Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last week.

1. HOW DO I TURN OFF CAPS LOCK? (Screenshot)
2. The Tom From MySpace finally Gives Facebook A Shot (Screenshot)
3. A House Of Ultimate Technology Products (Pic)
4. Google Wave Explained Using Pulp Fiction Scene (Video)
5. Meet The Guys Behind Google Street View (Video)
6. If Politicians Were HTTP Status Codes (Pic)

If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.

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• Top 8 Websites With Cool Free Personality Traits Tests (13)

I hope I am not alone in reminiscing about these games but this is what I grew up on!

Now when you have some time to kill you can browse on over to the authors home page here or his software company’s webpage here and play a similar Asteroids arcade game called Luminara.

Luminara plays in your browser using flash 10. All you have to do is go to their website and start playing! When you arrive at their site you will see this:

Click on the word Play in the center of the screen and you will be off and ready to play.

The premise is the same as the asteroids arcade game – you shoot using your mouse button and spin using your mouse. You break or destroy the asteroids that are coming at you. But the twist is addictive music, colors and awesome looking icons. There are 50 waves of colorful enemies and explosions ready to draw you in…

But as they always say it is better to show you then explain it to you. How do you explain pretty colors other than slipping someone a hit of acid? Well without further ado here is a 6 minute video walk through that will get you amped for this game:

So now that you see a little bit of what I am talking about, let’s see what the game has to offer. As you play you will be offered different power-ups like lasers and companion players. Those friendly assistants help you clear out those hard boards. Use your up and down arrows to guide your ship around the screen and collect those power-ups. Here I am after grabbing my first companion ship. They sure help!

And the author named the companion players after the regulars in his forums! That sure is funny. I bet they love playing this game. Hit the P key on your keyboard to pause the game and bring up your options as you can see below:

You bounce off the sides instead of going through and out on the other side like the classic game. Your bullets also bounce off the walls and can continue killing after they bounce. My day is seriously screwed as I tried to get this game in between doing my duties! I am addicted.

We would love to hear about your high scores and your other favorite (FREE!) games. Leave them in the comments so all of our MakeUseOf readers can benefit.  Do you have a game you cannot get through the day without playing? Then hook us up, put us on and we might just do a full review of it here. Remember we are writing for you, the readers, so let us know what you want to see more of (or less of!)

Ok that’s enough for today boys and girls I umm have to…you know…get back to work. No really I have stuff to do

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Well, that’s what Gizmoz is. A Web 2.0 3d character maker that lets us create, customize and animate lifelike 3D talking characters and share it on sites like YouTube and Facebook. Yes, your very own talking, blabbering avatar.

The animated online clones are a new ‘breed’ of character-based visual icons. Digital characters that will take over from humdrum photos and dumb avatars. What Gizmoz does is provide a free web service that makes it dead easy to create dead ringers for our online selves. These are embeddable Flash objects with the look of a 3D caricature. It’s a huge lot of fun when you make these characters lip-synch with your own lines on social networking sites or just send it across like a 3D postcard.

There are three ways you can use the Gizmoz 3d character maker to make your own virtual showcase. But first, go through the simple registration and log-in.

Publish 3D Clips

Large repertory of templates to put your face on and publish them or embed them as Flash objects. The templates give you a gallery of choices to make slideshows, 3D greeting cards, animated mini-clips, vacation postcards, commentary clips for any video where you are the speaking critic, 3D avatars, and a new beta product where you get to swap faces with a celebrity.

Print Customized Products

You might not be asked to star in the next Indiana Jones film but you can put your face under his hat with a face swap. That’s the general idea in this section (which is basically the beta face swap option from the earlier section) leading up to the stage where you get to print it on mugs and tees. But the printing isn’t free though it may sound cool. If you don’t want to part with your pennies, share the finished file on your social networks or simply download it to your computer.

Create Cool Profile Pics

We are back to free with this part of the Gizmoz service. Create your own character using provided faces or your own snapped with a webcam or uploaded. You can customize your character by changing the hair, giving it some makeup, accessorizing it or just morphing it into something bizarre. The finished character is yours to download, print or share on social networks like Facebook.

Enter the Gizmoz Studio

The process behind all three options takes you into the Gizmoz Studio interface where you mashup your face on the templates provided, add bells ‘n whistles like graphics, media clips and voice bits to make the animations talk. Gizmoz gives you many tools to do the job. What’s needed is only the face.

Making the character talk is also easy using your own recorded voice or taking the help of the site’s text to speech engine. The steps to follow for each process are clearly outlined.

The Gizmoz site is designed around one concept – that it should be easy to make your own animated 3D avatars and share it across the web. Making animated reincarnations of your own self is fun, what’s better is finding out the ways to entertain your friends through it.

I will leave you here now and go make one Clint styled avatar for myself. Always wanted to spout the lines – “Go ahead, make my day!”

Will Gizmoz make yours? Discover it and let us know.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Needless to say, all free personality tests should be taken with a grain of salt, which is to say, not very seriously, and certainly not as a replacement for professional psychologists. With that disclaimer out of the way, we can now present our hand-picked selection of the Top 8 Websites with cool tests that measure your Personality Traits!

#1: Signal Patterns Big Five Test

The Big Five is the leading industry personality model, shown to work across different cultures, geographies, and languages. It is the model most used in psychology and by human resource professionals. In this model, the personality attributes of a person are “measured” in five traits: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Openness/Intellect. The Signal Patterns test extends the model to 45 facets, each mixing two of the Big 5 traits.

The free personality test takes about 10 minutes and you get a nice visual representation of the results. You can also take this test as an application on Facebook or iPhone. From here, you can also take the Parenting Style test to find out what kind of a parent you are.

#2: Human Metrics MBTI Test

The MBTI is the precursor to the Big Five and remains the most widely administered personality test, with about 2 million tests taken every year. This is the granddaddy of all personality tests! According to the MBTI, all people are classified using four criteria: Extroversion – Introversion, Sensing – iNtuition, Thinking – Feeling, and Judging – Perceiving. Your “type” is then made up of four alphabets depending upon your score in these four criteria, for example ESFP or INTP.

There is a lot of typology information as well as several other tests available on the web, including websites devoted exclusively to each of the sixteen MBTI personality types. The Myers-Briggs Foundation site is the authentic source for further information.

#3: The Big Five Test

This site has a free personality test based on 45 questions from the Big Five Inventory, with more background information provided here.

Rate yourself on a 5 point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree to discover your inclination on five personality dimensions.

#4: Keirsey Temperament Sorter

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is closely related to the MBTI, and uses four temperaments extended to eight roles to model your personality. KTS is also a popular assessment test, taken by 40 million people across universities and companies worldwide. The site requires a free registration to take the KTS-II test.

Find out if you are an Artisan, Guardian, Idealist or Rationalist with this test. Wikipedia provides further information about KTS, including a comparison with MBTI.

#5: The Color Quiz

Whether you agree with the results of this color quiz or not, this is surely a fun quiz to take! Simply go on choosing the color you like the most, in a two step process.

In the results, you get an assessment of your existing situation, stress sources, restrained characteristics, desired objective, and actual problem.

#6: TESTdex Personality & Intelligence Tests

This site offers a large variety of personality tests. You can choose from the Big Five, Jungian, Enneagram, Brain Hemisphere, and others.

The nice thing about this site is you can choose your test based on how much time you wish to spend, as you know the number of questions in each test beforehand. Apart from personality tests, you will also find a handful of Intelligence, Amusing, and Compatibility tests here.

#7: Queendom: Land of Tests

Queendom is a website maintained by a company providing psychometric services and psychological assessments. There are tests for everything under the sun on this website – Personality, Love, Health, IQ, Career, etc. Whether you are looking for serious tests for career or relationships, or fun tests for trivia, you will find them here.

Beyond the many tests that make this an attractive site, you will also find that there is an active community, articles, and advice related to all aspects of our life.

#8: Youniverse

This website is run by Imagini, a UK startup, to promote their VisualDNA concept. You can take a series of tests for Personality, Movies, Love, etc. in all of which you choose the best picture that matches a concept like my kind of bedroom, vacation, excitement, etc. It may not offer much psychological insight, but is a pleasant and interesting way to take quizzes.

You need to register with the site to see your results. More than 15 million people have taken the VisualDNA test, which Imagini uses to sell VisualDNA Shops widgets for blog and website affiliate sales.

Want more? See How to Have Fun with Online Personality Quizzes and more fun personality quizzes we covered earlier.

Did you enjoy taking tests on these sites? Any favorite site you like that we missed? Share it with us in the comments!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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I am not ashamed to admit I’m an avid Dilbert cartoon fan. Whenever I get off the phone, frustrated with HR’s lack of cooperation regarding the company sponsored insurance plan, or every time I walk out of an especially meaningless and pointless meeting, I pop open a few Dilbert comics on my browser or mobile phone, and I feel much better.

