Quickies :-)

No, not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter :-) I a few pieces of software that I have used recently and they all work really well. But as one trick ponies, I am going to put them in one post as I have not been able to post on a regular schedule lately and I don't want to forget to tell you about them. So, with out further adieu ...

Spirited Away : Since I am always juggling lots of programs at one time, I fill my launcher bar up fast. Well, Spirited Away helps this. The program checks my minimized programs for use and if I haven't used them in a while it hides them making more room.... sweet :-)

Menu Shade : Menu Shade is pretty cool to get a clean desktop. It takes the bar at the top of the Mac screen and changes the color and sets a transparency level as well. The bar becomes full visible when you hover the pointer over it. This is good for taking screen shots or just for admiring your wallpaper in a more pristine environment :-)

Desktopple : Desktopple is a screenshoters best friend. This one trick pony hides everything on your desktop to take clean shots. This is great when you need takes shots for a work presentation but don't want them to see your Star Wars icons or funky wallpaper. This program will also hide everything before you hook up to a projector and show your prospects too much :-)

Dead.licious : If your like me you have a lot of bookmarks. In fact last time I checked I have over 1000 up at del.icio.us. Do I have the time to check them all for dead links? Heck no! Well, Dead.licious takes care of that for me now. Oh, and surprisingly on my last check, 1300 and all still good. Wow! lol

Tadpole... iPod protection for toddlers

Recently I came across the Tadpole by Ifrogz. This is very cool as I have always been afraid to give my son my iPod to use, but am torn since I am not a real fan of toddler type music :-) I was going to get my son one of the Fisher Price tape players but then realized.... we don't own tapes, lol, plus I really dread audio tape being strung all over the apartment. Alas, anything I give him needs to be digital.

The Tadpole has large handles making it easy for kids to hold, tons of silicone for the inevitable drops and a hard screen cover to protect the screen from markers and gouges from other toys in the area.



This comes out in November and I will be getting one very shortly after that to let the little one test :-) I'll let you know how it goes and if I need to replace my iPod or not. Cross your fingers!

Amnesty Generator

Since I was going into widget stuff last week I have decided to do one more.... the last for a while ;-) Soooo you can't find a Dashboard widget that you like. It happens. you pop over to you Google personalised home page and see that cool too and say to yourself, "gee I wish I could always have this available without a browser." Tadaaaa a problem that needs an answer. In walks Amnesty Generator and says, "heck I can do that.", and it does.

Amnesty takes any Google widget and makes it a Dashboard widget very quickly. I made 5 widgets and put them on my dashboard in less than 5 min. Pretty cool.

Here is a screenshot of the creation screen that I used to make one of my new widgets.



This program is very easy to use and works very well. It comes highly recommended for when you want a little cross-platform widget action :-)

George Foreman USB iGrill- SSSwwwweeeeeettttt!!!!!

My newest find on ThinkGeek.  I love their stuff! 

 

Main Description

Price: $99.99 Availability: [ info ] In Stock Quantity: Buy this and earn 475 Geek Points! [ what's this? ] Be the first to send us an action shot of this item! Zoom Cooking For The Web Set The low-fat, high-bandwidth solution to your networked cooking needs is finally here. The George Foreman USB iGrill conveniently connects to your home or office PC using USB 2.0 technology, and provides a sophisticated web-based cooking interface. Download recipes, enter in the type of food, weight and desired degree of doneness, and the iGrill handles the rest. Did you know that a medium rare 1/4 lb. hamburger made from 80% lean beef takes 1 minute and 45 seconds less cook time than an identical patty made from 95% lean prime Black Angus? The iGrill does. As your meal cooks, the subtle glow from under the unit increases brightness and pulses faster until your meal is perfectly done. Running late at work? Need to get dinner on the table? It is easy to warm up the iGrill from any internet connection. With a little advance planning, your meal can be ready when you get home! Using the USB current to directly charge high voltage capacitors, the iGrill does not require any additional power supply, making it perfect for dorm or office cooking.

InsomniaX - The Missing Mac App

Did you know you can close the lid of your Mac laptop without it going to sleep? This is cool, well OK not so much cool and very 1999 (on Windows). This was one of the things I missed when I stopped using my old NEC laptop and started using my iBook. If it does exist in OS X, I have never figured out how to do it. This is a great tool, go get it! LINK




From the site.....

Version: 0.3

Description:
It always has been a missing feature: disabling the sleep mode on a Apple Laptop. Who does not want to use it as a big juke-box or go warwalking. The best looking server ever, especially at about one inch height. This small utility is what you will want, this small utility acts as a wrapper to the Insomnia kernel extension.

Perian for Quicktime

Perian is a great set of plug-ins. This was a gem of a find. I use Democracy Player to watch a lot of TV and vlogs. I really disliked the fact that on 3 or 4 out of 10 shows I would have to jump out of DP and launch VLC to watch the video. Well, after installing this last week, that number has dropped down to 2 out of 10. Not perfect, but better :-) Apparently DP likes it too since they are going to bundle it in there next version.



perian logo">

Perian is a free plugin that enables QuickTime to play almost every popular video format.

Download Perian 0.5

Note: Perian requires 10.4.7. If you have problems mounting the download, make sure that it is a .dmg and not a .dmg.bz.

With Perian installed, any OS X application that uses QuickTime can now use these additional media types:

• Divx, XviD, FLV, AVI
• MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, DivX 3.11 alpha, 3ivX, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video, Truemotion VP6
• These formats when they are inside an AVI:
  h.264, mpeg4, AAC, AC3 Audio, and VBR MP3.