TinkerTool
TinkerTool is an application that gives you access to additional preference settings Apple has built into Mac OS X. This allows to activate hidden features in the operating system and in some of the applications delivered with the system.
The tool makes sure that preference changes can only affect the current user. You don't need administrative privileges to use the tool. With this design, it is no problem to use TinkerTool in professional networks where users have restricted permissions. The program will never change any component of the operating system, so the integrity of your system is not put at risk, and there will be no negative effect on system updates.
All preference settings changed by TinkerTool can be reset to Apple's defaults, or to the state that existed before using the tool. No dangerous background processes are used for TinkerTool's operation.
TinkerTool is electronically distributed software. You can download the product free of charge.
Utility of the week TinkerTool
Freedom, that consuming goal above doubt or criticism, desired as moths desire the candle or emigrants the distant continent waiting to parch them in its deserts or drive them to madness in its bitter winters!
Richard Adams, "The Plague Dogs"
Video Streaming Air Video can stream videos in almost any format to your iPhone and iPod touch. You don't need to copy your videos to the device just to watch them. Live Conversion
My fave Iphone app of the week for viewing movie files from my desktop to my Iphone over the network
tres kewl
Is your bathroom a cause of political radicalism?
Guestblogger William Gurstelle is the author of several books, including Backyard Ballistics and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Here's his blog.
I've been in some pretty terrible public bathrooms, some of which made me want to do various things, but I can't say they really affected my politics. But back in the 1930s, it was apparent to major paper companies that the best way fight the Red Menace was by eliminating scratchy toilet paper, which is why this poster strikes me as interesting.
<--Try wiping your hands each day on harsh, cheap paper towels and maybe you too, would grumble.(Personally, I'd prefer even cheap paper towels over electric dryers although the new Xcelerator models are fun because you can make gross noises when you hold your hands just so.)
Well...Yes
Rolling post-apocalyptic Lego city
maybe I have been away from Legoland for too long
A midday nap markedly boosts the brain's learning capacity
February 21, 2010 -->If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.
ahhhh science
The 100 Watt Lightbulb Goes Out: Ronald Howes, Easy Bake Oven Inventor, Dies at 83
Guestblogger William Gurstelle is the author of several books, including Backyard Ballistics and the recently published Absinthe and Flamethrowers. Here's his blog.
The original EASY-BAKE used a 100 watt bulb as its heat source. (I always loved the fact that you could bake brownies with a lightbulb.) In its first year, over 500,000 pre-pubescent Duncan Hines wanna-be's talked their folks into spending $15.95. By its fifth birthday, the EASY-BAKE Oven was a household name.The toy was invented by Ronald Howes Sr, who died yesterday at age 83. According to his obituary , Howes sounds like my sort of guy.
cooking by light - what a forward leaping miracle
Swarm of tiny illuminated helicopters as flying display screen?
MIT researchers are exploring whether a swarm of tiny helicopters outfitted with LEDs could self-organize into a massive flying display "screen." The vision for the nascent Flyfire project is that each of the choppers acts as a pixel to form a dynamically-reconfigurable display.
This I like
Chromakey is everywhere
Alan sez, "A great, but slightly disturbing, look at how pervasive green-screening has become in simply every scene in television these days. Pretty much everything you think is outdoors is faked, at least to some degree. I particularly like the faked ferry fire..."
no schmaybe I'm amazed
Streaming iPhone video
Air Video is an amazing app I have wished for but never thought I'd see actually happen, given the App Store's dodgy rules about approving applications like this.
The other day I had a bit of insomnia, noticed my phone on my nightstand and wondered to myself if there was any hack, any way I could somehow stream videos from my desktop computer downstairs (both downloaded video and iTunes movies/shows). I was just thinking about trying out some media server apps to see if I could make it work when I saw this pop up on Lifehacker today. I've downloaded, installed, and gotten this app to work wonderfully. You can even jump ahead to different parts of a streaming movie and it'll render in just a few seconds.
It's a pretty handy app if you use one desktop computer as a "base" for a media center with other devices (like AppleTV, iPhone, etc) talking to it. Plus, you don't have to take up any space on your iPhone (and I guess iPad eventually) with the movie itself, as it is just streamed in real time.
I haven't tested remote access outside my network, but if I could stream a new show from home to an iPhone sitting in my hotel room while traveling, I would say we're truly living in the future now.
My Iphone app of the week
+-------------------------------+
Michael Clasen
mclasen@mclasen.com
925.285.5224
+-------------------------------+
How to use Facebook Chat with iChat
Fri, Feb 12 2010 at 7:30AM PST • Contributed by: AnonymousFirst, find your Facebook username by going to http://www.facebook.com/your_user/. Next, Open iChat, then select iChat » Preferences and click on the Accounts tab.Click on the + (plus) sign to add a new account, with these settings:
Click Done again, and you are good to go.
- Account Type is Jabber Account
- Account name is your_user@chat.facebook.com, and enter your password
- Click the drop-down arrow to reveal Server options. Enter chat.facebook.com as the server name.
- Enter 5222 as the port and click Done.
have to try this
How My Little Pony turned a little girl into a computer scientist
On the drive back from Madison yesterday, I listened to a lecture by MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle on the very personal relationships we have with objects, particularly the objects that help us think. Turkle talked about her 2008 book, Falling for Science, a collection of interviews with MIT students, and established scientists, about the objects that first drew their minds to math, computers, science and technology. Some were what you'd expect: Broken radios, Legos, a computer. But one story, about a My Little Pony, really caught my attention.
dedicated to my favorite My Little Pony fan...
Beaker (of the Muppets) performs "Dust in the Wind" for mean YouTube commenters
The official Muppets Studio channel on YouTube just keeps getting better and better. First "Bohemian Rhapsody," now this: Beaker performing the Kansas prog-rock classic "Dust in the Wind," and being pelted by caustic overlay annotations from anonymous strangers. Video Link: Beaker's Ballad.(via Laughing Squid)
beaker is me me me hero