I’m not sure what it is about Dilbert that makes those of us who suffer through cubicle life feel better. Maybe it’s because it helps us to realize that even though we grudgingly agree to the new idiotic buzz-words passed down from management, and even though we allow ourselves to take part in moronic meeting discussions – we can know that we are not alone. Someone out there understands – and that someone is Dilbert. In honor of the man who brings me out of my cubicle depression each day, I would like to offer 6 of the best sites for Dilbert cartoon comic fans.

First Stop – Dilbert.com

Anyone who follows the Dilbert cartoon comic strip likely already knows that the premier spot on the Internet for Dilbert fans is obviously Dilbert.com. MakeUseOf has highlighted this site for its use of Twitter, and the site feature where you can attempt to mash your own Dilbert cartoon strip. The site offers the popular section that offers the Dilbert strip, the user mashup section and even an animated Dilbert clip. My favorite part of the site is actually Scott Adam’s blog.

His updates are sometimes witty, as you would expect, but he also dives into his own personal career decisions as well as political commentary. It’s a fun read and I encourage any die-hard Dilbert fan out there to follow along with the creator’s blog.

Dilbert Doodles

It’s a one-page section of Google Doodles that Saikat mentioned before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Dilbert Doodles were a series of Dilbert cartoon strips created exclusively for Google.

From Monday through Friday, Google updated the Doodle to reflect the Dilbert office crew trying to come up with the new Google logo. On Friday, the logo itself was the punchline. This series of Google Doodles are obvious collectors items for Dilbert fans.

Ringtales – The Animated Dilbert Podcast

While the comic strip is hilarious, the Dilbert animated cartoon is just as funny. At Ringtales, the collection of free Dilbert podcasts at this site is addictive – I couldn’t stop clicking through them!

Do you want to display the 5-day-a-week Dilbert cartoon podcasts on your own blog? Just click on the Widget menu at the top of the website and you can embed the video on your own website.

Embed the video clips in your blog, myspace page, on Facebook or anywhere else you want to share the wit of Dilbert with all of your friends.

Computer Weekly – Dilbert of the Day

Every day, in addition to checking out my favorite tech blog RSS feeds, I also take a look at the latest articles on Computer Weekly. The online version is where I get my latest fix for computer news. One of my favorite pages that I check out every day is Computer Weekly’s “Dilbert of the Day” comic strip.

You can certainly get your Dilbert fix from Dilbert.com – but if you’re looking to add as much Dilbert as possible to your daily life, this is yet another source to get a great daily fix from one of the premier online computer magazines on the net.

Mozilla Firefox Dilbert Add-on

Of course, if you want to receive your daily comic fix without having to browse to a particular web page, you can add the Dilbert Firefox Add-on. This is a free add-on that adds a small button to your status bar. When you click on it, up pops the strip of the day.

Installation is as easy as clicking and in a few moments and a few more clicks you’ll have Dilbert as part of your Firefox installation – what more could a geek ask for?

Track Your Dilbert Reading With Library Thing

LibraryThing is a very cool organizational website that Aibek covered back when it was in Beta. Now, it’s alive and well – and it features its own Dibert section where you can check out a collection of covers from the various comics, or add the titles of the various Scott Adams books you own to your personal Library collection.

This is a lot of fun to browse, and there’s even a section of LibraryThing for communities and groups. As of this writing, there’s no Dilbert group – so why don’t you start one?

Do you have any other fun Dilbert resources for MUO readers who are fans? Share them in the comments section below!

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Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last week.

1. Cute Little Girl (Video)
2. Spammer Challenge: Break This CAPTCHA (Pic)
3. Best Typo Ever (Screenshot)
4. Here Is Why Parents Shouldn’t Be On Facebook. (Screenshot)
5. Dilbert Puts Twitter to Good Use (Pic)
6. Interesting Facts About Cell Phones (Video)

If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.

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Symbols existed even before the alphabets. Over the years they have been part of folklore, myths and legends. Some have stayed on as indelible marks. Some, like the swastika, are better forgotten. Symbols have remained potent. If you doubt their visual power, then look no further than logos. People shell out millions for a three-pointed star on a sleek hood or a prancing horse. Puzzled? The first one is the Mercedes logo and the latter is Ferrari’s.

In this post we will take a look at some symbols or images that we can reproduce using just the keyboard. The superset of creating images using letters/symbols on the keyboard goes by the name of ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art. You need two things to draw ASCII art anywhere online…a keyboard and lots of patience.

How Do We Create Cool Symbols Using The Keys On Our Keyboard?

Text art/ ASCII art can be drawn using any text editor, online or offline. The simplest is Notepad on Windows or TextEdit for Mac. More advanced word processors have features which are more adept at selection and alignment functions like Overtype and Insert.

Can text art be learned and are there any special techniques to create cool figures?

The answer to the first is yes, it’s fairly easy to learn. There are some basics of course that need to be kept in mind. The rest as they say is practice.

Some basic techniques for keyboard symbols are :

1. Use a fixed width (Courier, Monaco, and Fixedsys) font, to draw your symbols because every type of computer has them. Also called as a monospaced font, they are fonts whose letters each occupy the same amount of space and thus they are also easier to align with one another.
2. Experts speak about noticing the difference between serif (with a short line at the end of the character) and sans serif (without the line at the end) fonts for text art. The display may differ from one computer to the next depending on the default type of font. One advice usually is to use the vertical bar (|) instead of the capital I (I) to draw vertical lines with the sans serif font.
3. Draw in the Overtype mode on your word processor. This makes it easier to put in another character without re-aligning the neighboring ones.
4. Use the Space key instead of the Tab key.
5. Draw a rough sketch of the figure on paper and then put in place keyboard symbols and letters that bests approximate the angles and curves of your figure. For instance, o or @ for eyes, “ for hair etc. The most common symbols used in ASCII art are: / \ | – _ ( )
   
6. Start small with simple symbols or figures. Example – a rose or a face.



7. Begin from a simple area of the figure which has a shape that’s easy to type in.
8. Go for close approximation rather than pinpoint accuracy…after all, accuracy is more suited for line art.
9. Correct your mistakes early because leaving them for later will mar the precision and placement of symbols.
10. Free your imagination!

5 Websites for ASCII Art Lovers

The ideas for the ASCII figures mentioned in this post have been collected from the web. Here, I would like to particularly mention a few sites where you can go and see the visual impact created using just keyboard symbols and a text editor. Looking at them will give you an idea of the techniques involved.

Chris.com’s ASCII Art Collection

A treasure trove of ASCII art collected by Christopher Johnson from the corners of the net. Check out the categories on the left frame. The Halloween, Batman and the space ship Enterprise come from this complete collection. If you want to see what’s possible then this is the resource for you.

The site also has quite a few detailed tutorials on how to start off with ASCII art. Read all of them for a complete education on how to draw with letters and keyboard symbols.

ASCII Picture Collections

A roll call of text artists arranged alphabetically. I have taken the image of the house from the works of Yvonne Adams.

The ASCII Art Dictionary

A resource created by Andreas Freise listing all his creations. He has also sorted his gallery according to the sizes of the figures – Big, Small, and Micro.

ASCII World

A lot of ASCII art arranged in categories. You can also send them to recipients through a direct email from the site.

Asciimation

I included this for the love of Star Wars. Checkout the ASCII Star Wars Movie. Just shows you that ASCII art can be really cool.

The thing about this art form is that you don’t need special skills or special tools. An eye for detail may help though. What’s more important is a will…to make mistakes, rub it away and start over again. So, open your text program, bring up your favorite image and start tapping away.

Also check out Simon’s article on 3 apps to view ASCII art. Do you have your favorite ASCII image or your favorite ASCII website? Let us know.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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My requirements were pretty simple. I wanted a little character in the lower right corner of the screen that talks to me and interacts with me when I want it to, and otherwise keeps its trap shut when I don’t. I wanted a little dude that’s helpful and functional, but wouldn’t get in the way when I wanted to click on the screen.

With all of these requirements listed, I struck out in search of a cool application that could accomplish all of these things. Needless to say, I was terribly disappointed for many hours. As my search grew old, I almost gave up. Other than countless websites with viruses or malware doubled as an alleged virtual desktop characters – there was no legitimate application to be found. That is until I landed on the very last link that I found – and then like that I discovered the perfect app, simply called DeskBot. Let me introduce you to my brand new free talking desktop buddy.

DeskBot, The Free Talking Desktop Buddy – It’s For Real

First of all, kudos to Gordon Bell at BellCraft Technologies for developing this cool little app and offering it for free. After installing the base application from the download page and running it, you’ll immediately discover a little blue Genie in the lower right corner of your screen, and you’re presented with the settings window.

The two features you can set up on this first screen are the ability for your character to read any text that you highlight and copy in a digitized voice, and in various intervals (which you can set), your little desktop buddy will tell you the current time. The next few tabs let you configure everything about the character.

