15 New Articles on MakeUseOf |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 16th 2013]
- Microsoft Plans To Kill Xbox Live Points System, Introduces Real Currency [Updates]
- iPaid A Lot: The 10 Most Expensive iOS App Store Downloads
- AR Games: Is This The Future of Gaming?
- What Is HTML5, And How Does It Change The Way I Browse? [MakeUseOf Explains]
- 5 People Who Might Google You & What They Might Find
- Use This Gmail Trick To Receive POP Emails On IMAP-Only Devices
- Become Better At Finding Stuff With Search Engines: Boolean Search Logic Explained
- Race Against Rising Lava & Collect Diamonds: Call Of Carlos for Windows Phone
- Pinterest Adds Notifications, People Mentions & Improved Search in Mobile Apps [Updates]
- A Perfect Operating System? Getting Windows Style Features In OS X
- Best 4 Ways To Manage Your Facebook Calendar
- What Are the Best Stock Apps for Daily Use On Android?
- 5 Funny Or Die Web Series Worth Watching
- Minecraft Home Security Tips – Build A Perimeter That No One Could Break Through
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 16th 2013] Posted: 16 May 2013 09:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. The post Cool Websites and Tools [May 16th 2013] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Plans To Kill Xbox Live Points System, Introduces Real Currency [Updates] Posted: 16 May 2013 08:30 PM PDT
Instead of forcing users to convert their real-world cash to the imaginary currency, Microsoft will start using gift cards and vouchers not unlike iTune’s own gift card system. Best of all, each card will use actual currency amounts, so if you buy a card for $5.00, it will be worth $5.00 on Xbox Live. Users will also be able to directly purchase items by using their debit or credit cards. Furthermore, the new system will not be limited to just Xbox Live. Gift cards can also be used across the board at all of Microsoft’s marketplaces like the Windows Store and the Windows Phone Store.
The termination of the Microsoft Points system follows the introduction of Windows 8′s cash transactions. The full announcement of the new system is expected to happen at E3 2013, and this will come right in time for the launch of the next-gen Xbox console. Some say that this move has been a long time coming, and it’s likely to be for the better. As an added note, users won’t have to worry about extra points being left whenever they make purchases. Do you think that the introduction of a new real currency system is a good decision on Microsoft’s part? Will you find it easier to use? Source: The Verge The post Microsoft Plans To Kill Xbox Live Points System, Introduces Real Currency [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iPaid A Lot: The 10 Most Expensive iOS App Store Downloads Posted: 16 May 2013 08:00 PM PDT
Where do these people get this kind of money? Are these things really worth that much, or is that just the price they put on them because they know rich people do stupid things too? Who knows. But here at MakeUseOf we’ll keep our extravagant spending somewhat useful. Let’s take a look at the Most Expensive iOS apps available to those with caviar dreams and champagne wishes. Keep in mind, most of the really expensive iOS apps are related to the medical field, since knowledge is obviously so valuable. I’m going to avoid those apps and look at the ones that are a little more extravagant. 10. Sexy Finger Print Test HD ($99.99)
The author claims that this app has had a million downloads in just 180 days. If my math is correct, that would mean his revenue has been about… $99 million dollars. Somehow I don’t think this is an accurate claim. That and the fact that an iPad or iPhone can’t use their touch screen to scan anything tells me this guy is full of it. Or is he? Maybe it does work. Maybe I am sexier than I thought and my finger print can tell me, in HD nonetheless! Maybe… but at $99 we’ll never know. 9. Water Globe ($219.99)
I’m beginning to think that iOS app developers think everybody has way too much money and not enough brains. Ubiquitous Muffin offers you the chance to have a snowglobe on your screen that you can stir up either by shaking your phone or using your finger. Whoopitty doo! What may be even more sad is that they also offer some very basic games like Boingg Pachinko and Clownbop for the same fantastic price of $219.99. Seriously? 8. BizjetMobile ($249.99)
This makes voice calling and SMS messaging a reality without investing in super expensive phone equipment. This could be ideal for the small charter operator to offer to their jet-set clients. 7. SafeSession Voice Encryption ($299.99)
While you’re jetting around and chatting on BizjetMobile, you may want to secure your conversation so no one can get your corporate secrets. If that’s the case then SafeSession Voice Encryption is for you. However you have to make sure that your confidants also have the software installed. Personally, I think it’s worth the money just to say to my wife on the end that we’re ‘Going Secure’. Spy-factor coolness included at no extra charge. If you’re not a high-paid spy, maybe you can opt for the Android version of cellular security. 6. Barcelona vs Madrid ($349.99)
I’m just as much of a soccer fan as the next Canadian, so maybe I’m missing something when I see that I can play a soccer game, with only two team choices, for $350. From the screen shots, it looks like a nice game and I’m sure it’s fun. But I could just about buy a ticket to a Barcelona vs Madrid game for that kind of coin. Or at least to an Edmonton Oiler’s game. This one must be for people far richer and more football savvy than I am. 5. Tap Menu ($399.99)
Now this one appeals to the epicurean in me! I’ve been known to drop as much as $50 in a restaurant including free soda refills, so you know I’m a player! But seriously though, sometimes a great meal is worth the price no matter what. I think Air Vision is definitely on to something here with their iPad menu system. Imagine having a classy high-end restaurant where the specials really are special and the menu may change nightly. You walk in with your beautiful arm-candy date, the garcon shows you to your table and instead of ratty paper menus he places iPads in your hands. Wow factor guaranteed! I’d go eat at a place that had this, just for this reason. 4. Mighty Brace Pro ($499)
3. Preebs ($799.99)
The description for this app is a bit confusing, but if I have it right, Preebs is a location-aware billboard advertising small-screen extension. So you pay $800 bucks for this app and if you happen to walk by a billboard that is also participating in the Preebs program… “something” might happen. It might present you with an interactive game, a coupon or messages from other Preebers who have gone this way also. I can see the point in this kind of application, I just can see even rich people spending $800 to get advertised to, even more. I don’t think they care about coupons. If you do, maybe you want to check out Roximity - it’s free. 2. Alpha Trader ($799.99)
1. VIP Black ($999.99)
Ever heard of American Express’s Black Card? Maybe you have, but chances are you and I will never get one. Invitation only my fellow pedestrian friend. Privilege has its privileges. The Black Card is the easy way for celebrities and tycoons to drop down a card and pay for a helicopter ride, or a helicopter itself. VIP Black is playing to that crowd with its mega-rich concierge service. Concierge is a wonderful French word for someone who will do anything you ask, if you have the money. Normally, I don’t like large quotes, but I just can’t say it better than they can:
Now don’t think you can just scrape up $1000 and get the VIP App and access all this wonderful luxury. No, there will be verification that you are a High Net Worth Individual with income in excess of One Million Pounds! Is it really worth $1000? If the lottery pays out this weekend, I’ll let you know. The Take AwayLike everything else in life, you can spend as little or as much as you want on iOS apps. If you happen to have expensive tastes and a thick bankroll, then this is just the tip of the iceberg for your high-rolling ways. Maybe you want to have your iPhone bejewelled as well. What do you think of these expensive iOS apps? Would they be worth the money to you if you can afford them? What’s the most expensive app you’ve bought? Was it worth the money? Let us know in the comments below. The post iPaid A Lot: The 10 Most Expensive iOS App Store Downloads appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AR Games: Is This The Future of Gaming? Posted: 16 May 2013 07:30 PM PDT
The buzz behind AR seems to have died down somewhat but with Google’s Project Glass looming in the distance, the technology is bound to see a resurgence in popularity. How this will relate to gaming remains to be seen, but there are already a large variety of AR games to choose from regardless of your mobile OS. I’ve spent some serious time over the past week putting some of the most popular implementations through their paces on my iPhone in the hope to find out if AR really is the future or not. Probably NotAR is exciting the first time you use it. The novelty factor takes a short while to wear off, even when you factor in the technology at work here. Take apps like Star Chart or Layar which take a live camera image and GPS information which the device then arranges using data from on-board sensors. It’s very impressive tech, but the concept is simple enough for almost anyone to understand. How this translates to usefulness within standard apps varies. Finding a tube station in London is a heck of a lot easier thanks to Nearest Tube, but the aforementioned Layar never made much of an impression on me, particularly after it was updated to push interactive advertising. I don’t doubt that it’s an impressive feat of technology to have a magazine come to life on a small screen, it just doesn’t strike me as useful. How can reality really be augmented if those augmentations don’t improve upon what is already there in usable ways?
