MakeUseOf » John McClain

3 Handy Sites To Check Out Before You Buy A Car

John McClain — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:31:16 +0000

Buying a car can no doubt be a stressful experience. There are just plenty of things to worry about, from whether or not you’ve picked the right car, what the reviews are saying, if it’s going to be reliable, and if you’re paying too much. Let’s not forget about the unfortunate reality of having to deal with car salesmen either.

Yes, the car buying experience can be a little overwhelming sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be. With the Web, it’s easy to simplify everything to avoid some of the hassle and frustration altogether.

Here’s 3 handy sites to check out before you buy a car.

CarZen

First, perhaps the most important thing to do is to research a new car and figure out what kind of car is right for you. With so many makes and models out there to choose from, how do you make that process easier? That’s where CarZen comes into play.

The site allows you to quickly select a vehicle that fits your specific needs. All it takes is just a few simple steps. First, just pick any of the body styles you are interesting in along with your price range.

A list of possible cars for you is shown below and from there, you can go on and select your personal preferences, including your specific needs, wants, and style, to narrow down the list further. Once completed, just review your results to check out the cars that are perfect for you.

Displayed for every match in your results is the percent match based on your needs, along with basic information about the car, including MSRP, invoice, and MPG. Below that, you can review the report card of how the vehicle was scored followed by a helpful overview of the model, basic stats, styles, and features.

MotorMouths

Next, now that you have an idea of exactly what car you want, head on over to MotorMouths. The Web is chock full of various car reviews and ratings from different providers, and that’s where this website can come in handy.

Just type in the make or model of the car in the search box at the top. If you have yet to decide on a car, you can also browse for vehicles.

Once on the car’s page, you’ll find the unique overall score, which is based on the scores critics awarded the vehicle in published online reviews. The site also displays the individual scores and the gist of the review, along with who reviewed the car, the critic’s credibility, and the style reviewed. Simply hit the link for the full review or the video review if there is one.

TrueCar

If the reviews check out and you’re all set, be sure to check out TrueCar before you take the plunge. The site features the real prices of new cars and trucks so that you can be certain you’re not overpaying.

Once you find your vehicle’s price report page, the interactive chart pretty much says it all. The comprehensive curve includes the dealer cost, sticker price, and factory invoice. What we’re really interesting in though is the average paid, which gives you at least an idea of what a good price for the car is.

Karl has also shown you three websites that can help you buy a car and when you finally have a vehicle, you will want to keep a perfect car maintenance schedule won’t you?

What websites do you visit before you buy a car? Have any of these helped you? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : emilio labrador

How to Put YouTube Videos On Your PSP

John McClain — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0000

One of the many useful functions of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) is the ability to watch videos of course. When you need a break from playing games, listening to music, or browsing the Web, it’s always nice to kick back and watch your favorite movies or videos on its generous screen anywhere you go.

As far as YouTube goes, without custom firmware, you won’t be able to play videos from the site on the PSP’s browser. Don’t worry; you’re not out of luck just yet, though.

It’s very easy to get YouTube videos onto your PSP. With just a few simple steps, you will be watching your favorite YouTube clips in the palm of your hand in no time. Let’s find out how to get it done.

Download the YouTube Video

First off, you’ll need to download the video off of YouTube. There are a variety of ways to do so. Websites such as KeepVid allow you to just enter in the YouTube video’s URL and download the FLV (Flash Video) file.

There’s also a whole flurry of browser plugins and programs that you install to your computer that do the same job. We here at MakeUseOf have extensively covered the topic of how to download videos from YouTube or basically any other site on the Web. Feel free to check out the following articles to learn more.

Convert the FLV File to MPEG-4

Next, we’ll need to convert the FLV file to the PSP’s supported video fomats (MP4, H.264/AVC). Again, there’s plenty of ways to do it. Perhaps the simplest and quickest method is using online FLV converters, like ModifyVideo, Movavi, and Vixy.

There’s no software to install here, as they’re all W\web-based converters. You don’t even need to download the YouTube video’s FLV file either. Just type in the YouTube URL and select the PSP or MP4 option as the output format. Download that file and you’re good to go.

A popular video conversion and management application for the PlayStation Portable is PSP Video 9. The software allows you to easily convert FLV files to the proper PSP formats.

The app also comes with the YouTube Downloader, where you can browse YouTube, select the stream, download it, and choose the output format all in one place.

Save the MP4 to PSP Memory Stick

Finally, once the file has been converted to MP4 and downloaded, connect the PSP to your computer via a USB cable. On the PSP’s main menu, make sure it’s set to USB Connection (under Settings) so that you can browse the Memory Stick Duo.