The software comes default with the Genie or Merlin, and you can set the voice, the animations, whether a balloon appears when your character talks, and a whole bunch of other customizations. Now, as an aid for those learning to read or elderly who can’t read the small text on the screen, the next “Read” tab is fantastic.

Your desktop buddy is prepared, at any time, to read entire texts out loud for you. Just copy and paste the text into this screen and click on the green “Read” button – and your character comes to life and starts reading to you, complete with a pop-up balloon (if you’ve configured one). Now, the next tab is my favorite part of this little app.

This is where you can configure a variety of greetings that your little buddy will greet you with when your computer first starts up. I have to say, hearing the Microsoft digitized voice saying, “Let’s rock and roll” had me on the floor in stitches laughing. Honestly, the standard voices and characters just don’t cut it for me – they’re way too 1990’s for my taste. Thankfully, the DeskBot download page offers downloads for additional Microsoft Agent characters and voices (including French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

To be honest, the default characters remind me too much of those annoying little animated guys in Word and Excel that keep getting in your way. So, searching through the characters, I found the guy I wanted – a bouncer guy wearing the most hilarious bright green suit.

This guy is a riot. When he’s bored he puts on sunglasses, drinks from a soda can and then chucks it off screen (complete with the sound effects of the clinking can).

Your new friend will greet you every time you start up your computer. You can open up entire text files and have your talking desktop buddy dictate the text while you finish other tasks. Your character will let you know the time as often as you like, and even while you’re working and don’t need the help, your little friend will wait patiently, snoozing or sleeping, until you need something.

Deskbot – link

Have you ever made use of any other applications with Microsoft Agent technology? Can you think of any other cool uses for DeskBot? Share your opinions in the comments section below.

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I’m not the only one who dreams of such a person coming along and righting wrongs. Millions flock to a long list of top sites for superheroes, perhaps dreaming of having that courage, or power to make a change in the world. Of course, we all can, however it’s nice to think of being able to do it with a cape on. Up, up and….ah, you get the picture.

5. Kade: The Gothic Demon Hunter

Yeah, I haven’t heard of Kade either. Yet, according to Alexa, this is the most popular superhero website. Seriously. Kade apparently can’t feel – not the edge of a sword or his mother’s caress.  Awww… poor Kade. Wouldn’t that make doing anything kind of hard? Try holding a sword, or urinating. Would he feel that he has to go to the bathroom? I’m sorry, but this character makes about as much sense as the Twilight movies. Oh wait – same audience – brooding teenagers who think they are the first generation to ever go through their teens. That being said, I’ll probably give into suspension of disbelief and read a few anyway. As a bonus, it is kind of cool that this is a Canadian website.

4. Silver-Surfer Homepage

This is one superhero I never really understood. He’s silver and surfs through space. Did you ever get the feeling that Stan Lee and the crew at Marvel maybe did some pharmaceutical experimentation. Can you imagine the meeting that spawned this guy?

The website itself appears to be influenced by mind-altering substances. Sometimes there is red text on a star-field background. Sometimes the text is yellow. Either way, the content is interesting and a testament to this persons obsession with a boogie-boarding metalloid.

3. Incredible Hulk Online

Weighing in at number 3 and some 900 to 1040 pounds, the original green machine! At Incredible Hulk Online, you’ll find that there are at least 7 incarnations of the Hulk. Beats me. When I stopped buying comics, there was still just one Hulk. The site is a bit light on content, but is pretty interesting nonetheless.  It’s a pretty decent fan site, especially if you’re into collecting Hulk toys.

2. SpiderFan

I am so not a fan of spiders, however if I could become Spiderman by letting a radioactive one bite me, I’d be all over that like a web that catches flies. Look out! Here comes the Spider Guy!

The first real anti-hero, or at least unwilling hero, is arguably the second most popular superhero of all time. From humble beginnings at an upstart comic book company to cheesy Saturday morning cartoons with recycled cels to blockbuster action extravaganzas. Spiderfan tracks it all! Even the promo items given by fast food joints.  Did you know there was a villain called Chicken Cow? Somehow it all fits together….

1. Superman Homepage

Was there any doubt that Kal El would top the list of superheroes? Of course not. The first, and the greatest superhero of all time has had this site dedicated to him since 1994. As the logo says, they have everything you ever wanted to know about superman. Seriously. I started to get seriously sidetracked as I wandered through the decades of information, artwork and trivia about Clark Kent, Superman and all of his enemies and acquaintances.  Remember Krypto? The super dog? How about Comet the super horse? It’s all there.

Weird huh? No X-Men. Oddly enough, based on my research into web statistics on superhero sites these are your top 5. I would have thought for sure there would be Wolverine or Batman (although technically not a superhero) or Wonder Woman (I still have a puppy crush on Lynda Carter). Nope, not there. If you know of a great website dedicated to a superhero, we’d all be glad if you shared it in the comments. Especially if it features Lynda Carter.

Image Credit: DuckBrown

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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As I write this article Google’s current doodle is a barcode to celebrate the anniversary of the invention we all take for granted now as we queue up at the supermarket.

Today’s doodle made me inquisitive about the actual doodles themselves so I delved a little deeper and found some cool stuff you can do with the Google doodles. If that piques your interest, check out Saikat’s recent article (5 Sites To Spread The Love For Google Doodle Pictures) which shows you some websites where you can check out the older Google Doodle archives.

Check out the old ones

Until I wrote this, I assumed that once the holiday, occasion or anniversary had passed the Google Doodle was gone forever- sucked up into the abyss that is the Internet. However you can browse through hundreds of different old logos and doodles from all over the world in a gallery kept in an archive by Google.

It’s one way to waste half an hour on the internet when you should be researching an article.

Keep the Good Ones

I found a script that will allow you to scroll through the vast Google Doodles archive discussed above and select one to have as your permanent icon on your Google homepage. I though this was cool seeing as new doodles only come out once or twice a month depending on which local Google site you’re using. It was developed by a Google employee a while back to celebrate the tradition of Google doodles.

There are however a few constraints to it. Firstly you have to have Firefox which you can download from here. It won’t work with other browsers such as Google Chrome (surprisingly enough, although I’m told the developer is going to get one when the browser is developed further and is more stable) or Internet Explorer.  It also needs to have the Greasemonkey add-on installed to work.

The script to select which Google logo you want, cunningly called ‘Favourite Doodle’ is available here. They’re both really easy to set up and should take no longer than 2-3 minutes for most users. You shouldn’t even need to restart Firefox when it is complete.

Then, right click on the Greasemonkey bar along the bottom of Firefox and select ‘Choose Favourite Doodle’ and then ‘User Script Commands’ as shown in the screenshot. This will bring you to a gallery similar to the one discussed above but each logo will have a ‘Make this my favourite’ button underneath.

Once you select which one you want as your favourite you’ll be redirected to the Google homepage where your favourite logo will replace the original one. When a holiday rolls around, you’ll still get the new custom logo for that day in place of your favourite one.

Make your own doodle

Google also allow people to submit doodles in annual worldwide competitions. Normally, this privilege is reserved for leading artists and cartoonists who are allowed to submit their designs not for money, but for the sheer publicity designing a Google doodle would bring.

The scheme is called Doodle 4 Google and is open to anyone still in their country’s education system. The winning entrant gets their college tuition of up to $15,000 paid for and a host of other goodies. Plus an all expenses paid trip to the Google HQ in the Big Apple (this is the US prize – it will differ depending on each country).

Google also give the winning school and district thousands of dollars. There are thousands of prizes to be won in each country for those who didn’t quite make the cut such as laptops, t-shirts and goodies.

So there you have it, three cool ways we can ‘interact’ with Google’s Doodles.

Aside from amusing us by catching us off guard, the Google logo and its many incarnations will be going down in the history books as a mover and shaker within the industry.

Do you know of any other tips and tricks to make the most out of Google’s Doodles?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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The latest one by the way is a celebration of the barcodes birthday (check the thumbnail on top). The now commonplace barcode was patented on October 7th, 1952 and Google marks the commemoration by tweaking its logo.

Some doodles are for selected countries. As an Indian, I especially remember the tweak on October 2. Google honored the man who led India’s independence movement. Google replaced its ‘G’ with a line drawing of the national icon’s face. So the Google Doodle pictures are also gentle reminders of the significant days in our busy lives. I caught that one but I missed the one they did as a tribute to Michael Jackson.

It is a very minor thing, but it’s an oddity. And it’s oddities like Google Doodles that make for collectors items. A Google Doodle picture may be nonphysical for the real world but it is a curiosity nonetheless. So where does one go to see the graphic magic that Google is doing with its logo? The fan pages, of course!

The Official Google Holiday Logos Page

Google has an obscure page devoted to its art form. The page is a comprehensive listing of all logos going right back to the first one in 1988. The Burning Man festival was the first one (see pic).