And just how useful are these apps? Why is waving my phone around trying to find something on-screen more useful to me than seeing everything in the nearby area with a simple pinch in my favourite Maps app? And then there’s gaming, and gamers themselves. Gamers always seem to be heavily targeted when it comes to new technology. Take 3D for example; while many failed to be impressed by passive cinema 3D, marketers talked up the possibilities for 3D gaming. From personal experience I can say that interactive 3D is distracting enough to detract from the enjoyability of the game itself, and where possible I’ll turn it off. So are AR games destined for the same, lukewarm fate? PossiblyFrom what I can see after tireless searching for the best and most unique AR games, there are a couple of catch-all categories under which most titles can easily be classified. There are those which I will call “marker games” which require you to print a marker. These apps can identify and translate these print-outs into in-game objects which appear on your desk or floor. There are also the “accessory freemium” titles which rely on an accessory to properly work, though the apps themselves are free.
Finally there’s a slew of games which require neither a marker nor an accessory but instead rely on your real-world geographic location. I’m not sure these quite qualify as augmented reality, but they take the characteristics of your physical surroundings and do something a bit different with them. There are always exceptions of course, but the limitations of the technology are fairly visible without looking too hard. Marker GamesTwo of the most popular marker games on the App Store are AR Basketball and AR Defender 2, both of which use a marker which must be printed prior to playing. AR Basketball is the only game that requires a marker to play, with AR Defender 2 still functioning as a simple tower defence game if you’re not bothered about using your device’s camera. Both are also free to download, so you can grab them right now and (provided you have access to a printer) try out AR for free. AR Basketball is probably the most accessible, and unsurprisingly the aim is to sink as many baskets as you can in the various game modes. While there are a couple of different modes (training, arcade action and classic), the only discernible difference I could see were optional power-ups, scoring rules and a timer. The app is faithful to its name, and will probably keep you busy for about 10 minutes.
That might sound scathing but it’s exactly what happened to me. If you’ve ever had a small indoor basketball hoop on your wall, you’ll probably be used to occasionally picking the ball up and throwing it across your room. It might be something you do with some degree of regularity, but you’re unlikely to sit there fixated for an hour on your own obsessively shooting hoops. AR Basketball is just like that. It’s a fun initial experience, and the novelty of having a 3D virtual basketball hoop on your desk or the floor is pretty cool. Unfortunately if you’ve got a shaky grip from holding your arm out in mid-air to aim, small fluctuations in movement will spoil shots. It’s not a huge deal, but it does highlight one of the flaws of AR gaming (and one also experienced by devices like Microsoft’s Kinect) in that it’s not particularly forgiving. This can also partly be said for the technology itself. I appreciate there’s a lot going on here but regardless of how much light I bestow upon the marker, my basketball hoop still occasionally glitches out, flickers or disappears entirely. Things are a lot better than initial AR implementations, but it’s still not perfect and perfection is a way off yet.
The second title I’ve spent much of my week playing is AR Defender 2, a series so popular that developers clearly saw room for a sequel. Far more interesting than that, the original AR Defender was not free-to-play, did not come with in-app purchases and absolutely required the AR marker be printed in order to play. AR Defender 2 turns virtually everything on its head: no marker is required, the app is loaded with in-app purchases and the game is free to download and play. What’s more, despite AR appearing in the name, this is an entirely optional AR experience. In fact, you will have to turn AR on rather than disabling it. This either means that AR is tough to market, or that developers simply don’t see the technology as being strong enough to carry a title alone. Maybe they asked themselves the question: who wants to buy a game where they then have to print something in order to play with no guarantee of how well the technology works in the first place?
I’d ask a similar question to the many app developers currently trying to sell their AR-powered wares in the App Store. The technology can vary wildly between “unique and refreshing” and “dull and buggy”, and I’m not sure I want to spend my own money finding out which apps are worth it. AR Defender 2 is a truly fun game, and the AR implementation is the best I have ever seen. It’s not as glitchy as past examples, and for the few moments when I initially started playing I was really enjoying watching a battle unfold on my living room floor. The fact that you don’t have to play with AR means it’s still a title you can play on the train, though the developers include a small foldable marker in the PDF which is designed to fit inside your wallet for playing virtually anywhere. One thing strikes me about AR Defender 2 though, and that’s how gimmicky the augmented reality option really is. It virtually adds nothing to the game, aside from drawing more power and requiring you move your phone around a bit. It’s nice to be able to do, but once you’ve done it a few times there’s not much reason to launch straight into AR mode when you can just play the game using traditional methods. Accessory FreemiumsApps that require accessories, or the dubiously named “appcessories” (shoot me if I ever use that term ever again) have long been a personal gripe. Augmented reality appears to have given accessory manufacturers a reason to go bonkers, releasing their apps for free but charging for the flimsy bits of plastic required to actually use them. Two good examples are Foam Fighters and Doctor Who: Cleric Wars. Both are free to download and both are designed to be used with separate accessories. Each game allows you to play for free before actually spending money, though there’s little else to suggest that the idea here is to sell overpriced accessories.
Doctor Who: Cleric Wars is a simple first-person shooter that’s designed with a gun attachment in mind. As with any first person shooter that uses AR, the iPhone has no way to detect solid objects or distances. This means you will have daleks coming at you from inside your walls and other nearby solid objects, and unless you’re playing in the middle of a field or park things start to look a bit silly. It’s somewhat fun pointing your phone around like a gun, but it’s not exactly immersive. The initial “demo level” as the game so elegantly flashes in the top right corner is just a wave of daleks that expire in one shot, approaching from all sides. This means the game is impossible to play sitting down without twisting around annoyingly, and instead requires you get up and move around a bit. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not necessarily going to win over the lazy. The fact that you only get one level that lasts less than 10 minutes for free is fairly disappointing and the gameplay experience is unlikely to make you run out and buy the required accessory. It’s lukewarm, and the gun attachment doesn’t seem to add any discernible functionality whatsoever to the iPhone. It’s basically a piece of plastic with a 3.5mm jack that costs around £20 ($30). Ouch. Foam Fighters takes a slightly different approach in that you don’t have to buy the accessories in order to play. The accessories in question are planes which stick on to the rear of your device and provide additional levels, as well as animating digital effects like gunfire and damage on top of the models. Yep, it looks ridiculous as you can see in the video below. Foam Fighters allows you to play with a virtual plane, though you won’t get any extra levels or AR goodness. From my experience, the AR angle here is a bit stretched – the game is at its best when it drops you into a level rather than having you “fly around” your living room. The only indicator of movement in this instance are a few clouds to denote which directions you’re actually travelling in while the rest of the arena (read: your living room) stays as stationary as you do.
At its best Foam Fighters is a flight simulator that uses movement for controls, and there are plenty of those available on the App Store already. In fact you could probably buy 4 or 5 flight sims of that ilk for the price of one Foam Fighters accessory pack, and you’d probably get the option of which control method to use there too.