Now, just save the MP4 file to the “VIDEO” folder of your PSP’s Memory Stick and you’re all set.

Interested in PSP homebrew? Don’t forget to check out our free PDF manual: PSP Downgrading and Upgrading Guide.

How do you put videos from YouTube on your PSP? Do you do it this way or do you have another method? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: jlmaral

4 Great Sites To Rate and Review Teachers & Professors

John McClain — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:30:41 +0000

Do you remember your favorite teacher? What about the ones you couldn’t stand?

With summer break winding down for many students, it’ll be time to get back to their studies soon. With that comes the responsibility of registering for classes for the new semester and maybe some burning questions in the back of your mind.

“Is this class going to be hard?” “What’s the professor like?” With the Web, it’s easy to find out what other students think of the teacher before you take the class. Read up on their reviews and check out how others rate college professors so that you can be better prepared, have an idea of what to expect, and know who you may want to steer clear of.

Don’t wait until the first day. Here are the 4 best sites to rate and review teachers or professors.

Rate My Professors

Rate My Professors is one of the most popular professor review websites on the Web. The site boasts more than 10 million opinions of over 1 million professors from students like you. The ratings cover more than 6,000 schools across the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, and Wales.

Just search by professor or just find your school first by entering in its name. Displayed on every professor’s page is the overall rating, followed by ratings on helpfulness, clarity, and easiness.

Below that are the actual reviews, showing the class, how the users rate college professors, and any comments.

RateMyTeachers

RateMyTeachers is another popular review site. This time, however, the focus is on elementary and secondary school teachers only for the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Again, here you can search for your teacher by name or search for your school for the full list of teachers. Once on the teacher’s page, you can rate your teacher right there. It’s another simple 1 to 5 rating system, with the categories including easiness, helpfulness, clarity, and popularity.

Ratings and reviews are displayed just below that. If you’d like to know when the teacher is commented or rated on, just hit the “Follow” button and type in your email address to receive updates.

MyEdu

The academic website MyEdu also features how students rate college professors. What sets this site apart from others is that it claims to be the only community that works directly with universities to post the actual end-of-semester course and even the professor evaluations that students fill out in class.

The only catch is that you have to sign up to the site. With a free account, you’re limited to only the latest three reviews (if there are any). Upgrading your account gets you in-depth information about not only the professor but also the class in general, including grade history, drop rate, and more.

Professor Performance

For the United States and Canada only, Professor Performance is another useful review site for colleges and universities. Just browse by schools or search by professor to get started.

The rating system is a bit more unique than others, with letter grades, comment, and simple positive and negative columns.

Do you use any of these websites and have they helped you at all? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: marc buehler

The 5 Coolest Wii Addons To Enhance Your Gaming [Gadget Corner]

John McClain — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:31:02 +0000

If you’re lucky enough to have a Nintendo Wii, you may know that one of the funnest things about owning one is the ability to include additional accessories or addons to your gaming experience.

Ever since the console launched, a whole flurry of these Wii addons have become available. There are so many of them to choose from, how do you know which ones to buy and which ones to skip?

Let’s take a look at the 5 coolest Wii addons to enhance your gaming.

Wii MotionPlus

The Wii MotionPlus is a simple addon for your Wii Remote controller. Just attach this expansion device to the bottom of the Wii-mote and you’re all set.

The addon increases the accuracy of your controller by using additional sensors to respond to any of your motions in a 3-D space. This allows for noticeably enhanced gameplay control on compatible games, including Wii Sports Resort and a variety of other titles.

Wii Wheel

Another cool addon to have is the Wii Wheel. The peripheral simply turns the Wii Remote into a steering wheel. Just snap in your Wii-mote and you’re good to go.

Now, there is a trigger on the back of the wheel to function the Wii-mote’s “B” button, but that’s it. The addon itself adds no functionality, just the feel of a steering wheel in the player’s hands.

It doesn’t look like much, but it sure is a blast to play Mario Kart Wii with this thing.

Wii Balance Board

The Wii Balance Board isn’t just for exercise games. The accessory acts as a video game controller, just like the Wii Remote. Using Bluetooth technology and multiple pressure sensors, the board is able to sense your weight and balance to interpret the movements of your feet.

A wide variety of titles utilize the Wii Balance Board addon, including the popular Wii Fit. Be sure to check out the Top 5 Wii Fitness Games To Get Into Shape From Home.

