MakeUseOf

Tim Brookes

Page 31

About Tim Brookes

Tim is a freelance writer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. You can follow him on Twitter.

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 1
TurboScan - Or Why Your Next Scanner Will Cost $1.99 [iPhone]

I had a scanner once. It took up an enormous amount of my childhood desk space circa 1998, connected via parallel port and the quality-to-speed ratio was poor to say the least. It was the last scanner I have ever owned, and now I’m pleased to say I’ll never be buying one again. Scanning a document using your iPhone is a liberating experience.

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The Absolute Best North Korea Documentaries On The Web [Stuff to Watch]

If, like me, you’re fascinated by North Korea then you’ve just hit the jackpot. This week’s Stuff to Watch features hours of video exploring what is often referred to as the hermit kingdom, an isolated socialist state that follows Kim Il Sung’s “Juche” political ideology.

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5 Reasons Why You Need To Buy Trials Evolution [Xbox 360]

Trials Evolution is the sequel to 2009’s critically acclaimed 2D physics racer, Trials HD. Of course, veteran gamers will recognise the lean-and-land gameplay from games of yore, including the original title in the Trials series that popped up online in 2000. The game is available exclusively to Xbox 360 owners via Xbox Live and rarely does a non-retail game steal so much of my time and attention.

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How To Set Up A PayPal Account For Your Business

If you run a small business or are thinking of taking the plunge into self-employment then there’s a good chance you will need a quick and easy method of invoicing and charging your customers or clients. This is especially true if your customers live abroad, but it also nice to offer a fast, secure and accessible payment method.

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How To Protect Yourself Against Social Engineering Attacks

Last week we took a look at some of the main social engineering threats that you, your company or your employees should be looking out for. In a nutshell, social engineering is similar to a confidence trick whereby an attacker gains access, information or money by gaining the victim's trust. These techniques can range from phishing scams via email to elaborate phone tricks and invasive pretexting attacks.

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8 Movies Every Geek Should Watch (And Love) [Stuff to Watch]

Today’s Stuff to Watch will focus on the geekiest of geeky films. These are films that your average tech lovin’ computer whizz should love - and they’re not all dystopian sci-fi movies either (though there is some dystopian sci-fi - how could there not be?). If you love films and tech then get down to your local cinema and demand they show these classics again!

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10 Strange, Dark & Creepy Animated Films & Cartoons [Stuff to Watch]

The following films are not your average animated adventures, but tales of greed, morality and obscure production that take the audience out of their comfort zone. Feel free to laugh awkwardly, raise your eyebrows or just ponder your own existence.

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Shared Offices & Coworking: How To Become A More Productive Freelancer

Working from home might seem like a great idea, but I don’t see it. After more than a year of working from various places of residence I’m thoroughly sick of mixing business with pleasure. Home is where I go to relax, to escape work - and that’s the way I like it. When the lines between downtime and work-time become blurred, home starts to feel a bit like a rabbit hole.

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6 Coolest Free Skins For Your XBMC Media Center

Over the years XBMC’s skins have evolved from being functional to beautiful and the latest release, codenamed “Eden”, adds even more polish. Downloading and installing these skins is all taken care of from within XBMC itself, so the hardest part of this process is deciding which skin is right for you. Here are my personal favorites for this latest release.

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Rediscover Mobile Search With Everything.me

Mobile search is apparently in need of an overhaul, or so say the guys behind Everything.me, the latest service designed to simplify search on-the-go. Formerly Do@ (or DoAT), Everything.me has been designed to bring you “everything about anything” in a format optimized for mobile devices.

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Lytro Light Field Camera: Snap Happy Or Photo Gimmick?

Described by an employee as "the first major change in photography since photography was invented", the Lytro light-field camera is certainly a revolutionary device. The camera shakes things up by replacing much of the heavy and sensitive technology in your typical camera with software. Whether or not it’s worth your hard earned money at this stage is still unclear, however.

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8 Of The Best Animated CGI Short Films [Stuff to Watch]

Continuing last week’s theme of short film, today’s Stuff to Watch focuses entirely on rendered productions in this collection of excellent computer generated shorts. As movie studios pump millions of dollars into feature-length 3D productions; hobbyists, students and small movie studios often produce short rendered masterpieces of equal beauty and depth.

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Bring Windows Up To Speed With Auslogics BoostSpeed 5

Is your PC running at a fraction of the speed it used to? Enter Auslogics BoostSpeed, a tried and tested method of breathing new life into an ageing Windows partition. Today we’re offering another chance for you to win one of 25 copies worth a staggering $1,248!

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BitTorrent & Magnets: How Do They Work? [Technology Explained]

As we recently reported, The Pirate Bay has switched from using .torrent file downloads to magnet links with no opt-out policy. The tracker has offered magnet downloads for a good while now, but this is the first time we’ve seen such a large public tracker use embedded links exclusively.

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The How-To Guide On Getting Started With Usenet

Usenet is one of the Internet’s oldest methods of communication. It also happens to be a tried-and-tested method of sharing files, thanks to binary transfers which allow programs, videos and other files to be encoded and downloaded via a Usenet server. Whatever your download activities may be there’s no arguing that Usenet is consistently faster and more secure than BitTorrent for sharing files.

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Mac
4 Reasons My Next Notebook PC Will Be A MacBook Air [Opinion]

I’ve never owned a Mac before, and I never thought I’d be in a position where I intend to buy one. Growing up I was a die-hard Windows user, mainly for the many hours I’d spend gaming on my PC. So why then, am I counting my pennies and preparing to drop around 1,800 of Australia’s strongest dollars on a shiny laptop that’s not built for gaming, ships with an unfamiliar OS and has a rather small screen?

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6 Free Music Documentaries For Fans Of The Guitar [Stuff to Watch]

This week’s Stuff to Watch doubles up as a Stuff to Listen To in the form of six carefully chosen documentaries exploring the music, lives and talent behind some of the world’s most famous live acts. Each documentary has one thing in common - the guitar. We’re not just talking rock and roll here either, as blues, country and punk music are also on the menu.

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Cinemagr.am - Easily Create Cinemagraphs On Your iPhone For $1.99

A cinemagraph is essentially the marriage of still photos and moving video, except only a portion of the scene is animated. Typical examples include a tree swaying in the breeze, water flowing from a tap or the flame on a candle. In case you’re still confused, here’s a cinemagraph that I have made using the very app I’m about to talk about.

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A Hearty Collection of Funny Skyrim Parodies and Videos [Stuff to Watch]

All good things must be mocked, and the latest epic fantasy RPG from Bethesda is no different. Today we’ve got a selection of parodies and in-game videos that will hopefully amuse, inspire and tickle you in the right places. For many who have played the game on a console (myself included) the PC version is beginning to look better and better thanks to all the fun of modding and console commands.

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DIY
Raspberry Pi - A Credit-Card Sized ARM Computer - Yours For Only $25

Something big has been brewing in the university town of Cambridge, UK. For the past year a team of academics, businessmen, lecturers and programmers have been making final amendments to a very exciting project indeed. Raspberry Pi is an ultra-affordable credit-card sized computer that will be finally making its way into the sweaty palms of excitable programmers, hobbyists and students come the end of February 2012.

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