Tilting your arms and holding your phone in front of you is all well and good but within about 15 minutes I had a niggling ache from the unnatural position I was forced into holding the device. Would I buy an accessory to get more life out of the game? Not for Foam Fighters, and certainly not for Cleric Wars – there’s enough plastic rubbish filling up landfills already. Everything ElseThere are a plenty of other titles that label themselves as AR games, though that definition seems to vary considerably. There’s the popular AR Soccer which doesn’t need a marker or an accessory, instead using basic object tracking to play a game of keepy-uppy. There are games like GhostBusters Paranormal Blast which is a first person shooter similar to Cleric Wars except it costs $1.99 and does not require any accessories. These are fairly straight-forward games that are cheap and enjoyable. Then there are location-based games, many of which are ongoing titles with more depth than any of the others mentioned thus far. I tried out one of the most popular offerings called Parallel Kingdom, a cross-platform MMO which uses your geographical location as a backdrop for a top-down RPG. The idea with many of these is to dominate your neck of the woods, but more often than not Parallel Kingdoms seemed lacking and gimmicky.
The map in the background is flat and lifeless, and uses no aerial photography. You can’t pinch to zoom, so finding your character can be tough. Aside from the familiarity of the street names and bend in the river, there’s virtually no “reality” in this augmented reality game. You can even walk right through rivers and oceans if they’re in the vicinity, making the map nothing more than a static canvas. I’m not sure this even qualifies as AR any more. Parallel Kingdoms is a satisfying little grind ‘em up for RPG fans and those interested in owning their real-world location. The depth here ticks all of the MMO boxes, but it’s not really augmented reality. Similarly the previously quite successful Shadow Cities also uses this principle on a less-complicated scale. There are two teams to choose from before you are dropped into your own virtual locale where you must capture spirits with spells by scrawling on the screen. I found Shadow Cities to be a lot more satisfying with its simpler gameplay model, but was also left wondering where the A in AR had gone. These titles probably fall under their own category of location-based gaming, and at that they’re good examples. So, Is AR The Future?I don’t see it myself. I’m not writing off the genre, but the best implementation of AR I’ve seen in a game has been as an added optional extra. AR Defender 2 does it perfectly, providing the gimmicks when you want them and the core gameplay when you don’t. AR Soccer demonstrates another solid but simple implementation at the right price point, but don’t buy it if you don’t want to kick a virtual football around (obviously). I don’t understand the market for apps that require accessories to use. It seems overly limiting in an age of “I want it now!” entertainment, and for the price of most accessories you could purchase 5, 10 or 20 other high quality games that will keep you happy for months. AR gaming is a gimmick, but one that is redeemable in the right context. Real-world usage in apps like Star Chart and Theodolite makes the technology shine and seem very useful indeed, and it’s here where the market is currently at its strongest. To put it bluntly: if you want to be wowed by AR you should probably steer clear of all but a few AR games. Do you have any AR favourites? What do you think of AR gaming in general? Give us your opinions in the comments, below. The post AR Games: Is This The Future of Gaming? appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What Is HTML5, And How Does It Change The Way I Browse? [MakeUseOf Explains] Posted: 16 May 2013 07:00 PM PDT
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the most important element of the World Wide Web. It's the language used to describe what a webpage should look like. However, HTML on its own is pretty boring because it can only deliver static pages; in order to meet the growing demand for more impressive web features, HTML has been coupled with plugins like CSS, Flash, Java, Silverlight, etc. It has become something of a bloated mess and different browsers implement those features in their own ways. HTML5 is meant to solve HTML's big problems for a cleaner and more efficient web. HTML: An OverviewHTML as we know it today is called HTML4 and it was first published way back in 1997. Yes, that means we've been running on HTML4 for over 15 years now which is an eternity in tech time. Around 2000, a parallel markup language called XHTML started development and that's been in use as well over the years, mostly due to the stricter standards that it imposes. In general, though, the two are pretty similar.
The problem with HTML4 is its limited functionality. It must be extended through plugins, like Flash, to provide more than simple text and images. Many video players, for example, were created and maintained on the Flash platform and embedded into HTML pages. Many web apps were developed using Java and embedded as well. With all of these plugins, it becomes hard to maintain proper standards. Ideally, every browser should display every page on the web in the same way in order to deliver the same experience to every user. To display the same results on multiple browsers, web developers typically need to implement quick fixes and hacks in various portions of their site to accommodate different rendering processes. This gets cumbersome after a while. On a more practical note, web pages that require plugins like Flash and Java end up using much more CPU and RAM. Ever wondered why your browser uses so much of your computer's resources? A lot of it can be attributed to these HTML extensions. This is one reason why Apple has disabled Flash support on their mobile devices (to save on battery life). What Exactly Is HTML5?HTML4 has worked well, but it obviously has a number of flaws. The team behind HTML5 has a certain high-level plan for the next step in HTML, which means that HTML5 must be built on the following principles:
More specifically, HTML5 adds a whole bunch of new markup tags:
HTML5 also deprecates some tags: <acronym>, <applet>, <font>, <frame>, <frameset>, <noframes>, and a handful of others. The full standards specification for HTML5 is planned to be completed by 2014, but HTML5 has made lots of progress already and it can be used to implement site features even today. The full standards specification for HTML5.1 is planned to be completed by 2016. Why HTML5 Matters For YouAs a web user, you will benefit from HTML5 because it fixes the most glaring problems in HTML4. Web sites will have better web standards, which will result in more efficient content and improved performance. As HTML5 is adopted across the board, web pages should start to load faster, less bandwidth should be used, and battery life on mobile devices ought to last longer. Plus, you won't have to keep so many plugins like Flash and Java updated. I hate it when I constantly have to update so many addons and plugins across multiple browsers. And what happens when one of them is the wrong version? Sites stop working and frustration ensues. All of that should be dealt away with when HTML5 becomes the main standard.
If you're just a regular web user and you have no intentions of coding or maintaining your own web site, then you don't have to do anything to enjoy HTML5's awesome features. All major browsers today support HTML5 to a large degree and you've probably been taking advantage of it already without knowing. Just keep your browser updated and you'll be good to go. And if you're a web developer, HTML5 will make everything simpler and easier for you. If all goes well, you won't have to deal with edge cases in web design since all browsers will need to adhere to the same standards. ConclusionHTML5 is the future of web browsing and it will surely revolutionize the way we surf the Internet. Even under the limited nature of HTML4, developers have created some mind-boggling web sites, so it'll be interesting to see what sort of neat advancements they'll make with the functionality of HTML5. Hopefully now you can see HTML5 in a clearer light and see why it's been hyped up as much as it has. You can further your learning on these ten websites too that show you what HTML5 is all about. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments and I'll do my best to answer you. Image Credits: HTML5 Via Shutterstock, HTML Code Via Shutterstock, HTML5 Tag Cloud Via Shutterstock, Guy On Laptop Via Shutterstock The post What Is HTML5, And How Does It Change The Way I Browse? [MakeUseOf Explains] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 People Who Might Google You & What They Might Find Posted: 16 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT
It was only 20 years ago when the very best you could do to find out more about someone was to open a phone book and find an address or a phone number, if these weren’t unlisted. It really wasn’t so long ago when our lives were relatively private, without us having to make sure they’re so. This has changed completely with the advent of search engines and social networks, and today you can rest assured that anyone who wants to know anything about you has already typed your name in Google. But what did they find when they did that? Did they actually find information about you? Was it information you really wanted them to have? And who are the people who might be searching for your name on Google? All this and more, on the next episode of… well, just read on. Who Is Googling You & Why?