Wii Zapper

If you are a fan of first-person shooters and basically any shooting style video game, you may want to consider checking out the official Wii Zapper peripheral.

Like the Wii Wheel, the addon is simply a shell for you to attach the Wii Remote up on top and the Nunchuk in the back. Uniting those two together, the result is a more gun-style controller that’s easier on the arms and gives you greater control when playing games that test your shooting skills.

Nyko Perfect Shot

If you’d prefer a pistol-like design, the Perfect Shot from Nyko is one of the best gun shells on the market.

The addon features a comfortable ergonomic grip and, unlike the Zapper, its design requires only one hand for operation, allowing your other hand to wield the Nunchuk or other accessories at the same time. Best of all, though, is its satisfying spring-loaded trigger. This is a third-party addon done right.

What are some of your favorite Wii addons? Do you play with any of these? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : nicolasnova

5 Sites With Job Interview Tips To Help You Ace Your Interview

John McClain — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:31:12 +0000

Ah, the dreaded job interview. We all know that you need to be prepared, but how exactly do you get yourself ready for it? Moreover, what kind of questions should you be expecting? Do you know how to answer them all?

All of this and a lot more can contribute to the whole job interview experience becoming particularly stressful, but that’s where the Web can come in handy to make the process a little less nerve-racking. There are tons of great resources available online with job interview tips to help you have a successful job interview.

Here’s the top 5 sites to help you ace your job interview.

HotJobs

Yahoo HotJobs’ Career Tools has an entire section dedicated to just preparing yourself for the all important job interview. You’ll find a whole flurry of well-written articles with job interview tips covering every aspect of the interviewing process, so it really makes for great material to review before any interview.

All of the articles are organized into different categories. The first category features everything you need to know about preparation. Types of interviews is the next category, which has strategies on how to handle the interview itself, including questions and answers. The presentation category has helpful information about how to present yourself, followed by articles on what you should do after the interview.

About

The interviews and employment page at About is also chock full of articles to help you with every step of the job interview. The questions and answers guide is a good place to start, with articles on what kind of questions you may encounter and the recommended answers.

Additional articles include information about phone interview etiquette, what to wear, thank you letters, interview follow up, mistakes to avoid, and more. Be sure to also check out the website’s helpful job interview videos.

Monster

The employment website Monster has some of the most comprehensive interviewing resources on the Web. It’s all divided into four sections with job interview tips: interview preparation, questions, appearance, and follow up.

There’s over a hundred useful articles to check out. Just click on the “Browse All Articles” link for the full listings, sorted by its rating. As for the articles themselves, they’re written by Monster’s own job experts and are all very straightforward, so it’s a good idea to read up on them for invaluable information.

Job Interview Questions

Job Interview Questions is another great resource that offers help and advice for the entire interviewing process, not just questions and answers.

The left-hand side of the website displays links to all the sections you want as the job seeker, including interview questions, follow up, salary negotiation, and more. Be sure to also check out the articles on the job interview tips page and the interview guide for more unique topics, such as interviewing during a meal and questions for you to ask.

YouTube

For some watching rather than reading, just turn to YouTube. The site has a great collection of videos all about job interviews, so it’s definitely another effective resource to improve your interviewing skills. Just search for “job interview tips” or job interview techniques.”

What are some of your favorite sites with job interview tips to help you ace a job interview? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : bpsusf

5 Best Computer Games for Toddlers

John McClain — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:30:29 +0000

No doubt about it, toddlers can be a handful sometimes. They’re amazingly active and simply demand your time and attention. So, what do you do when you need just a little break from it all but also keep your child busy and entertained?

Playing some computer games with your toddler online is a good quiet and stationary activity for both of you to enjoy. It’s an excellent way to teach and introduce your toddler to some basic computer skills. At the same time, your child can learn and have fun with a variety of engaging games out there to choose from.

Best of all, these computer games for toddlers are all available for free online and anytime for you to enjoy and spend some quality time with your child. Here’s the 5 best computer games for toddlers.

The Musical Instruments Game

Join the jam with the Musical Instruments Game from Fisher-Price. This fun and interactive music mixer game allows your toddler to learn about instruments and songs. Start out by choosing a song you’d like to play along with by clicking on one of the animals.

Now, turn up your speakers, watch, and listen as the animals start playing the song you picked with their instruments. You can now stop and start each individual instrument by clicking on a musician in the band.

Feel free to mix it up a bit by changing the song to take control over different instruments.

Super Duper Dolphin

Let your toddler watch a dolphin perform tricks when you feed him. This entertaining Nick Jr. game demonstrates cause and effect and helps introduce your child to the mouse.

