Jun 11
Thanks in large part to BP and the government’s inept handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill, we’re going through one of the worst ecological disasters in American history. But there are some things we can do to help. More »
Jun 11
Concept Video Shows Tablet That Only Ultra-Geeks Could Love
Posted in: tablets, Today's Chili, video
Like many people, Yigit Cinar was frustrated with the limitations of Apple’s iPad and other tablets.
Unlike others, he actually sketched out a vision of his ideal tablet computer. Using Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash, he created a 3-D rendering and then produced a video showing exactly what he’d like his tablet to have.
“I am following news on tablets, but not one of them did exactly satisfy my needs,” Cinar said. “So I decided to put my skills in use to design the tablet of my dreams.”
Multiple USB ports? Check.
HDMI port? Of course.
Removable battery? Naturally.
Where he gets really innovative, though, is in a removable “hand module” with a 2.3-inch color screen, which can be clipped to his belt or strapped onto his armband, serving as an MP3 player and remote control for the tablet that would be, presumably, tucked safely in his backpack.
Cinar would like HP to build this device, with a digitizer screen (not a touchpad, apparently) by Wacom, and Google’s Chrome OS running the show.
Taken together, it’s a package that only a true geek could love. But in features, if not elegance, it certainly surpasses not only the iPad, but also the upcoming Dell Streak, HP Slate and countless other tablets.
Of course, it’s all a complete fantasy. “Expecting the giants of the market to team up to create an all-inclusive product like this seems a bit utopian,” conceded Cinar.
But if the iPad’s limitations infuriate you, Dell’s slowness frustrates you, and HP’s lack of clue baffles you, then Cinar’s mockup might soothe your troubled mind.
Image and video: Yigit Cinar
See Also:
- Asus, MSI Tablets Lead the Charge Against the iPad
- Tablet Rumors Multiply as iPad Sales Soar
- iPad, SchmiPad: 10 E-Readers and Tablets You Can Get Right Now
Jun 11
Jun 11
Flying Into the Silent World [Video]
Posted in: Today's Chili, top, video
In 1955, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and film director Louis Malle sailed 12,000 nautical miles aboard the Calypso to film the first underwater color movie. A year later, they showed everyone a whole new world, and the exhilarating freedom of diving. More »
Jun 11
Why You Should Scuba Dive [Scuba]
Posted in: Today's Chili, top, tweet
There are two experiences in life that never fail to give me pause: riding in a plane, looking at the earth and the patterns of nature and civilization; and strapping a tank of air and diving in the sea. More »
Jun 11
UStream FAIL for Osaka Mayor
Posted in: politics, Today's ChiliWe’ve all been reading about the growing popularity of Ustream in Japan. Softbank has acquired a huge share in the service and even opened up Ustream studios in central Tokyo for all us plebs to broadcast our lives.
Politicians are of course notorious for trying to get in on the latest craze, including SMS, so it was inevitable that they would start streaming themselves too. While former-PM Hatoyama had some success with Twitter, it seems, though, that his more regional colleagues are less lucky.
Osaka City Mayor Kunio Hiramatsu held a press conference yesterday which was simultaneously broadcast live on the web. Osaka, the second largest city in Tokyo, is often viewed as a fun but slightly uncouth place compared to the capital.
However, despite the Mayor’s attempts to keep up with the newest developments, according to reports on Sankei and others the broadcast was certainly not a success. The screen was apparently dark, the audio hard to make out, and only sixty people watched!
Jun 10
CyberNotes: Customize Windows with Pitaschio
Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Screenshots, Software, Today's ChiliThis article was written on November 13, 2007 by CyberNet.
Time Saving Tuesday
When preparing the Daily Downloads a few weeks back I came across a nifty little program for Windows called Pitaschio (note that it’s spelled differently than pistachio the nut). It caught my attention not only because it was freeware, but also because it didn’t require any installation. Those two ingredients are pretty important when it comes to making a good first impression on me.
After I got it up and running I began diving through the manual to figure out what all of the options do. Believe me, at first it doesn’t seem like there is all that much to configure since there is less than 30 checkboxes, but don’t let that deceive you. That’s just a sign that it’s a well developed application.