Potential employers: Looking for a job? Or maybe you’re trying to get into a specific school program? Your name is fair game to the people who are considering you, who might try to find whether or not you are who you say you are. This kind of searcher might look for embarrassing bits you’ve done your best to forget, evidence that you’ve really worked where you said you’ve worked, and will definitely be on the lookout for news items featuring you robbing a bank. Potential employees: Hiring? You’re still not exempt from the Google treatment. Those who consider working for you could search for your company’s name, and for your own name as well, trying to find out what kind of employer you are. Seems far fetched? Rest assured that if you’ve been exceedingly unfair to a worker in that past, that worker has written about it somewhere, and it’s not going to be that hard to find. A potential employee may also Google you to make sure you really are who you say you are, in case it’s a long-distance kind of job. Curious friends, family, exes, and snoops: This is the broadest category of people who might be Googling you, and includes current friends, old friends, people you’ve just met, ex-partners, ex-teachers, ex-employers, your close family, your distant family, family you never knew you had, your friends’ or partner’s parents, and pretty much anyone who’s ever had anything to do with you. What are they looking for? This can range from simple curiosity over what they might find on the first page of your Google results to finding out where you work, where you live, how old you are, what religion you practice, and making sure you’re not a scary sleazebag, not a criminal, and not anything else they don’t approve of.
Marketers, political bodies, etc.: You might be wondering how marketers or political bodies know things about you and get in touch with you. It’s not rocket science. A simple Google search can reveal basic information they can make use of to appeal their case to you much better. When someone wants to sell you something, be it a product, a service, or a vote for the right party, having some background information is always a huge help. Complete strangers: Yes, this can happen too. In this category we find people who happened to see your name online or elsewhere and are curious to find out more, and also people who might have malicious intentions such as robbing your house, or worse. What They Might FindThe list of what these Googlers might find is endless, and it very much depends on how common your name is, and on your online activity. To make things easier, I’ll try to divide potential results into several categories. Someone else with the same name: If you don’t have a unique name, this is the most common occurrence on Google results. No matter who you are, if you have a common name, chances are there’s someone more famous than you with the exact same name. In these cases, you may encounter all the results listed below, only these might have nothing to do with you. This is nice when your name double is a successful football player or science professor, and less fortunate if it’s a porn star or or suicide bomber.
Let’s say your name is unique enough, or you’ve done enough to actually appear as yourself on your Google results. What can you expect people to find? Social network profiles: This is the most obvious one, and can include your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, and any other network you’re active or used to be active on. As long as you made sure not to share publicly what shouldn’t be shared, you should be good on that front. Do keep in mind, though, that a potential employer or a partner’s parent might not like seeing any part of your nightlife, no matter how innocent you think it is.
Fake social network profiles: This is a weird one, and is different from real profiles that come from people who just happen to have the same name. You may never encounter this if your name is common, but looking for a unique name like my own I found a Facebook profile bearing my name, with a “Content Providers” cover photo, and not much in way of any profile content. Things you’ve written online: If you’ve written blog posts, research papers, newspaper articles for big or small papers, or even a comment on someone else’s work, these can and probably will appear when searching your name on Google. No problems here, as long as you’re proud of these. If the last thing you’ve written is a 7 year-old blog post, you might want to at least read it over again, just to be on the safe side. Things others have written online: Your name can be a part of things you haven’t written yourself, and these may still pop up on Google when searching for your name. Did a friend mention you in a paper’s acknowledgment? Was your name referred to on an article or blog post? These may definitely come up, so hopefully, you were only mentioned as the good guy. Your pictures: Ah, the most fun and most random part of Google search — image search! When it comes to image search, everything’s possible, and unless you’re truly famous, you’re going to have some weird things popping up on an image search. What can you expect to find here? Start with your real pictures uploaded by you, and real pictures of you uploaded by others. Continue with pictures that are part of things you’ve written online (yes, including screenshots!), pictures you’ve pinned on Pinterest or added on a different social network, pictures of your friends, and figures from papers you have something to do with. Now we can venture into pictures that are related to only part of your name, or, if your name if common, pictures of complete strangers. While this whole eclectic collection will appear on any image search, Google’s algorithm does try to put the most relevant ones first. This is how, when searching for a friend of mine, I found a photo mashup she created with her mother’s face in her own head as the first result, and not one genuine picture of her. Good thing I already know what she looks like.
Accounts on websites you can’t remember opening: Remember the account you opened on <random website>? No? Google does. A Google search might yield profiles you’ve actually opened yourself, and haven’t used since. Hopefully, these are going to be empty, without too much embarrassing content you can’t remember putting there. Profiles and search results on aggregators: These are all sorts of website that most often than not make their living from appearing on your Google results, convincing you to start using them for real, as opposed to “using them” inadvertently. Looking at my own first two pages of results, I found my “profiles” and “search results” on no less than four of these: Longreads, Favstar, twtrland, and ZoomInfo. Weird genealogy websites: For some reason, your name, relatives’ names, and even pictures somehow make their way onto these family-tracking websites no matter who you are. These may appear on the first page of results or deeper than that, but it’s surprising how common they are. I managed to find such a website bearing not only my picture and name, but my sister, parents, and other relatives. Obviously, someone related to the family uploaded these at some point, but no one ever asked for my permission to do it. What Can You Do?This is only a small part of what people might find when Googling your name. If you’re really unlucky, your results may be even more colorful than any mentioned above. The best way to know for sure is to head over to Google.com and perform the search yourself. Remember that searching for yourself on your browser might not yield the same results as it would for others performing the exact same search. To get a better idea of what people might see, try using a private browsing window or DuckDuckGo. If you don’t like what you see, you can try to improve the results with services such as BrandYourself, which help you get the links that matter to you into those search results. And remember, don’t ever use your real name on anything you don’t want traced back to you. We’re all entitled to whatever interests we might have, but as soon as you use your real name, it may pop up on Google next time your ex looks up your name. What happens when you search for your name on Google? Did you ever have someone Google your name and find something embarrassing? Share your experiences in the comments! The post 5 People Who Might Google You & What They Might Find appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Use This Gmail Trick To Receive POP Emails On IMAP-Only Devices Posted: 16 May 2013 05:30 PM PDT
So why isn’t POP extinct yet? Good question! Unfortunately, some mail providers (most notably ISPs) still aren’t supporting IMAP. You’re stuck with POP. This causes a huge problem, because a lot of today’s application developers don’t care about it, thus don’t bother to support it. A relative recently confronted me with an issue of not being able to receive her POP account email on her phone because only IMAP servers were supported. In this post, I’d like to show you how to work around this issue. Get a Gmail AccountIf you aren’t using Gmail yet, you shouldn’t be. It’s free, the mailbox UI is great, and it offers you more space than basically any other provider you’ll find. Signing up for an email account should take no more than a minute. If you already have a Gmail account and you’re trying to receive email from a POP mailbox on a device that only supports IMAP, it doesn’t matter. You need to create a new Gmail account to act as a proxy for your POP account. The method is simple: we’re taking your old, outdated POP email account and pushing all of the mail you receive into a shiny and new Gmail account that acts as a mirror of it (but supports IMAP). Add Your POP Account to GmailAfter you’ve created your Gmail account and logged in, go to the settings and access the Accounts page (shown across the menu at the top). Here, you should see “Check mail from other accounts (using POP3)” option.
The blurred areas show three POP email accounts that I have currently added to my Gmail account. When you’ve added a POP account, you’ll see them listed there. You can do so by clicking “Add a POP3 mail account you own“, which is our next step.