Apart from the holiday logos, you can also check out the Fan Logos link which is a showcase of Google buffs getting inspired and amok on their graphic programs. If you are looking for a particular logo, use the keyword in the search box. And if you are that keen, using the RSS feed on the page would be a good option.

Doodle Source

A beta site which has the avowed aim of gathering all Google Doodle pictures and building an archive of them. It’s fairly new with all the recent listings going back to August of this year. So don’t expect a huge collection just yet. The site though lists the logos categorized by countries. You can also use the search link to search by keyword, country or date. The site has a sister website at Doodlerepository.com.

Perfnova.com

Almost resembling a mirror site of the official Google site with its date linked holiday logo listings. The Google style logos’ online museum is a fan site and as much a comprehensive display going right back to the beginning.

Google Logos Collection

A blog style site built on the appreciation of Google art work. The amount of logos showcased here are around 222. The author also lists his favorite Top official Google logos.

Logoogle

Just to break the same-old-thing yawn, check out the collection of fake Google inspired holiday logos. All created by Google devotees from around the world. You have a whole series of logos poking fun at the Google logo. Think of it as an off-handed compliment. But check out the linked interview (featured in Korean Herald) with Dennis Hwang, the hand behind the real Google logos.

Here’s more from Dennis Hwang and his thoughts on oodles of doodles.

Though there are few more fan sites expressing love for the Google logo, these five should hold our interest. With their complete collection, they should be adequate reference points in case you miss the point of a certain logo.

For example, did you know that Google holds a competition for K-12 students to re-imagine Google’s homepage logo? The Doodle 4 Google 2009 winner, Christin Engelberth’s winning entry is below –

As I said, there’s a little story behind each logo. Call it clever branding or just call it fun, Google gets its doodles right.

Which is your favorite Google logo? My favorite one was the ‘Unexplained Phenomenon’ on Sep 05, 2009.

Let us know yours, share them in the comments.

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What prevents these technologies from being the here and now? Most of it comes down to money. Money to market the product, money for proper consumer safety testing, money for the mass production. Sure, there are other factors as well. In some cases, the inventor just isn’t sure if the world is ready for it. Take, for example, the microwave oven.

The microwave oven was released as a commercial product in 1954. The convenience of nuking your food could be yours for somewhere between $2000 and $3000 dollars. Obviously, the public wasn’t ready to pay that much fast food in the home. The technology was shelved for awhile longer.

Let’s move on and take a look at some of the best sites to see future predictions about the world.

5. The Hedonistic Imperative

Don’t let the title put you off. I’m not exactly Puritanical, however, my own beliefs don’t mesh with what most people would consider hedonism. Fortunately, The Hedonistic Imperative is taking the name literally. They are looking to create a life of pleasure through the absence of pain.

More philosophical in nature, THI still presents strong pharmaceutical evidence that life where varying states of bliss are what motivates a human, rather than avoiding varying levels of pain, is possible! At first glance that sounds like a pipe dream, however, as you delve further into the HedWeb, as they call it, the layperson can begin to see that it could be a reality. Honestly, I don’t think I can do the site justice in a few words. I don’t support everything they say, however, it is worth reading.

4. World Future Society

As the name would suggest, the World Future Society (WFS) is a sort of professional and amateur futurist organization. Many of the world’s leading futurists submit articles and share their future predictions about the world, or even how they think it should be.

Here you’ll find articles on future forecasts for everything from nanotechnology to the H1N1 virus. These are not merely the meanderings of of people with too much time on their hands. Some of their contributors are recognized leaders in their fields such as Wall Street Journal columnist Alexandra Levit, Dr. Karl Albrecht (not the German billionaire) and Tsvi Bisk.

3. ZiiTrend

Possibly the most innovative of the futurist sites, ZiiTrend combines the forward -looking principles of futurism with the power of social networking and trending.

Questions about the future are posed by users in a myriad of different categories ranging from technology to stocks to sports events. Then, the community replies to the question with their thoughts and research and vote as to how likely an event is to happen. An overall prediction is applied, something like Most Likely or Unlikely and then shows the percentage of votes for the likelihood of the outcome. I like this site so much, I’m probably going to join.

2. The Club of Rome

This is a group I’d actually heard of before researching the article. In tin-hatter circles, The Club of Rome is considered to be the think tank behind what technology the New World Order or Illuminati is going to use to take over the world. Of course, I don’t believe that stuff. I just find it entertaining.

What The Club of Rome really is, is a think-tank of ridiculously intelligent people. They try to come up with ways to make the world a better place through their Systems Integration Programmes. These fields are broken into the areas of Social Transformation, Peace and Security, Environment and Resources, Globalisation and International Development. The Club does definitely have political sway! Your group would too if it had the brainwaves of some of the most intelligent people in the world. A fair number of their policies are adapted by governments and organizations around the world.

1. Long Bets

This is the site that makes futurists, forecasters and predicters put their money where their mouth is. Real people make future predictions about the world on the site and offer up a real cash bet that it will either come true or not, in a specific time frame. The money from the bet goes to a charity of the bettors choosing, thus making it more of a fun, altruistic game.

This isn’t any back-parlor betting though, folks. Luminaries such as Warren Buffett and Ray Kurzweil are throwing down some serious greenbacks here! Here’s a good example: “By 2029 no computer – or “machine intelligence” – will have passed the Turing Test.” The bettors are Ray Kurzweil (against) and Mitchell Kapor (for). The stakes? $20,000.

Not rich enough for you? Try out this bet: “Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S & P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses.” Warren Buffet (for) and Protege Partners, Jeffrey Tarrant and Scott Bessent (against) are throwing down One Million Dollars!

You can go and read why each person thinks they are making the right bet and join in on the discussion about it. Since these are real players you should also gain some great insight into what might happen in the future. Making the future IS their business.

Make the future now. Tell us what you think tomorrow holds. Let us know where you turn to get a glimpse of tomorrow, in the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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So what are these things for? Well, they are a way of assigning unique data to whatever they are applied to. Like a barcode or an ISBN number in some ways. The problem with things like bar codes is that they can get damaged or even switched. Some people do that to try to get expensive things cheaper – highly illegal. An RFID tag can be as small as a grain of black pepper and be embedded right into a product’s packaging, or the product itself. So you can start to see some of the benefits here.

Most RFID’s do not have an internal power source, like a battery, but some do. I’m going to cover the ones that don’t, as they are the ones that are most popular.

The RFID technology has two components – the reader and the tag. The reader has two parts – a transceiver and an antenna. The transceiver generates a weak radio signal that may have a range from a few feet to a few yards. The signal is necessary to wake or activate the tag and is transmitted through the antenna. The signal itself is a form of energy that can be used to power the tag.

The transponder is the part of the RFID tag that converts that radio frequency into usable power, as well as sends and receives messages. When the transponder is hit by the radio waves, the waves go up and down the length of the transceiver, oscillating. You might know that when a wire passes through any sort of magnetic or electric field, it can convert and conduct that field down its length. Like those flashlights, where you shake them and a magnet goes back and forth through a copper coil, creating electromotive force.

Now that the RFID has some power to work with, it wakes up the transponder. The transponder immediately upon being woken up, spews out all the information it has stored on it. This whole process can take as little as a few milliseconds. Imagine having friend who was hypnotized to wake up upon hearing a code word, tell you his name and phone number, and then fall immediately back to sleep. Yet he wouldn’t do this no matter what else you said. Funny, yes it is. That’s pretty much what RFID technology does.

The amount of information that the tag stores can vary. Passive tags, like we’re talking about only store about 1024 bytes of information, or 1 kilobyte. That might not seem like a lot. However, my full name, address, phone number, birthday, social insurance number, place of birth and mother’s maiden name is only 130 bytes of information in plain text. That’s enough information to steal my identity and ruin my life. Now, are you seeing the tin-hatter applications here? Add to that, some people are for implanting these things in your body. Now imagine this RFID technology is embedded in your household items. How hard would it be to hack your own reader and walk around a person or their home and get a full inventory on them? These passive tags have an unspecified lifetime, anticipated to be at least a few decades.

I’m not saying that they are going to be used for nefarious purposes, but the potential is certainly there. Consider that Hitachi can make RFID tags that will hold 128 bits of information, enough for an identification number, like a SIN number, that is small enough to possibly be inhaled. Certainly, it could be put on you, or anything else, without you noticing.

In the picture, all those dots are the Hitachi Powder RFID’sand the black line is a human hair. To me, that’s scary.

What do you think? Do you think RFID’s have their place, or would you rather we just stuck to barcodes and such? Would you allow yourself to be ‘chipped’ with an RFID? Why? Or, why not? Let’s chat it up in the comments, shall we?

