Categories
Entertainment Found

Daft Punk, Alive

Daft Punk is promoting their upcoming album, Alive, with this embeddable widget. I like Daft Punk, and embrace their use of of the web… here’s their widget: http://bms.daftalive.com

After thoroughly checking out the widget, I’m not impressed, and I’ve removed the embed. I’m not happy that there are so few samples of the tracks, and it’s pretty much just a fancy advertisement. Especially after Radiohead’s latest promotion tactics (letting you choose your price for their latest album), I would expect something more innovative than this from Daft Punk.

I’ll leave the link, because I still think it’s interesting.

Categories
Found

Distorted Reality

Yep, this is really a 3D object, but this is a 360 degree view. It’s from one of my favorite Flickr contacts practicing an awesome technique. Check out Seb Przd.

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Categories
Hacks Mac

Applescript: Number Selected Tracks Sequentially

I think you can tell from the title what this simple applescript does. I’m sure this code could be made much shorter, but I’m really a novice, and this works pretty well, albeit there are no foolproofs.  

Here’s what it does: You select some songs that are already in order (how? see below), say 12 songs that you already arranged. You then run the script… it numbers them 1 of 12, 2 of 12, 3 of 12… and so on up to 12 of 12. You now have a nicely organized album.Album not in order?

Instructions: Select all the album tracks. Make a new playlist from selection (cmd+shift+N). Click the title bar above the first column, in other words: sort by number in playlist. Then, you can rearrange the songs as you like. Now select all the songs, and finally run the script.Ahh, finally some home-brewed automation for sorting out this messy iTunes library. 

--Number Selected Tracks Sequentially
--A simple applescript from Rex Pechler
--http://rex.fm
--
--2007

tell application "iTunes"
if selection is not {} then
set sel to selection
set these_files to {}
set numtracks to the count of sel
set trackcount to 0
with timeout of 30000 seconds
repeat with this_track in sel
if class of this_track is file track then
set trackcount to trackcount + 1
set the track number of this_track to trackcount
set the track count of this_track to numtracks
end if
end repeat
end timeout
else
set count to 0
end if
end tell

Download: the applescript as text or as a binary app.

Categories
Hacks

Google Calculator still amazes me

At my school, we have a daily upload limit of 2 GB to prevent excessive filesharing. I’ve found various ways around this for using BitTorrent, but I’ve gotten in trouble a couple times as well. Anyway, one of the easiest ways to prevent going over the limit is to set a maximum upload speed in your BitTorrent client that would be equivalent to 2 GB over 24 hours. Normally calculating this is a little tricky for me: I always get confused by the KB versus Kb thing, and such differences really make me doubt my calculations. Anyway, I just typed “2 GB / 24 Hours” into a Google search. Here’s what I got:

That was so much easier! I love you Google Search!

Categories
Found Mac

The Best SpellChecker I’ve Ever Seen (and it’s free!)

If you use a spell checker, even occasionally, check this out. Uses Google (Web API) to correct mistakes, and works amazingly well. (It’s Mac only so far)
Watch the short video demonstration!

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Categories
Ideas Personal

The Best Computer Monitors for Your Parents

My mother wears reading glasses, and prints out her email to read it; she says it’s “easier on her eyes.”

I’m wondering if a bigger monitor, at a lower DPI resolution, could be a solution to aging eyes and computer use.

Would it be possible for my mom to really browse the web?

[She’s asleep right now, I’m emailing her.
In the meantime, have you tried this?
Can you browse the web normally, and without glasses?
…What are the best display resolutions for older people?
What is the optimal screen size for poor eyes?]

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