Just click on the bucket of fish to feed the dolphin and he’ll do a different trick for every fish thrown. It’s recommended that you and your toddler try to count the fish or come up with names for the dolphin’s tricks to bolster creativity and language skills.

Coloring Book

Coloring Book is just one of many games to play on the Sesame Street website. With the help of Elmo, just have your toddler move the mouse around the image to color it.

Once completed, the picture will come alive with a bit of animation, music, and another image will come up for more coloring.

Party Costumes

Recommended for age 1 year and over, Party Costumes and Presents for Kwala is a popular computer game for toddlers at UpToTen. The website says that this activity will help your child develop skills in observation, understanding, decision making, orientation, and using the mouse.

The game is pretty simple. You have to try to find who the costume pictured in the large circle belongs to by following the line to the correct character. You can keep at it until you get it right and once you do, a new game will come up for you to try again until all the characters are in their costumes.

Music-Maker

Music-Maker is another simple and fun activity for your toddler to enjoy. This game is from KneeBouncers, which offers a variety of quality and full-screen games to choose from.

On the right-hand side, you can select either the drums, piano, or guitar to play. Song selection is on the left, and from there, just start pressing any key to play the instrument to the tune you picked. For the piano, you can also move your cursor over the keys to play them.

Be sure to check out the sites all these games come from for more activities for your toddler to play.

What are some of your favorite computer games for toddlers? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Tom Carmony

4 Tricks To Get Better Results From Job Search Engines

John McClain — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:30:45 +0000

Trying to find a job is hard enough, but when you’re bombarded with a flurry of online listings from search engines, it can get pretty overwhelming. Going through pages and pages of job listings gets old quickly, so how do you take control of your search and get to the bottom of it all?

Look no further than this list to help you out. It’s easy to refine your search to make it more personal and specific to your skills or needs. Save time and energy by knowing exactly where to and what to search for so that you can finally find the job you’re looking for. Let’s try to make the search engine do its job and work for you this time.

Here are 4 tricks to get better results from job search engines.

Search By Industry

First off, it’s a good idea to start by broadening your search before narrowing down your results. To do so, the job search engine site CareerBuilder has a nifty Industry Search feature.

Simply type in a keyword like a job title or category, enter in a location, and select an industry from the comprehensive list in the drop down menu. You can also feel free to browse all of the jobs in a particular industry manually.

Search By Company

You can also search for jobs by company. CareerBuilder’s Company Search provides a huge list of companies to browse through and see if there are any openings available. Just do a quick search by entering a company name. Feel free to choose from the alphabetical listings for companies that you would like to further research, too. Each company has its own page for you to review all of the job details and information.

Over at Yahoo HotJobs, there’s also the useful option of searching for jobs by company. This time, you can specify the location, industry, and number of employees.

Use Advanced Job Search Engine Options

Instead of just using a website’s quick search default of merely typing in a keyword and location, try to narrow your results further by taking advantage of the advanced search option.

Take the popular Indeed job search engine, for example. When you go advanced, you can search for multiple keywords, an exact phrase, disqualify certain words, and more. You can also specify which job type or commitment (full-time, part-time, contract, etc.) you’d like, if you want jobs from only employer websites or not, and enter in a minimum salary estimate per year. As for the location of the job, you can even pin down how far you’re willing to travel.

All of these options are easy and effective ways to refine your search for better results. Most job search engines feature them, including Juju, LinkUp, Monster (just click on “More Search Options”), and CareerBuilder. For more, check out the Top 10 Most Effective Job Search Websites.

Use Search Engine Filters

To further narrow your results, pay attention to any of the job filters available as you search. On Simply Hired for instance, there’s a bunch of filters available to get rid of all the useless listings and get straight to the point. You can filter out any old listings and just display new ones, enter in your experience, education, and much more.

Just about every job search engine has filter options, usually displayed to the side of the listings, so take advantage of them when you can.

Do you have any tricks of your own to get better results from job search engines? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Robert S. Donovan

How To Make Fake High Dynamic Range Photos In Photoshop

John McClain — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:30:53 +0000

We’ve all seen those stunning high dynamic range (HDR) photography on the Web before. For some photographers, the technique simply means touching up a photo to make it look better, but at the same time making it look like nothing was done to it at all. Others go in a different direction, creating a more unreal look and bringing about more of an artistic piece rather than something you’d see in real life.

Whatever the case may be, the results can be pretty impressive, but how is it done exactly? Do you need a fancy camera and special HDR software? Not necessarily.