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I’ve previously written a couple of articles here about Facebook, such as the controversial method on how to view private Facebook profiles, or how to email mobile photos to your Facebook account. However, in addition to those tips, there are other codes and features that aren’t immediately obvious to most users – so I wanted to provide a list of the top 6 of my favorite Facebook “hack” codes and tips to other Facebook enthusiasts out there.

#1 – The Konami Code Lens Flare Hack

This is a rather silly hack, but if you’re visiting friends who may not be very computer savvy – this is a very easy way to impress them with your hacking skills. Borrow their computer (or bring your laptop), log into your Facebook account, and then on the computer keyboard just type the following key sequence of arrows and letters exactly: UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-B-A-<Enter>

Then, click around on your Facebook page, or scroll up and down the page (this seems to work best), and you’ll discover a pretty cool display of lens flare effects.

Oddly, the effect isn’t horribly annoying because it disappears pretty quickly when you really need it to. It isn’t the most impressive hack though, because it’s probably the most common one mentioned across the net – but it’s still kind of cool and fun to play around with.

#2 – Aye, Make Yer Profile a Pirate’s Page You Landlubber!

The second profile hack is also one of the easiest to implement. Facebook offers users the ability to transform their Facebook pages into any language that they like. If you scroll down to the lower left corner of your profile page, you’ll see your current language setting. Click on this, and you’ll have a list of all languages available to you. Notice the English Pirate option?

Ahoy matey – yer now a Cap’n! Now as you go through your profile page you’ll notice some pretty hilarious pirate variations.

Now, the wall is the Plank, your profile is the Cap’n’s Log, and you can now either click a post as pleasin’ to me eye (like) or blabber t’yer mates (comment).  It certainly removes the “boring” factor from your old standard Facebook pages.

#3 – Upside Down Status Updates

If you’ve been on Facebook long enough, you’ve probably noticed a few people posting upside down status updates. They sure do think they’re clever don’t they?!  Yes, you too can be the envy of all of your friends and family by posting your updates so that people have to look silly by tilting their heads upside down so they can read it.

Most of the people you’ve seen doing this have likely installed a Facebook app just to do so. However, I dislike installing apps because you always have to provide permissions to those applications to access your profile. A better approach is to use the free online application at FlipText to generate your upside down status update.

Simply copy the upside down text from the lower text box, paste it into your Facebook status box and post!

#4 – Download Complete Photo Collections From Your Friends’ Profiles

If you have a lot of friends on Facebook, you may not have the time to keep up with all of the new family photos they’ve posted – but you are very interested in them and would love to have them stored in your own private photo collection to review later. Well, thanks to a very cool FireFox plug-in called FacePAD, you can do just that. The add-on is awesome, and I would recommend that anyone with the resources to do so should send in a contribution to Arthur Sabintsev for his efforts.

After you install the FacePad plug-in, make sure you select Tools->Add-Ons, and configure the options for FacePad so it has your correct Facebook language. Then, all you have to do is go to your friend’s photo albums, right-click on the title and select “Download Album With FacePAD.”  That’s right, you’re not downloading a single picture – but an entire album.

Once you do, FacePad downloads every single image within that album into the download folder you’ve configured in FireFox. Don’t forget to organize all of those photos using JetPhoto, as recommended earlier by Jeffry.

#5 – Schedule Facebook Status Updates With Sendible

Do you like to keep your Facebook profile active, but you’re coming down with a cold and may be offline for a few days?  Maybe you’re taking a trip and won’t be anywhere near a computer for a week. Or maybe you’ll be playing hooky from work and traveling, but you want your colleagues and boss to think you’re stuck at home sick. Accomplish any of these wishes by using Sendible to schedule your Facebook status updates. This is an application Daniel covered earlier, so check out his article for more details.

But for Facebook specifically, once you sign up with Sendible, just click on Facebook and provide your Facebook login details. Sendible connects directly with your Facebook account. The, under “New Messages” click on “Status Updates“.

On the next page you can schedule out as many updates as you’d like! This service is awesome – and you can distribute scheduled updates to a number of social networks including MySpace, Blogger, Twitter and more.

#6 – Hide Your Online Status From Certain People

Look, don’t feel bad about it. When I first joined Facebook I left my online status wide open. After a couple of weeks of getting inundated with nonstop chat requests, I simply turned off my online status completely. Problem solved. Except, there really were certain people I wouldn’t mind hearing from – is it really fair for a few chatterbox buddies to ruin your chances for communicating with everyone? Well, there is a way for you to selectively block your online status from certain people.

All you have to do is open up your chat icon in the lower right corner of your Facebook display, click on Friend Lists, and create a new list called “BlockList.” Make sure after you create it that it’s configured under “Display these lists in Chat.”

Now, all you have to do is either click “edit” and add the friends you want to block, or if they’re already online, just click their name and drag them under this new list. Once you’ve got everyone there who you want to block from see your online status, hover your mouse over the green dot to the right and click on “Go Offline.” Now, you appear offline to only those certain friends.

Facebook, unlike MySpace, is not really easy to tweak – which is actually a good thing. Gone are the days of those horrid eye-bleeding pages with pink flashing backgrounds and instant music that you can’t turn off. However, the tweaks and plug-ins in the list above offer at least a few ways to customize your Facebook account and usage to suit your life and your personality.

How do you use Facebook? Are there any hacks or add-ons not offered here that you especially like to use? Share them in the comments section below!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Today, I want to share with you 5 different design concept websites that will get your sucked into the creative world of design.

(1) Toxel.com

Toxel.com is a blog that shares concept designs and products that are sure to turn your head! Most of the blog posts are lists of items or objects that are in the same or similar context. For instance, in the post titled 17 Most Unusual Vending Machines, there is a list of different unusual vending machines.

They highlight items from the everyday life also.  Sometimes when everyday mixes with the creative you come up with posts like 14 Unusual and Creative Slippers:

Another interesting topic that comes up often on Toxel.com is advertising.  Just any advertising technique is interesting but Toxel.com likes to share advertising that will blow your socks off.  For instance, they did a post listing creative and clever escalator advertisements.

(2) Vidafine.com

On first visit, you may be asking, “What in the WORLD does Vidafine mean, anyways?”

Pronounced (Vee-Da-Fine). The name Vidafine came about one sunny weekday afternoon by combining the words Vida (which means ‘life’ in Spanish) and Define (which means ‘define’…. in English) together. Essentially, Vidafine is a term that we believe, challenges the individual to proactively and positively define one’s lifestyle.

The Vidafine blog is “a visual exploration and emotional engagement of the vast ideas, design concepts and products from around the world that shape our modern culture.”  Sure enough, you will find some neat design concepts and products on this site.  This site is also a blog but unlike Toxel.com, Vidafine.com doesn’t rely on the list but usually focuses on one design or object at a time.  For instance, a few of the posts that caught MY eye were Wireless Charging Mat (I’ve gotta get one of these!) which is about a new product from Duracell which is a mat on which you place electronic devices and it recharges the batteries,

Bike to the Future, which is a really cool bicycle concept which would sport spoke-less wheels, fingerprint recognition for security, and self inflating tires.

And Cardboard Office (I’m not really sure what the point to this one is but it’s still really cool!)

(3) Tuvie.com

“This website is dedicated to talk about techs and gadgets in the future, some of them might still even a concept.”  Tuvie.com is the site for the techie in us.  Tuvie.com sports a darker site design with a black background and white font.  Once you get used to that, the rest is history (or should I say future!).  This site also takes a look at one design concept per post, unlike Toxel.com.  Some of the designs and concepts are more interesting than others but hey, you never know which ones will define our future gadgets!  Check out Insight Diabetic Foot Care Scale from FrogDesign.  Being a diabetic myself, I find this interesting.  We can use all the help we can get!

Also check out the “Mo”: Redefined Notebook PC.  One of the complaints avid book readers have about ebook readers, such as the Kindle, is that they don’t feel like a book when you hold them.  It seems this concept notebook can help in that area.  Not only does it fold like a book, it can also fold backwards and double as an alarm clock!

(4) Yankodesign.com

Yanko Design is a web magazine dedicated to introducing the best modern international design, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, interior design, architecture, exhibition and fashion. It’s about the cutting edge and the classic, the new and the rediscovered. It’s all about the best.

Yankodesign.com also has the black background and white font look.  There are many designs that are still in the design concept stage that will keep your attention for a bit.  Hit the “related posts” section at the end of each post and the time just slips away!  Each post has a quick paragraph and usually several different pictures; for those of us who have always loved the books with little words and many pictures!  Check out the post about the Emotional Phone (an interesting little gadget that can detect the strength of your relationships and can even detect a friends emotional phone nearby and share tagged pics, etc. plus some!):

And the Nokia CLIPit Concept Mobile Phone (a phone which puts into use something called “smart fabric”)

Also the New Kinda Treasure Hunt

(5) Creativecloseup.com

This colorful blog highlighting all kinds of cool designs is a hard one to ignore.  For instance, who doesn’t remember Legos and all they brought into our lives?  Well, one post shares several designs inspired by the little toy building blocks!

