Latest in Offbeat

Please enter Sound Sunday for fantastic free and all legal music downloads from independent artists and labels. We kick off this edition with a free song from Kingston 530. The young band is currently recording their debut album and they need a little support to make it happen. We then dive into soul, electronic, dubstep, [...]
Keep Reading »

A couple of months ago, James revealed his home setup and challenged the rest of the MakeUseOf team to do the same. I don't work from a static location, so I don't have a home setup. I adjusted my setup for mobility and have tested and improved my 'system' while traveling across Canada for the past couple of weeks.
Keep Reading »

Welcome to Sound Sunday! If I could recommend you to listen to only one song today, it would be the instrumental piece 8.19 by Matt Stevens on Spencer Park Music’s Label Sampler (first song). Fortunately, however, there are tons of great tracks in this edition that are worth recommending. My favorite album this week is [...]
Keep Reading »

Whatever your flavor of apocalypse may be, it's always a good idea to remind yourself that it might happen, so you really should ask yourself, "What am I going to do?" Get ready to grab your rad-suit, crank up the chain-saw, or check the batteries of your Geiger counter. MakeUseOf is venturing out into the wastelands with these three sites.
Keep Reading »

We know MakeUseOf readers love freeware and open-source software. So, we want to know how much you really use? Each week, you probably cycle through most of your favorites, so how many are there? Let us know.
Keep Reading »

Every Sound Sunday is your opportunity to give a new artist or genre a chance to like them. This edition is no different. Once again we make great leaps from widely accepted styles to the unexpected and the challenging. As mentioned last week, your suggestions can shape upcoming editions. And if I don’t pick them [...]
Keep Reading »

Yet another week has passed and it’s time again for Sound Sunday. In this edition you’ll find quite a bit of variation, including a remix album of The Chemical Brothers’ record Further, a tribute album to Nirvana’s Nevermind, and a mix of genres including pop, rock, soul, hip hop, ambient, electronic, and an idea of [...]
Keep Reading »

As the Internet gets bigger and bigger, so do the places needed to store all of that data. But where are these data centers exactly? Which ones are the largest and who owns them? How can we put 600 Exabytes into perspective so that we can truly understand its size?
Keep Reading »

Whether you have an ebook collection or a hard-copy collection, it's likely that you've collected a few technical books along the way to learn the more important things about your chosen mode of tech. So, at last count tell us how many have you got?
Keep Reading »

Celebrate summer with Sound Sunday! We’re approaching the middle of summer. This is the best time to spend sunny days and warm evenings outside. If you’re forced to stay in, maybe Sound Sunday can lift you up and add some summer feelings to your days. Besides folk and rock, this week’s edition also contains some [...]
Keep Reading »

One of the key factors in growing your own vegetables is ensuring you rotate your crops every year to avoid a build up of disease and prevent a complete depletion of nutrients. For this particular dilemma, you could make use of VGALive, a free online vegetable plot management system and encyclopaedia.
Keep Reading »

Connecting to the Internet was once all about big honking cords. The cords might be telephone lines, or cable lines, or FiOS lines specifically installed for Internet service, but the running theme is a line of wire connecting you to the Internet. Today, that’s not always the case as mobile broadband becomes ubiquitous in major urban centers.
Keep Reading »

Play it loud on Sound Sunday! To make up for being very electronic-centric last week, this edition is dominated by handmade music, such as folk, rock, and punk. If you enjoy any of the albums, please consider donating a few dollars to the artist. I apologize in advance in case any of the free or [...]
Keep Reading »

Laugh and learn by reading quick, to the point blog posts. A variety of blogs around the Internet are good not only for laughs but for learning valuable things about human nature and living in the online age. Just because a blog is amusing doesn't mean it can't teach you something. Even a seemingly inane gimmick can show you something.
Keep Reading »

If you've ever spent any time dabbling in the online dating scene, you've probably realised that it has some huge limitations. Mostly, that it can be really hard to find someone who you're actually going to like in real life. It's simply not enough to be able to say you're looking for a blonde 30-year-old. What you really need to know is whether your idea of a good time is in any way compatible.
Keep Reading »