPodder, again directly from your iPod, to manage your podcast subscriptions, as well as some Windows specific tools. I'm not quite ready to give up iTunes just yet, but if you carry an iPod back and forth between two computers, as I do, Adam definitely has some good suggestions.Floola is a free download, but donations are requested. myPodder is also a free download, but you must register with podcastready in order to use it.
Found Footage: Laser etching a PowerBook
Gina over at Lifehacker got her PowerBook etched with a Celtic knot, and she had the wherewithal to capture the process with her cameraphone. The video isn't that great, but head on over to Lifehacker to check out some photos of the finished product.
Vista very OS X like
Our good friends at Lifehacker installed the latest beta of Windows Vista and experienced deja vu. Where had they seen these UI elements before? A focus on search? Gadgets?Oh, right, OS X. Check out the full post for a side by side look at some OS X like features of Vista.Personally, I hope that Microsoft comes up with some really sweet new features in Vista to give Apple a run for their money (competition is good for the consumer).
IP over FireWire tutorial
We all know that FireWire is fast (like super fast) but did you know that it can also handle networking (and that is fast too)? Well, it can!I know what you're thinking: if only there was some sort of tutorial that would show me how to setup a IP over FireWire connection from a PC to a Mac! Those wacky folks at LifeHacker has cooked one up and it is pretty rad (people still say that, right?).