You’ll first be prompted to enter your POP email address and then you’ll be shown the page above. Here, your username, POP server, and incoming label is already populated for you. If any of those need to be changed, be sure to do so. You’ll need to enter accurate information or your email obviously cannot be taken from the POP server and brought here to Gmail, so make sure you do this. If you don’t know the information, you can check my article that gives you the mail server information for three of the biggest email providers, or you can simply Google it. Let me stress that it is extremely important for you to tick the box beside the “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server” option. If you don’t, Gmail will effectively be hijacking all of your POP email rather than just mirroring it. This means you won’t be able to access the email from that account from any web service or desktop application, only Gmail. Add Your POP Address As A Sender Email (Optional)If you want to take this a step further and want to reply to an email that you’ve downloaded from a POP account to Gmail as the POP email account itself (rather than your Gmail address), you can. On that very same Accounts settings page, you should see the “Send mail as” option.
Keep in mind that not all services that support Gmail will support the functionality to send email from additional addresses, especially those made by third parties. I can’t comment on what devices, applications, or services this is limited to (as there are so many out there), but this will work perfectly from the web interface. To be able to send emails from your POP address through Gmail, click the “Add another email address you own” link on that page. The process for adding an address to send from requires that you confirm an email sent to that address. If you’ve already completed the step before this one then that email can be confirmed directly through the Gmail inbox you’re currently using (which can also test to prove that the previous step actually worked). Add Your Gmail Account to Your DeviceThe last step is to simply forget about your POP email account and use this new Gmail account on your phone, Windows 8 Mail, or any other service, device, or application that you’re using. Many of these will automatically know Gmail’s mail server information, but here it is otherwise:
That’s it! It’s a bit of an annoying fix to have to put effort towards, but it’s extremely effective. Hopefully, old-time email providers will eventually catch up to speed and jump on the IMAP bandwagon. Let me know if you require any help in the comments! The post Use This Gmail Trick To Receive POP Emails On IMAP-Only Devices appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Become Better At Finding Stuff With Search Engines: Boolean Search Logic Explained Posted: 16 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT
Boolean search logic illustrated in Venn diagrams can help you visualize what you are searching for. If you think this sounds suspiciously like mathematics, you’re spot on. But don’t let that discourage you! It’s pure and simple logic, demonstrated with pretty and very simple diagrams, and so it’s easy. I promise! And I have fun examples to prove it. The only case in which you won’t need any search logic, is when you search for only a single word, like Earth.
What Is Boolean (Search) Logic?In a search query, Boolean logic helps us define the logical relationship between multiple search terms. The operators used to express the relationship are AND, OR, and NOT. Any number of boolean search terms can be connected with these operators to refine your search results. Let’s look at each operator separately. OR
Example: Wind OR Fire
The Venn diagram above reveals that a search for Wind OR Fire will show results for Wind, Wind AND Fire (overlapping areas), and Fire. Example: Earth OR Wind OR Fire
Likewise, this diagram demonstrates that all boolean search terms by themselves, as well as overlapping content will be shown when connecting the terms with OR. And here is a chance to earn a Like including 5 bonus points if you can tell me who those folks in the center are. Here are the numbers for Google’s search results for the three search terms and the OR combinations shown above:
As you see, in the case of a Google search, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts; it’s actually smaller. But since there is redundancy, i.e. overlapping areas, as can be seen nicely in the Venn diagrams above, that makes sense. Instead of OR you can also use the vertical bar | character when performing a Google search. NOT or rather -
Caution: While NOT is a valid term in Boolean logic, Google doesn’t appear to operate with this term. Instead of NOT, you should use the - character. Note that there is no space between the dash and the keyword you want to exclude. Example: Wind NOT Fire or Wind -Fire
The Venn diagram above depicts the results in theory. Below are the actual numbers:
The numbers will vary, depending on which Google domain you are using (my browser defaults to Google.ca) and obviously they also change over time. However, the results above are nothing short of confusing. Let’s say that Google doesn’t necessarily give us all the results, so those numbers are not a reliable source of information. Looking at the first page of results, however, can give you an idea of whether or not your search worked.
Actually trying to understand the results quickly reveals that Google tends to think for you, rather than with you. For the majority of users that’s good because they don’t know what they are doing. Google appears to serve results based on its “experience” rather than the search terms and operators used in the query. This actually is a little disturbing, but good to be aware of. So let’s continue with the theory… AND
Example: Earth AND Wind AND Fire
Once more, the numbers:
At least Google cooperates with this boolean search operator. Mind you that AND typically is the default operator in search engines. So whenever you type in more than one keyword, the search engine will automatically connect them with the AND operator. Hence Earth Wind Fire in theory will yield the same search results as Earth AND Wind AND Fire. Processing & NestingYou can connect multiple search terms with different operators. But since Boolean logic operates based on mathematical principles, the order in which you connect your keywords will have an effect on your results. To influence your results, it helps to understand how the terms are processed. Per default, keywords are processed from left to right. Example: Earth AND Wind OR Fire
If you want to change the order in which your keywords are processed, you can of course literally change the order. You can also enclose a set of search terms and operators in parentheses, i.e. nest them. Processing will still be left to right, but the nested elements will be treated as one unit. Example: Earth AND (Wind OR Fire)
This result looks quite different, doesn’t it? ConclusionIt’s generally good to know how Boolean search logic works when you are working with search engines, at least if they strictly adhere to those operators. Apparently, Google does not, meaning a simple search will often get you exactly what you need, without having to think about it. If you do want to be sure that Google does what you want it to do however, use Google’s Advanced Search. The field all these words corresponds to the AND operator, any of these words equals OR, and none of these words works like NOT. Now you should be able to narrow down your searches a lot better – in theory. If you desire to become a real power user, I recommend reviewing our article on how to master Google search operators, or how to reduce irrelevant results, or which tricks to use when you don’t know what to search for , or simply review Google’s list of search operators. Have you ever had trouble getting Google or another search engine find what you were looking for? The post Become Better At Finding Stuff With Search Engines: Boolean Search Logic Explained appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race Against Rising Lava & Collect Diamonds: Call Of Carlos for Windows Phone Posted: 16 May 2013 02:31 PM PDT
Surely it can't be the promise of virtual riches as Carlos collects the diamonds, so what is the attraction? Could it be the gameplay? Has someone finally found a platform arcade game that a confirmed strategy fan can go back to again and again without feeling dirty? What Is Carlos' Call?A few years ago, pre-Windows Phone, I was using a low-spec Android device. Sadly I was unable to play the majority of games that were then available, but one that I did enjoy was Gem Miner.
After reading the initial description of Call of Carlos, I has expected to find a quite similar game – but in fact, it is very different. Games like Gem Miner are quite tactical, requiring careful planning to use oxygen and money wisely. Call of Carlos, meanwhile, is much closer to a Super Mario or Pacman in terms of its arcade roots. The name Manic Miner also springs to mind, but this is a game with only one way to lose a life. So unlike his mining colleague on Android, Call of Carlos isn't digging for gems and rarities – instead, he's attempting to grab as many diamonds as he can before being caught by the fast-rising lava! Note that this is a non-Xbox Live title. Call of Carlos doesn't have achievements that can be unlocked to improve your Gamerscore. How The Game PlaysCall of Carlos is a fun game that draws you in with the urgency of the task and the ease with which the challenges can be approached. Starting at the bottom of a mine shaft, you must guide Carlos to the exit, avoiding the rapidly approaching molten lava. This is achieved by rocking your phone left and right to direct Carlos, while tapping on the screen to direct the miner to swing his pickaxe and leap across chasms. Doing this successfully can prove difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it you should get right into it!