–Snap to Windows (Magnetic Edges)–
Pitaschio is almost like the FreeSnap application in that it makes it possible to better organize your windows. Pitaschio doesn’t offer quite the features that FreeSnap does, but one strong point is that it has a configurable snap-to-window option. This turns the edges of every application into a “magnet,” and when an edge of a window comes close to another edge they will naturally be attracted to each other. It thereby makes it easy to align multiple windows side-by-side.
There is also a “place window only in screen” option that I like. With it enabled you will not be able to drag any windows outside of your screen’s perimeter. If you enjoy being able to move your windows off the screen you’ll want to disable this setting because it will get annoying rather fast.
–Keys & Shortcuts–
The mouse shortcuts are one of the things that I fell in love with first. With them you can assign commands to various mouse operations that you normally wouldn’t use in Windows. For example, I have Pitaschio setup so that when I hold down Shift and right-click on the Title Bar of a program it will minimize that particular window:
In all there are about 25 different commands that you can assign mouse shortcuts to, and all of them are pictured above. Some of the operations you can perform with the mouse shortcuts include:
- Start the screensaver or turn off the monitor
- Shutdown, hibernate, logoff, restart, or put the computer in standby
- Open your Documents, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, Task Manager, or Display Properties
- Adjust the transparency of the window
- Minimize to the System Tray or minimize to the Taskbar
- Center the window on your monitor
- Rollup a window to just the Title Bar:
- Maximize the height and/or width of a window
–Window Size & Position Manager–
This is similar to the AutoSizer application that we mentioned a few weeks back. You can specify the starting position of an application, the window size, and even how transparent you want the entire window to be.
A screenshot of the window manager is to the right, and I’m sure you can see just how powerful this feature can really be.
–And More–
I’ve covered a lot of great stuff in this article, but that’s really only about half of what Pitaschio is capable of doing. Take a look at some of the other things you may find useful:
- Disable keys that you don’t use, such as Insert, Windows Key, Caps Lock, and more. I’m actually surprised that keyboards still have a Caps Lock key, and it was nice being able to turn it off completely.
- “Allow extended rename” makes other versions of Windows behave more like Vista when trying to rename a file, assuming that you have file extensions shown. When you rename a file it will select just the filename, and not the extension. Vista already does this, and I recommend disabling it if you’re using Vista because it can cause some unwanted side effects.
- Autoraise windows as you hover over them. This will bring a particular window to the front if you just hover over it with the mouse, instead of requiring a click.
- Adjust the volume of the speakers using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
There are also some features that are only available through right-clicking on the System Tray icon for Pitaschio
- Clean the mouse/keyboard. How many times have you wanted to clean your mouse or keyboard, but you don’t want to inadvertently do things on the screen. Pitaschio will let you disable one or the other so that they can be cleaned.
- View stats on how far you move your mouse and how many times you press each key on the keyboard. This doesn’t really have a purpose, but it’s interesting to see.
When I tried Pitaschio out for the first time I didn’t expect too much from it, but after using it for a few days it quickly became one of my favorite freeware applications. I run it on all of my computers, and it’s painless to setup since there is nothing to install.
Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Related Posts:
- 2007 CyberNet Awards: Best Tiny ProgramsYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummarySnap to WindowDaily Downloads: FeedDemon, Pitaschio, QTTabBar, and MoreDon’t Highlight Extensions When Renaming Files
Jun 10
Jacques-Yves Cousteau would be upset if he lived to see the Gulf Oil spill on his 100th birthday, tomorrow. Here, from the The Silent World, he describes using the first Aqualung to swim undersea as freely as a fish. More »
Jun 10
First Broken iPhone 4 Screen [Rant]
Posted in: 4G, Apple, iPhone, Today's Chili, top
The iPhone is made of aluminosilicate glass. Apple says it’s “chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic” and it’s “ultradurable and more scratch resistant than ever.” Still not enough to survive a 3.5-foot drop. More »
Jun 10
From the makers of the Choken Bako comes the latest bizarre robotic pet toy! The Peeing Dog is a mini pooch that waddles, walks and “pees”.
All right, so it’s only water (or whatever you put in) but the effect is still pretty realistic. It’s not released till July and some details are vague, but as you can tell from the video…this just might be the surprise hit of the summer.
You can pre-order a Peeing Dog from JapanTrendShop now.
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