If you have only one JPEG image, you can create a fake high dynamic range photography look with just a few quick steps in Photoshop. It’s an easy yet effective way to enhance your favorite photos.

What Is HDR?

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is simply about capturing a greater range of tonal detail. This usually entails taking at least three photos at different exposures of the same shot and merging them together. If you don’t have a camera that allows you to manually set the exposure, a tripod, or if the subject is moving, don’t worry; you’re not out of luck.

So, How To Make High Dynamic Range Photos

Here’s the photo we’ll be working on. It’s a single JPEG image straight out of a camera.

First off, open up the image in Photoshop and duplicate the Background layer by dragging it to the Create a new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette or by hitting Ctrl + J (Command + J on a Mac).

With the layer copy selected, set the blending mode to Overlay.

Now, go up to the menu bar and click on Image. Scroll down to Adjustments and hit Desaturate.

After that, go to Image > Adjustments again, but this time click on Invert (Ctrl + I or Command + I on Mac).

On the menu bar, click on Filter, go to Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur. Select a radius of somewhere around 50 pixels or so. If you notice any halos starting to appear around objects, increase the radius accordingly.

Now, copy the Background layer once again. This time, set its blending mode to either Vivid Light or Linear Light. Start lowering the opacity of this layer to your liking. From my experience, you should end up at around 25%, more or less depending on the image you’re working with. It’s entirely up to you, though.

That’s it. Here’s what we’ve come up with:

Bonus Tip

Here’s an additional tip you can try out. Here’s another photo that’s been through the same technique explained above:

It looks pretty good, but let’s try to tweak the colors a little to make them pop. Make sure you have no layers selected and click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon.

Select Selective Color and start going through the colors and adjusting the sliders to your liking, focusing particularly on any dominant colors in your image.

Here’s the final result:

Do you have any experience creating HDR images? Has this high dynamic range photography technique worked for your photos? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: MorBCN

3 Best Amazon Price Watch Trackers For The Bargain Hunter

John McClain — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:31:50 +0000

Everybody loves a good deal. When shopping at websites like Amazon, you simply expect competitive prices, but how do you know if you’re scoring an item for a bargain price or actually overpaying?

Enter the world of Amazon price watching and tracking. The prices of a lot of the products available at Amazon do tend to fluctuate over time. They’ll go up and down constantly, and that’s where these websites can come in handy to keep tabs on all the price changes.

Never overpay again! Shop smarter and save some dough on the way by knowing exactly when it’s the right time to buy and when you should probably wait.

Here are the 3 best Amazon price watch trackers for the bargain hunter.

AmazonPriceTracker

The useful AmazonPriceTracker is one of the best tools on the Web to track any Amazon product. Start out by simply typing in the item’s URL, ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), or just any keywords into the text entry box right on the homepage to find the product.

Once on the product’s page, basic details such as the category it’s listed in, its sales rank, and customer review rating are displayed, but what we’re really interested in is the item’s price history information. Right off the bat, the site provides the product’s current, lowest, highest, and average prices. Just below that is a helpful chart tracking the Amazon price with specific dates.

Be sure to also take advantage of the website’s price drop alert feature, which will send you an email when the price of the item drops to or below how much you’d like to spend on it. Just type in your email address, your target price, and hit the Submit button.

camelcamelcamel

Another great site to check out is camelcamelcamel. Again, just enter in the Amazon URL, ASIN, or keywords to locate the product. Displayed on each item’s page is a comprehensive price history chart, tracking not only Amazon’s price, but also third party new and used prices. You can even specify the chart to display only a range of one, three, six months, or a year.

For a more detailed analysis, click on one of the tabs for everything you need to know about the product’s price changes.

The website is also chock full of a lot of useful features. As well as providing price watch and availability alerts to your email address, you can also get alerts sent to your Twitter account. Just hit the Create a price watch for this product button to type in your desired price and submit your information.

Its Firefox and Google Chrome extensions also put a Track Product button right on the pages of retailers for easy access to camelcamelcamel’s price history charts. You can read up on The Camelizer in the 3 Google Chrome Extensions to Save $$ When Shopping Online.

The Tracktor

If you’re looking for a more simple alternative, turn to The Tracktor. The site takes a dead-easy approach to it from the get-go.

Once you’ve found the product’s page, just basic information about the item is displayed, along with a chart tracking new and used prices. There is a price drop email alert feature available, but you must first create an account to use it.

Have any of these websites helped you out when shopping at Amazon? Do you know of any others? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : MikeBlogs