Also check out Kitchen Gadgets and Appliances for True Geeks which shares a number of gadgets to geek up your kitchen (yes, it is possible!):

And read 15 Incredible Conceptual Designs You Wish Existed which shares several conceptual designs which do not (yet) exist:

There you have it, 5 sites that get you sucked in and your creative juices flowing!  Check out the coolness, but also let us know in the comments of any other cool design or tech-concept sites we may not have mentioned.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Sometimes, all I want to do is relax when I’m taking a break. One of the best ways, I find, to take a break while I’m writing is to entertain myself with one of my favourite freelancing shows, podcasts or cartoons. Yes, they exist. The guys at these freelance writing websites have turned their freelancing experiences into freelance gigs.

Freelance Freedom

This is a cartoon by N.C. Winters that I positively love. It’s published weekly on the homepage of FreelanceSwitch. Basically, it takes all the good, the bad, the misconceptions and daily grinding tasks of freelancing and rolls them into funny, often satirical comic strips. Perfect for a quick coffee break!

Hot For Words

This popular video podcast should not only interest writers but the nerdy and fact obsessed. Basically, it informs us of the origins of strange words which we may or may not use in the future. For example, did you know that clinophobia is a fear of going to bed?

The podcast is presented by an attractive, often scantily clad woman (maybe that’s why it’s so popular) who guides us through loads of cool words. This is a quick five minute break filler that makes you laugh, raise an eyebrow or just go “hmmm…”.

I Should Be Writing

This freelance writing website is a podcast presented by Mur Lafferty, a freelance writer. This is in audio format and gives the listener practical yet entertaining advice and insight into the world of freelancing and its many pitfalls.

The podcasts covers many different areas from the basics such as writing query letters to managing finances and organizing your workday to reach optimum levels for output. All in all, this is a good podcast if you have a while to spend listening to the musings of a seasoned veteran.

Write or Die

While this is considered a motivational tool to get writers writing, I think it’s a funny freelance writing website, and has loads of other uses such as beating your WPM record or just joking around.

Basically, it’s a word processor that times you when you write and keeps track of what you’re doing. If you slow down or stop writing for a while (i.e. you lay back and start spinning on your office chair, admiring the ceiling, etc) it will go red and redder  until some crazy, funky music starts playing and it tells you to get your fingers back on them keys! An easy to use, fun and perhaps even useful app for the procrastinating writer.

I hope that in some small, most likely insignificant way, I have cheered up a fellow freelancer somewhere who has just lost a contract, missed a deadline or is simply bored in their office waiting for an e-mail to come in and for the ball to start rolling after the weekend slump.

Warning: I take no responsibility for time wasted or deadlines missed due to your enjoyment of the above cartoon, app and podcasts!

What sites and apps do you look at on a regular basis in your freelancing breaks?

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But if you found yourself at this article, chances are you are looking to blow someone away with your superior intellect in your puzzle solving abilities. Yeah you want to cheat at a kids game. Don’t worry there is no shame in that (YES THERE IS!).

Up until now if you wanted to cheat at the old Rubik’s cube you had to either take it physically apart or remove all the stickers and rearrange them. These methods are difficult to say the least but old school geeks have been doing them for years. I know, I know get to the new Rubiks Cube solution….hurry up I have a group of kids waiting.

Ok so no more stalling go ahead and check out this website. When you get there you will see this:

So the trick to finding your Rubiks Cube solution is to make the Rubiks Cube on the screen look like the one in your hand. You do this by clicking on a color:

Simply select the color you want to make a square and then click on it. One at a time slowly, but surely. Hey no one ever said cheating was going to be easy! Once you get everything inputted, you will be ready to get your cheat on.

Let’s take a look at my Rubiks Cube color configuration:

Once you have entered all of your colors like I did above, you will need to click on the solve button below the color picker. Once you click that your Rubiks Cube solution will appear on the screen:

Wow one hundred and eight fricking moves? I am going to be here all day! Hmmmmf.  I know I am going to get one or two moves wrong and throw my whole cheating off. There has to be an easier way.  Ah ha!

There is a link on your solution screen entitled Click Here to see a diagramed version. That will display a step by step guide with a visual picture. This should help you immensely. Check out our solution in this manner:

Still 108 steps but now it is MUCH easier to follow along. So no matter if you are trying to impress a girl in your class or a kid at the playground this will be your savior.

Look we don’t advocate cheating (yes we do) so don’t ruin your fun with this. It is a lot of fun and it gives you immense satisfaction when you really do solve it the old fashioned way… Of taking the pieces off and oh wait… I mean actually solving it!

The author wrote all the code, and the ideas behind the algorithm. They are all original and written by Eric Dietz. Thanks Eric!

Are you a cheater? Do you have solving a Rubiks Cube under your belt? Legitimately? How did you do it? What was your secret?

Link : Solve a Rubiks Cube

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Online, smileys are a powerful way to transport emotions. The typographic smileys are generally known as emoticons. Placed with care and read with an eye for detail, they clarify the meaning of a statement and improve interpretation.

Meanwhile, chatters across the globe have developed a huge selection of emoticons and smileys on most instant messengers. If you always want to hit the right nerve and never pick the wrong expression, use our emoticon guide to popular codes for smiley faces.

Western Emoticons

Western emoticons are typically written from left to right. Here are 15 of the most popular ones.

1. Smile

: – )   or   :-]   or   :3   or   :> stands for happiness.

2. Grin

: – D   expresses great happiness or a victory.

3. Frown

: – (   or   :-c represents sadness or disappointment. The latter can also mean great sadness.

4. Wink

; – )   or   ,-)   or   *-) indicates a joke or double entendre in what was said.

5. Tongue

: – P   or   : – p   or   :-Þ   or   :-b is an emoticon to tease, often used as a joke.

6. Open mouth

:-O   or   : – () stands for surprise or shock.

7. Distorted mouth

: – / means skepticism, being annoyed or uneasy.

8. Beaked lips

:-X   or   :-*   or   :-<> expresses a kiss, love and affection. But careful, this one can be ambiguous.

:-@   or   : – ) ~~ ( – :   or   : – )~~~~ stand for french kissing.

9. Sealed lips

:-X   or   :-# stands for embarrassment. Notice the ambiguity.

10. Halo

0:-) represents an angel or innocence and is often used in a playful manner.

11. Tear

:’-( shows a crying face and expresses sadness.

12. Horns

>:-)   or   >:-D is used to express evil.

13. Blank

: – | expresses boredom, but can also stand for no comment.

14. Spittle

:-p~~ represents drooling.

15. Arrow

>.>   or   <.<   or   >_>   or   <_< points the way in which to look. Technically, this is an eastern emoticon.

Eastern Emoticons

In contrast to western codes for smiley faces, eastern emoticons can be read without tilting the head. Here is a selection, which does not correspond to the previous one.

1. Smile for happiness

(^_^)   or   (^.^)

2. Open mouth for laughing or singing

(^o^)

3. Wink for joking

(`_^)   or   (^_~)

4. Closed eyes for sadness or sighing

(-_-)

5. Lowered head for bitterness or disappointment

(._.)   or   (,_,)

6. Sweat drop for nervousness or embarrassment

(^_^’)

7. Big eyes for wonder (seriously?)

0.o   or   O_o

8. Beaked lips for a kiss

(^x^)   or   (^3^)

9. Blushing for embarrassment

^///^   or   >///<   or   o///o

10. Crossed out eyes for death

(X_X)

11. Tears for sadness and crying

(;_;)   or   (T_T)

12. Distorted eyes for pain, failure or frustration

(>_<)   or   (>.<)

13. Closed eyes and zzZ for sleeping

(-_-)zzZ   or   -_-zzZ

14. Headphones for listening to music

d^_^b   or   d-_-b

15. Distorted eyes for annoyance

(>_>)

There are many, many more emoticons to express every shade of emotion you can think of. You will find more western emoticons here and here. The latter also includes emoticons that represent celebrities and a list of available MSN and Yahoo! smileys. More eastern emoticons can be found here.

By the way, most chat clients automatically convert codes for text smiley faces to graphics. If you want to prevent this, there is a simple trick: simply type the characters in reverse order, for example (-: instead of : – ).

Do you use emoticons and did you come across different meanings of the ones mentioned above? Please share potential ambiguities with us!

Image credits: jaylopez

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Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve covered a lot of topics that involve ways you can use outside applications to control your PC; such as Ben’s article on how to control your PC using Remote Access, or my article on 3 ways to remotely restart your computer over the Internet. But, what about controlling other things with your computer?

Specifically in the world of model train building and operation, the ability to design model train layout plans, and then control a model train with your computer would be very cool. This is where CATrain comes in. CATrain is a very cool Windows app written by a guy by the name of Joel Bouchat over in France. With his application, you can design and lay out a complete model railroad track, design a timed “itinerary,” and yes – you can even hook up your train to your computer and automate your model train.