Older gamers may feel some familiarity with Call of Carlos – the approach isn't unlike the 1983 Spanish game for the 8-bit platforms of the MSX, Commodore 63 and Sinclair Spectrum of Bugaboo the Flea (later repackaged as Roland in the Caves on Amstrad and Schneider computers across Europe). Successful escapes are possible – but there are multiple routes through the mines, with those that yield diamonds naturally offering the most points. Additionally bonuses are awarded for fast completion times, the number of chains created (that is, the number of consecutive pickaxe swings) and the length of the longest chain. As the game progresses, escape becomes more difficult, with the path to the exit becoming harder to navigate, the length of the levels and the speed of the lava seemingly increasing! Graphics & SoundAudio is limited to an intro chime to each level, the sound of pickaxes swinging and the boiling of the lava, with the occasional "ping!" each time you collect a diamond.
Graphics are cartoony and detailed, with Carlos himself the stereotypical Mexican complete with stubble, maracas and sombrero. Effort has been put into the “landscape” of the mines, with skulls, cobwebs and other details placed in view partly as a distraction and partly to make you chuckle! Get Digging!Despite my initial disappointment, Call of Carlos is a good fun game with cartoony graphics that perfectly fit the tone. While the sound might be quite basic and the levels prone to repetition fatigue, the user interface is challenging enough to keep the game interesting. You get the feeling that there is always going to be a way to complete the level – it just depends on how athletic your arms are feeling! So, a good game that is fun to play – a rarity for single player titles. You might look “a sight” to any observers wondering exactly what it is that you're doing, particularly if you opt to play in public, but you certainly won't look any more ridiculous than a Wii owner. Call of Carlos is available free from the Windows Phone Store. As one of our recommended titles, it can be found in our Best of Windows Phone Apps list. The post Race Against Rising Lava & Collect Diamonds: Call Of Carlos for Windows Phone appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pinterest Adds Notifications, People Mentions & Improved Search in Mobile Apps [Updates] Posted: 16 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT
These mobile app updates mirror the makeover features of Pinterest’s Web platform. Now both mobile apps include a notifications list of activities related to your board, such as recent followers, re-pinned items, and comments made on your pins. Push Notifications are also included, if you enable them on your device. Similar to the tagging feature in Twitter and Google+, the new notifications feature allows you to mention and notify Pinterest users you’re following in comments. To mention users, type the @ key followed by the first a few letters of a person’s Pinterest username, and then select that name in the pop-up. A notification will be sent to each of the people you mention.
Pinterest has also enhanced its mobile search feature. As you begin to type a keyword, a list of suggested terms will appear, starting with terms related to content on your boards. The list will also include recent terms you have searched for. This feature also syncs between your devices, so that if you search for an item on your computer, that same term will show up in a suggested list when you search for it on your mobile device. Download: Pinterest for iOS, Pinterest for Android If you’re an avid Pinterest user, these updates should make the mobile apps even better to use. Do you like them new features? Source: Pinterest Blog The post Pinterest Adds Notifications, People Mentions & Improved Search in Mobile Apps [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Perfect Operating System? Getting Windows Style Features In OS X Posted: 16 May 2013 01:01 PM PDT
Many Mac users won’t admit it, but there are some pretty nice features in Windows – particularly Windows 7 and later. Maximizing apps in a way that isn’t seemingly random, resizing your windows by dragging them to a particular side or easily hiding notification icons are just a few things Microsoft’s brought to the desktop that Apple hasn’t got around to (yet?) Don’t panic, though – third party apps bring all these and more of Windows’ best features to OS X. You just need to know where to look to bring the best of Windows to your Mac. Actually Maximize WindowsAs in Windows, OS X offers three buttons on every window. One button closes the window; another minimizes the window. So far, so good. The problem is the right-most green button, the purpose of which is completely unclear to many former Windows users. Sometimes it causes a window to take up all vertical space, sometimes it restores a window to its previous size, and sometimes it does nothing at all. Seriously, I just pressed the button on Chrome. Nothing happened. This is confusing to Windows users, who are used to the same button making a window grow to take up the entire screen or shrink back to a previous size – no ambiguity. Do you wish you could change this?
Well, good news - Right Zoom makes the maximize button in OS X behave as in Windows. So if the mystery of the maximize button bothers you, consider it solved. Snap Windows Into PlaceIt’s probably the best unsung feature in newer versions of Windows – drag a window to top of the screen and it will be instantly maximized – drag a window to the side of the screen and it will take exactly half the screen. It sounds confusing, but a combination of wireframes and animations makes it all make sense.
If you want this on your Mac, check out iSnap. This free app allows you to resize windows in this way, or by using keyboard shortcuts. Hide Notification IconsOh notification icons! You’re occasionally useful but overwhelming in aggregate. Windows users have for a long time been able to quickly hide icons they don’t want to see constantly, all without losing access when necessary – it’s all easily configured. OS X offers nothing like this, meaning if you constantly use a lot of apps that use the notification area, your menu bar is almost certainly a mess.
You don’t have to live like this - Bartender for Mac can clean up your act. Sure, it’s not free, but if the clutter above your workspace is driving you nuts this is your only choice. Alt-TabIn Windows pressing “Alt” and “Tab” takes you from one window to another – regardless of which program is offering that window. So if you’ve got three Chrome windows open while also editing five pictures in The Gimp, you can switch between every one of those individual windows quickly using one shortcut. The equivalent shortcut for Mac – command and tab – switches between programs. This means you can’t use it to switch from one Window in Firefox to another. There’s a (sort of) solution to this: Command and ` (the button above Tab). This shortcut switches between all open windows in your current app. It’s not perfect, sure, but it’s something – you can switch to your preferred app and then switch to the window that you like. App PreviewsIt’s been part of Windows for years – hover your mouse over the icon of an active program and you’ll see a preview of any open windows. Some programs will even offer controls – play, pause and skip for media programs, for example.
Hyperdock brings this functionality to OS X, along with a lot more. Check it out if you’re at all interested. Lock Your ScreenIt’s quick to lock your screen in Windows – just press the Windows key and L. Mac users can map a corner to lock the screen, but those who prefer a keyboard shortcut are out of luck.
Unless, of course, you install QuickLock. This simple app gives you a custom lock screen you can activate with a keyboard shortcut. The Worst Feature Works Too – Full Screen AppsWindows 8 brought the feature absolutely no one was asking for to the PC – full screen, single purpose apps. It’s called “Modern”, because to Microsoft on-screen multitasking is apparently a relic akin to horse drawn carriages and manually churned butter.
Well, Apple offers a similar feature – and actually did years before Microsoft. It’s called full screen mode – introduced with Lion – but instead of every app from Evernote to Office needing to offer two completely different interfaces, Apple simply allows any app to work in full screen. Some programs have unique full-screen interfaces, others simply grow to take up the entire screen. This is similar to Metro in that it sucks, and you’ll rarely use it once you realize you don’t have to. What’s that? You want a screen filled with animated boxes that represent apps and distract you? You’re lying, shut up. Though I guess you could access the launchpad, a collection of icons for people who want their computer to turn into a phone:
No one really uses this though, do they? No. No one. Move along people. Or just let me know more Windows features you’d like to see in OS X using the comments below. I might help you out. The post A Perfect Operating System? Getting Windows Style Features In OS X appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best 4 Ways To Manage Your Facebook Calendar Posted: 16 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT
It isn’t that I don’t want to do something nice, it’s just that the days are so filled and I work so hard to remember everything in the schedule, that there doesn’t seem to be any space for those occasional events that crop up once a year. I’m lucky I remember holidays. I hardly even remember my own birthday, for Pete’s sake. Because my memory for birthdays and special events is so bad, I was pretty happy to realize that I have absolutely everyone’s birthday right at my fingertips thanks to Facebook Events. A lot of folks already know about this, but if you’re one of those that haven’t really explored the dark recesses of the Facebook menus on your account, then you may be just as surprised as I was how incredibly useful and versatile the Facebook Calendar can be. We’ve covered a number of unique ways to celebrate birthdays using Facebook, such as how to give Facebook gifts, and Matt touched on Facebook birthdays in his pro/con article about Facebook as well. Dave also covered a useful app on iPhone that you can use to remember birthdays. In this article, I’m going to show you four ways that you can make use of your Facebook Calendar. This will include how to export Facebook Calendar events to Outlook, how to export them to Google Calendar, how to strip spam-events that you really don’t care about, and how to even set up notifications for upcoming events from your Facebook Calendar. We’ll do it all in just one article. Don’t believe me? Let’s get it started. Finding and Exporting Your Facebook CalendarTo quickly get to your Facebook Calendar, just click on “Home” and then click on “Events” in the left navigation bar under your Favorites.