Creating Model Train Layout Plans With CATrain

When I first discovered CATrain, from the screenshots I thought that it would be a simplistic, amateur application. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent too many years playing graphically intensive games like SIM City or Roller Coaster Tycoon. A video game CATrain is not.  Once you install the application, it quickly becomes apparent that what you’re dealing with here isn’t so much a simulator style game, but more of a design application that comes preloaded with everything you might need to accurately lay out a model train railroad.

The app first comes up in design mode, and you’re offered a pallet full of the various train track segments that you’d find in most model railroad kits. The learning curve for folks already familiar with most Windows applications is essentially zero. It’s all drag and drop – that’s it.

As you click a track segment, it attaches to your mouse pointer. Move your mouse over to the grid section that you want to fill and the application provides a tip with your options at the upper right hand corner of the application (nice touch!).

Once you have a decent model train layout plan, you can switch the application mode over to add elements like the power supply and signals (electrical design), set the grades of track segments, or switch the application over into “run” mode.

Under Display options is where you’ll find the bulk of how you configure the on-screen appearance of your design and where you can configure the itinerary for your train. It’s also where you open up the throttle and device controls, a critical part of the application if you plan to simulate the operation of your train on the screen, or control your real train off the screen.

The next menu item is where you can view the wiring configuration of your design track to make sure that you’ve placed the correct connections together, and that the polarity of the power supply is correct. When you select the “show polarity” option, it shows up overlaid on top of the track as shown above.

Ready to place your simulated train on your new model train layout plan? When you go to select “Place a Train on the Railway” under the “Trains” option, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a total of 30 train types. You also have the option to edit your own train.

Once you’ve selected your train, bring your mouse over to the track and left click to place it wherever you’d like the train to start, the application pops up the throttle control icon as shown above. I’m afraid my pathetic little track won’t exactly provide the opportunity for a fun itinerary for this poor little train. However, the application comes preloaded with a long list of pre-designed model train layout plans (under the TCI folder), and when you see the creativity (and complexity) that went into some of these designs I’m sure you’ll be as surprised as I was.

Of course, on top of the well-written design software (and free on top of that), the best part of this software is its ability to actually control your model railroad hardware. When you install the application, you’ll notice a USB driver installed along with it for that purpose. However, this is where the “free” stops, because obviously to control your model train you need the microprocessors to plug your computer into in order to do so. Required hardware includes a USB interface, PWM controller, device controller and train detector. Joel sells these pre-made, or you can buy the electrical schematics to build them yourself.  Whether you choose to use his hardware, or you build it yourself, CATrain represents at least one very cool way that you can interface between your PC and something in the real world that you can actually control.

Are you a model train enthusiast? Have you ever hooked up your PC to control something in the real world? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

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Of course you have – who hasn’t? But the probability of you actually getting there is slim to none. Sorry for bursting your bubble but chances are you’re not going to be famous. But maybe you want to feel famous or you want to create a little image trickery that will put you in the spotlight.

CoverDude lets you create awesome looking custom magazine covers (albeit fake ones) very easily. Even though the magazines are not real pretty darn cool looking.

All you need is an internet connection and a computer. The site is very easy to use and a well trained monkey could probably use it.

But I don’t know which cover a monkey would pick….but I digress.

Let’s check out the site. I browsed on over to CoverDude and got down to it.

Once you are at the site all you need to do is click on the Get Started On Your Free Mag NOW button located in the bottom right hand side of the site. Once you click on that, you will be brought to a wizard that will guide you through  setting up your custom magazine cover. Yes you sitting in front of your computer reading this article can be on your very own magazine cover! How cool is that?

Next we will need to pick a template. These templates are essentially magazine covers with a blank cutout of a person. Your picture will be laid under this image like a layer in Photoshop. Each of the templates are listed in the screenshots above and below. Click on one to choose it or hover over it with your mouse for a close up look at the cover template.

This is a close up of one of the covers. You can see it shows where your image will go. This is a little misleading because it will put the entire image under the cover not just the image of a cut out person. This will become more apparent below.

After selecting your cover template, it is time to upload your image. The smaller the image the quicker it will upload (obviously). I worked with a PNG file saved using PNG-8 in Photoshop that worked dumb quick. Simply click on the white field labeled click here to upload a photo.

Once your image is uploaded you will see a screen allowing you to make some modifications to your image. Mine was already modified so I just moved it around a little with my mouse to center it.

When I was done I hit preview and saw my cover up close and personal. Then I hit Save Cover and it took me to this screen allowing me to share my cover on the intertubes know as social networks…

And without further ado here is my custom magazine cover:

What do you think? Useful or a waste of time? Do you have a similar site you would like to share with us? Well then what are you waiting for? Hit me up in the comments.

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This question has envoked a discussion that has been going on for the better part of gaming history. With pro’s and con’s, a definite answer is not present.

Some claim gaming is indeed an art, but not one of the greater arts, like painting, poetry and literacy. But where do you draw the line?

Some games integrate these ‘greater arts’ in a gaming concept. It’s hard to answer that same question again when the borderlines are fading.

Today we’ve gathered three poetry video games – games that express, test, or are poetry.

Silent Conversation

Silent Conversation – created by Gregory Weir as a ‘July project’ – might be best described as a physical reading game.

Gregory tells us how as a child, he started to see the structure of words, sentences and paragraphs as something physical. This game grew out of that idea.

“…the end of a paragraph was a fissure in a cliff edge, and each indentation was a handhold. I could visualize a little person running along the lines, exploring every crevice of the story.”

In Silent Conversation, you run and jump through lines of stories and poems. The objective of the game is to ‘touch’ as many words as possible, some of them with a higher ‘value’ than others.

This process of chasing words, especially when they’re poetically arranged around the level, makes you read the works more closely and concentrated. It’s a very creative way to urge people into intensively reading stories and poems, and more so because of the grading system (see top right corner of the screenshot above).

Perhaps if schools would work with a similar system for reading assignments, children would be a lot more willing to learn!

Passage

Contrary to the other two games, Passage doesn’t use a single line of existing poetry. In the game, there isn’t even a single line of dialog or text. No, although the definition poetry video game doesn’t strictly fit, Passage may be considered as a poem itself.

There isn’t much I can say about the gameplay without spoiling everything. My suggestion to you would be to download the game and play it yourself before reading on. The game runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, so everyone can partake in the experience.

Warning – the following paragraph will contain spoilers. If you haven’t played Passage at this point – please do, reading on will spoil the whole experience.

In Passage, you are a boy in a small strip of 8-bit gaming. You’ll quickly notice that this is your vision, but does not limit the level around you. After you’ve wandered around for a while, you’ll encounter a woman. When you first meet, a heart appears around you. No words are exchanged, but the result is obvious. You’re now married and move as one.

Together you wander on through the level. You’ll notice something changing about your character. Your hair is graying and you’re balding. After a while your wife disappears, a tombstone now in her place. It doesn’t take too long before you die as well. This is where your journey ends.

Passage tells its tale slowly and subtle. Its tale is life.

TruHangman

TruPoets is an online community, devoted to reviving poetry’s place in the cultural world. One of their members created TruHangman, merging the well-known game with a wide base of poetic knowledge. True, this isn’t the most artful media on the internet, nor is it innovating gaming material, but it’s a nice way to test your poetic knowledge.

The ground layer, hangman, works the same as always – guess a word letter by letter, but if you’re wrong too often, the little guy will hang. However, instead of using words, this game uses sentences from famous poems and pieces of writing, or quotes by writers. Are you wondering how much poetry you know? Do the (fun) test. Don’t worry, it’s pretty easy.

Did you enjoy this article? If you’ve got any other poetry video games to add, surprise us and your fellow MakeUseOf readers in the comments section below!

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And so begins one of the pinnacles of my childhood – Luke Skywalker fighting the evil Darth Vader.   I can still remember playing Star Wars games in the school playground where we would take turns playing the Jedi Knight. We would get the pleasure of beating the hell out of the poor soul who had ended up getting the part of the hapless stormtrooper, chasing him around the playground while he shouted “right, it’s my turn to be Luke Skywalker now!“”

Nowadays, you can still play Star Wars but, as with everything else these days, it has moved itself online.   Here are some online Star Wars games you could play (and I don’t mean the drinking game).   OK granted, they are not as good as the paid PC games but if you have a spare 5 minutes to kill, these freebies are good enough to satisfy your Star Wars fix.

Star Wars Lightsaber Simulator

Well, this isn’t really a game as such.   All you can do here is swing a lightsaber about which does get boring after a while.   But if you want to practise your Jedi moves before moving onto an actual real game, this is a good one to start off with.  Just choose your lightsaber from the bottom, click your mouse to activate it and then use the mouse to swing back and forth.  Can you feel the Force yet?