Click on the Export option in this menu, and this is where the fun starts. First – a pop-up box will appear that actually looks like you don’t have many options at all, except to close the window. Don’t be deceived. There are two links tucked away in this text, and this is exactly where you need to be to export your Facebook Calendar. You can either click on the “export your friends’ birthdays” to just export birthdays and nothing else, or click on “upcoming events” to export just events. Exporting Facebook Calendar to OutlookWhen you click either link, you’ll get an “External Protocol Request”. Search through the confusing text in this box to find the link after “webcal:”, which should be something like “//www.facebook.com/ical/u.php?uid=xxxxxxxx&key=xxxxxxx”
Unfortunately, you most likely won’t be able to highlight and copy that link, so you’ll need to open up Notepad and type it in. This is the link you’re going to use later to export your Facebook Calendar to other email applications than your default. In my case, I have Outlook set up as my default mail/calendar client, so I can just click on “Launch Application”, and Chrome will automatically launch Outlook. This part of the procedure could be different for you, depending on what Chrome wants to open, especially if you don’t have Outlook installed. If you’re only interested in exporting your Facebook Calendar to Google Calendar, then just take note of that URL link, click on “Do Nothing”, and then skip ahead to the Google Calendar section. If you click to launch Outlook, you’ll next see an Outlook notification where you’ll need to provide permission for the new Internet Calendar to be added.
In Outlook 2010, this is essentially what your new calendar filled with all of your Facebook friend’s birthdays will look like. That’s all there is to exporting the Calendar to Microsoft Outlook. Easy, wasn’t it? Exporting Facebook Calendar to Google CalendarSending those Facebook events and birthdays to Google is a tiny bit trickier. You’ll need that URL you noted earlier in hand. Then, head over to your Google calendar account, and scroll down until you see “Other calendars” in the left navigation menu. Click on the dropdown arrow, and you’ll see an option to “Add by URL”.
This will pop up a window with the magic field where you can paste the Facebook URL you noted above.
Click on Add Calendar, and after a few seconds of processing time, Google Calendar will bring in all of the events. If you had chosen to export your Friends birthdays, you’ll now find your friends’ birthdays highlighted on each of the days when they occur. It’s synced with Facebook Calendar, so you can rest assured you’ll never, ever, ever forget another birthday! Adding Birthday NotificationsOf course, if you really want insurance against forgetting birthdays, then you’ll need email notifications like me. Just click the dropdown arrow next to your new “Friends’ Birthdays” calendar, and click on the “Reminders and notifications” link. Here you can set an event reminder that will either issue a pop-up on your computer (if you’re online and connected to Google Calendar), or you can choose to have Google send you an email.
You may actually want to make it a little earlier than 10 minutes. Maybe a day or two in advance so you have time to pick up a birthday present… Cool Things to Do With Facebook EventsThere are a couple of other small, but important things that you need to know about Facebook Events and using them in external calendars. First – if you really hate those annoying events that you’re invited to all of the time, and are really only interested in events that you’ve accepted, or that you yourself have added to your Facebook Calendar, then go back into the Calendar settings (using the gear icon), and instead of clicking on the “Export” link, click on the “Settings” link. This window lets you completely eradicate the suggested events or any events that you haven’t accepted or added yourself from the exported calendar and from your own Facebook calendar. This is really useful if you’re like me and really don’t like things added to your calendar without your express permission. Finally, another insanely cool thing you can do if you exported your events to Google Calendar, is embed them in a web page. You can get to this in the same dropdown above in Google Calendar where you added email notifications. Instead, click on Calendar Settings, and you’ll see this page.
All you have to do is highlight the Iframe code, paste it somewhere on your website or some shared, private page you have with family or friends, and voila – all of those birthdays or events from your Facebook Calendar are now published online for other people to see. There are probably very limited times when you’d want to do this, like when you’re building a private community page and want to use your Facebook birthday events to quickly populate a shared birthday calendar, as one example. As you can see, there is a lot of coolness to the ability to export Facebook events like this. Once you’ve shared it out to a Calendar system like Google Calendar, you can do whatever you want. Best of all, you have those birthdays and events in the places where you check every day, complete with notifications. It’s yet another reason to love the convenience of Facebook information about family and friends, while adding the functionality of external calendars. That combination is a beautiful thing. Do you use Facebook Calendar a lot? How do you manage your Facebook calendar? Do you think exporting it would help remember birthdays and events? Share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below! Image Credit: A Day With the Word Birthday Via Shutterstock The post Best 4 Ways To Manage Your Facebook Calendar appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What Are the Best Stock Apps for Daily Use On Android? Posted: 16 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT
Google Finance
Stock Quote
Stock Watcher
Stock Market Simulator
ConclusionThese four Android stock apps should help you to learn about stocks and the entire market, or to simply follow stocks that you’re interested in with plenty of information. Again, please only view these apps as informative because stock markets are extremely volatile — even the best analysts can be wrong occasionally. The stock market is an opportunity to make lots of money, but it’s also an opportunity to lose a lot of it as well. What are your favorite apps to follow the stock market? Do you invest in the stock market regularly? Let us know in the comments! For more great Android apps, check out our list of the Best Android Apps, and to get the most out of your Android device, check out our Android guide. Image Credit: kenteegardin The post What Are the Best Stock Apps for Daily Use On Android? appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 Funny Or Die Web Series Worth Watching Posted: 16 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT
As well as the usual user-generated content that fills up most video sites these days, Funny Or Die is also home to some original content, much of which is exclusive to the site. Even better this content is often of professional quality and includes appearances by famous actors, comedians, or other celebrities. Not everything on Funny Or Die is worth watching, but there are some Web series that will likely have you guffawing with laughter, if guffawing is your thing. I personally prefer to titter. Or even LOL. What follows are five Web series that justify the existence of Funny Or Die, and though some of its one-off videos are also worth watching, it is these series that make it one of those rare sites you should bookmark. NB: All of the following videos should be considered NSFW and viewed at your own discretion. Raaaaaaaandy
Raaaaaaaandy is a Funny or Die Web series in the mockumentary style. It tells the story of the titular Randy, pronounced “Raaaaaaaandy” for no particular reason, a stand-up comedian gaining notoriety thanks to a cameo in the Judd Apatow movie Funny People. Randy is actually Aziz Ansari, a real-life stand-up comedian, and the whole thing is a well-formed parody. Not that everybody seems to get that, perhaps because Ansari isn’t all that well known. Regardless, Raaaaaaaandy is funny and clever, and more than worthy of your time and attention. Acting With James Franco
Everybody knows James Franco is the man, right? He’s a great actor, he’s been in some great movies, he’s a hit with the ladies, and he’s funny too. The only thing that could make him any more of a hero would be curing cancer. But as that’s unlikely, he’ll have to stick to giving acting lessons to his brother. Acting With James Franco is a very fitting title for this Web series, as it literally consists of James Franco giving acting lessons to his real-life brother Dave. Thankfully he doesn’t need acting lessons so the whole thing is just an excuse for some easy laughs. And the laughs will come easy when you watch this show. Drunk History