Lightsaber Training

This basic game (but still quite fun and addictive) involves killing droids with your lightsaber by deflecting the lasers (which they are shooting at you) back at them with the lightsaber.   It is actually not that easy to do and you lose points if the laser hits you instead. And yes, I got my butt whooped.  By a droid.   I’ll never live it down in the bars of Mos Eisley.

Jedi Versus Jedi – Blades Of Light

This one has a bit more to it and the graphics are MUCH better.   Hosted by Hasbro who make the Star Wars toys, you have to choose which Jedi you are going to be and then begin fighting the other one.   Pressing A & D on your keyboard gives you the fighting moves while pressing the space bar releases the Force (if you have enough that is)

I predictably got my ass well and truly kicked. Can you do better?

Clone Wars

This one involves you aiming your mens guns (who are in fixed positions) so that, when the time runs out, they will then fire and hit your opponent’s men, wiping them out.   Each side has three men and the first one to wipe out the other side wins.   I actually won at this one!   Maybe I am not such a write-off after all at this gaming lark.

Gunship Over Florrum

Another offering from the Star Wars website.   This one has you in control of a gunship and you have to use your left mouse button to fire at the enemy which are flying your way shooting at you.   Use the spacebar to drop bombs too if you have any.

The Star Wars site also offers other free online games called Sharpshooter and LiveFire.

There’s a lot of stupid pointless games online as well (including one I found where you have to fire at Imperial Tie-Fighters but they don’t tell you where the fire button is – you have to find it yourself!).   If you want a decent free game, the Star Wars website is the best place to go but as we’ve seen, there are a few other sites if you keep looking.

Which sites do you go to when you want to play Star Wars for free?   Let us know in the comments.

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This article explains how to make a WiFi antenna out of a Pringles can, which you can use to boost your Wi-Fi network speeds.

Here is the procedure :

What is Cantenna?

In order to boost your Wi-Fi internet network speed, you need to make an arrangement and fix it on the roof of your home. This equipment is built with the help of tin cans and it acts like an antenna. Thus, it is called a ‘Can’tenna.

Here are a few advantages that you can get by installing a cantenna on your roof top.

• As it acts like an extra antenna, the range of your Wi-Fi network also increases, thus enabling more data transfer speeds and more mobility.
• It is proven that cantennas have more gain than the normal commercial antennas.
• Automatically detects Wi-Fi hot spots.
• Building one such antenna is really cheap and affordable.

A cantenna is very much essential if you love mobility. Arranging a cantenna helps you to connect to the internet on your PC, laptop or Wi-Fi-enabled mobile handsets without the need for any wires. The speed at which you can access the internet is also reliable. You can play online role-playing games which would otherwise not be possible on any other modes of wireless connectivity options like GPRS.

To add up spice, building your own antenna with the helps of wires and getting connected to the internet will increase your reputation among your group of friends and you can enjoy the privilege of getting called a geek.

How to Make a WiFi Antenna: Components needed!

Don’t get too excited and be sure that you get all the components mentioned below before starting to build one. Constructing a Cantenna is very easy provided you have all the required material with you ready. Get the following components before you start.

• Empty Pringles potato chips can.
• The N-type female connector
• The N-type connector from the back
• RP-SMA male connector components

The above components can be obtained from any electronics spare parts shop or a radio repair shop.  You also require the following components:

• A wire cutter
• A small drill to make a hole or two.
• A solder and simple skills to efficiently make the soldering.

Construction:

Follow the steps that are illustrated below, which do not take you more than 30 minutes.

• After consuming all the chips, rinse the empty tin with water and dry it clean.

From the bottom side of the empty tin, measure the length of 3 3/8 inches and carefully drill a small hole such that the N type female connector can get in.

• Solder one end of the RG cable to the N type female connector. Here we will learn to make the special cable called a pig-tail.

RG cable is a co-axial cable and the inner material is a conductor. This has to be inserted to the protruding metal whereas the protective shield (insulating material) has to be soldered to the body.

The other end of the RG cable has to be soldered to the SMA male connector. The small male pin has to be soldered to the inner conductor of the cable and then it is carefully inserted through the hole of the connector.

That is the end of the construction of the pig-tail.

• Solder gauge 12 copper wire of sufficient length to the N type connector.

• Place the entire assembly on the tin can. The SMA connector has to be arranged in such a way that it passes through the top hole of the tin. The resulting structure can be seen in the image below.

• This arrangement should be dropped down inside until the center along the length of the can. Carefully pull the extra cable and cut it off.

• You can fix the arrangement tight with the help of a few screws if needed. Put back the cable. Now, the reflector is ready.

• Fix a nut to the one end of the metal rod and hold the rod in such a way that the nut points the ground down.

• As shown in the picture, arrange a lid and slide it down along the rod until it touches the nut. Also, drop in 3 washers to the middle of the rod. In case the diameter of the washers is larger than the inner rod, then take 4 other pieces of hollow rod and arrange them one after the another with the washers in between. This way, the washers get arranged well as shown below.

Now, along with two other washers, insert a hollow insulating material. Even a thin plastic material is sufficient for this.

• Now, it can be easily mounted.  Close the lid of the chips can back with the rod hanging inside. Precaution has to be taken to see that the inner rod does not touch the walls of the copper filament that was previously soldered to the N-type connector.

• Congratulations! Your new Wi-Fi antenna is ready to get tested.

Desktop users with an external WLAN card can start finding the new method working for them with no other hassle. But on a laptop that has an inbuilt Wi-Fi system?

You need to do a little more hacks to enjoy the new power of the existing Wi-Fi network on your laptop. On the lower side of the laptop, you can find a small cover. Open it and replace the existing cables with your own. But be sure and think twice about what you are doing because you may void the warranty.

Process of testing:

The antenna that you have made is called a Yagi antenna. These are highly directional and have very high gain. Due to their high directional properties, they also have high range. Now, to set up the connection and start using the internet, aim slightly to the left or right of the receiver of your neighbor and carefully adjust your antenna by rotating it slightly to receive the best gain.

If the antenna is left out in the open sky, then you need to take care of its protection from the weather. Place the arrangement in a PVC pipe so that it doesn’t get rusted.

Have you managed to build an antenna like this? Do you have other techniques on how to make a WiFi antenna?   Having trouble making your own?   Leave a comment and we’ll try and help you out.

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You just have to look around a bit, and marvel about the great scores you’ll find. Classical music lovers will feast on Scorpio Fire, and have I mentioned the Tetris song yet?

Other games come with a complete soundtrack for you to appreciate. Final Fantasy IV is one of those games. Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, these are amongst the most popular video game music in the world.

Whether you’re a fervent Final Fantasy fan yourself, or a proud audiophile, this music can be enjoyed by nearly everyone. The majority of the songs are on the classical side, with a flavour of rock, but other styles get thrown in the mix as well.

Final Fantasy IV : Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption

There have been numerous reproductions of the Final Fantasy IV soundtrack, but none could’ve been as notable as this one.

Thirty-five members of the video gaming music site, Overclocked ReMix, worked on Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption; all of them half musician, half gamer. Together they played the 46 arrangements of the soundtrack, each artist giving his or her personal touch to the score.

“[The] album is divided into three acts: Betrayal, Strife, and Redemption. We aspire to recreate the journey from darkness and evil to light and redemption, a recurring theme of the game. (…) The tracks are not arranged in chronological order of release in the game’s original soundtrack, but appear in a new order, to further heighten the drama of the music.”

The result is a wonderful soundtrack, with 46 fan-made songs. A complete double-CD, as well as a work of art.

Sample

Below is a sample, to whet your appetite and awaken your curiosity. This is the first song of the soundtrack, the opening of the Betrayal act — Full of Courage, arranged by Nutritious.

Full of Courage is based on the Nobuo Uematsu original song, The Red Wings.

Free Download

The complete soundtrack of Final Fantasy 4 : Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption can be downloaded for free. That’s right, you don’t even need to sign up!

The easiest method would be to download it via the Torrent file. Due to the participation of the community, the torrent is more than well-seeded, and even though you’re looking at a total of 413 MB (if you prefer mp3) or 1.3 GB (if you’d rather have lossless flac), downloading should go past in a flash. If you don’t know how to use torrents, check out The Big Book of BitTorrent by Saikat Basu, an extensive PDF manual featuring everything you need (actually, really ought) to know.

If you don’t like torrents, you can also download the mp3’s straight from your browser. There’s a page on the website here, featuring http links (and mirrors) to all the individual tracks. This is however not recommended. Although you might avoid torrents, you’re looking at the tedious task of downloading each song individually, or having to deploy a site grabber on the mirror directories.

If you used the above torrent link, be sure to pay a visit to the site as well. There’s a lot of interesting stuff on there, including cover art and more information on the subject.

Any questions or comments you have can be directed to the comments section below. Don’t be shy, we’d love to hear from you.

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