Drunk History shows what school would be like if all the teachers lectured you while liquored up to the eyeballs. It would be a mess; facts and fiction would combine to form a new reality, and chaos would ensue. However, we would all have happy childhoods laughing at our elders for being drunk idiots. This is the work of Mark Gagliardi, who gets drunk (supposedly on a whole bottle of whisky) and then recounts a moment from history. His words are recorded and then acted out by famous actors and comedians. The first episode features Michael Cera, with Jack Black and Will Ferrell making appearances later in the series. Don Cheadle Is Captain Planet
Captain Planet was a real show, and still is now thanks to continued syndication. It’s a lame animated show that is clearly pitched as edutainment, teaching kids about environmentalism while supposedly also entertaining them. This live-action version is much, much better. This Captain Planet features Don Cheadle as the titular superhero, though whether he’s actually a hero or not is the question. He has the power to conjure trees from thin air but enjoys turning humans into trees instead. Well, you would too, wouldn’t you? Between Two Ferns
We’ve saved the best until last, with Between Two Ferns being an unmissable Web series for anyone who know their actors. Between Two Ferns features Zach Galifianakis (from The Hangover) as an interviewer who puts his subjects at ease with an odd mix of boredom and vitriol. The title comes from the fact that the interviews take place between two ferns, and on a set that resembles something from the 1970s. Which is, I suspect, the idea. Some big-name guests have appeared on Between Two Ferns, including Natalie Portman, Ben Stiller, and Bruce Willis. ConclusionsIf any of these Web series has made you laugh then I, and the people who actually created the shows, have done their jobs. If you watched them all and are still sitting staring at your computer stony-faced then it may be time to think of undergoing a sense of humor bypass. But just to make sure there is no non-surgical hope, check out these original YouTube comedy channels before signing any formal agreement. What do you think of Funny Or Die? Which of these series particularly tickled your funny-bone? Is there another Funny Or Die video you feel deserves a wider audience? As always we’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject at hand in the comments section below. The post 5 Funny Or Die Web Series Worth Watching appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minecraft Home Security Tips – Build A Perimeter That No One Could Break Through Posted: 16 May 2013 09:31 AM PDT
Building a door is a good way to keep this from happening, but that only works if you stay underground or in a very tightly constructed fort. And those options, while doable, make large construction projects and proper farming much more difficult. Expanding outward is the quicker choice, but risky. Here are a few clever Minecraft home security tips to protect your land. Build A MoatMoats were great ways to defend castles, and they're also great ways to defend your home in Minecraft. In fact, they're even better in real life, because moats work both as a barrier and a conveyor belt of death, yet are simple enough for any Minecraft newbie. I’ve attached a good video above, but for those who want the short version, here's the idea. In Minecraft, water always flows downwards from the point of origin. You can also pick up water with a bucket and place it anywhere, creating a new (and infinite) point of origin. This is the beginnings of your moat, which you then guide by digging into the ground or building a canal. A moat about three blocks wide is a good barrier and great Minecraft home security, but you can make your moat better by using the water's current to push trapped monsters towards an end point. Usually this will be a really deep pool, which ultimately drowns monsters (and the occasional pig and cow, too). Be sure to leave a small outlet at the bottom of the pool – if you do this, the items monsters leave when they die will filter out of the pool for you to pick up! But remember moats won’t help against every threat - particularly Endermen, who have a nasty habit of teleporting when provoked. Create A Trap Door Or DrawbridgeA moat is a great thing to have, but it also creates a problem. It's a moat. You can't get over it. You have two options. One is to build a tunnel, which can be a bit inconvenient. The other is to just build a bridge. But a bridge is something monsters might use to cross into your territory, so you'll need to figure out a way to protect it. That's where a trap door comes in. The video above provides an example of what a trapped base entrance might look like, but the idea can be adapted in thousands of different ways. You can put traps over bridges to make a drawbridge, you can put lava under the trap floor to make a kill trap, you can make the traps larger or smaller, and etc. Whatever you decide to do, the basic idea is to use a redstone switch in conjunction with a redstone torch (to provide power) that is hooked via redstone wire to one or more trap doors. The switch could be a button, a pressure plate, a tripwire, or any other valid switch component – get creative! Use A Piston TrapTrap doors are great against monsters but they don't work well against people, which is a problem if you're playing on a Minecraft server. Piston traps are a better solution because you can use blocks that blend in to the surroundings. They're also the trap of choice for people who don't like the aesthetics of trap doors. Like trap doors, pistons are connected to a switch via redstone. When the switch is activated, the pistons open, sending the poor monster or player plummeting to whatever fate you've devised for them. All the usual stuff works, but if you're targeting players, you'll probably want the trap to send the player on a deadly fall or into lava. The kill should be quick so the player doesn't have a chance to escape. The video above shows how to make a detailed sand trap as part of your Minecraft home security. What's great about the trap in the video is that it's connected to a piston door. This gives the illusion that the mechanism (pressure plates) are only meant to open the door. But after a brief delay the floor opens as well – and once that happens, there's no escape. Make An Explosive TrapSometimes you don't want a trap to be subtle. You need it to send a message. The message being; boom! You're dead! There are a lot of ways to make explosive traps and some are incredibly elaborate, but you don't have to go crazy to make the trap work. The video above, for example, shows nothing more than a TNT block that is placed under a wood or stone block with a pressure plate on top. Step on the pressure plate and its game over. You can also hook explosives using redstone and various switches, which is what the video above shows. This is where traps become more devious. You can use switches like pressure plated and trip wires to activate TNT via redstone wires. And if you're really devious, you build circuits that delay the explosion, providing the illusion that nothing is amiss. Remember, though, that TNT will destroy everything around it in most situations – so don't place it underneath a house you want to keep! Create An Arrow TrapThe last kind of trap I'm going to talk about is the arrow trap. This is a good trap to put in narrow areas like interior hallways and mines. It is often used online but can also be used against monsters who might be wandering through a mineshaft you want to keep clear or too close to a doorway. Like the other traps, this one uses redstone wires to connect a switch to the trap itself, which in this case is a dispenser full of arrows. On a basic level you can just hook a pressure plate to the dispenser, but this generally will not be deadly, as just one arrow will be fired. To create a lethal barrage of arrows you'll need to make redstone circuit, which is where the video shown above comes in handy. As you'll see, the circuit in the video causes the dispenser to fire numerous arrows once activated, which quickly proves lethal to players and monsters alike. And if the arrow trap isn’t deadly enough for you, you can always try the flaming arrow variety! ConclusionThese are not the only traps in Minecraft, though I think it's fair to say they're the most popular. Being creative with your traps has less to do with creating brand new traps and more to do with finding ways to adapt those that exist. The piston trap, for example, can be adapted to create a really cool drawbridge. Or you could combine a flaming arrow trap with a piston trap that dumps monsters or players into wool (which quickly burns when set alight). When these traps are combined with walls and clever tricks, you'll be able to put together a base that quickly kills intrudes – even when you're not there's to help defend it! While you’re thinking up your next trap, you might want to take inspiration from the six most amazing Minecraft creations. The post Minecraft Home Security Tips – Build A Perimeter That No One Could Break Through appeared first on MakeUseOf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The world of Minecraft can be harsh. One moment you're happily cooking a few pieces of bacon in your oven, then next; BAM! Where'd that creep come from? Now you're back at the respawn point – you'd better know how to get back home from there!| You are subscribed to email updates from MakeUseOf To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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