diy tshirt printer
| Set a Rotating Picture of the Earth |
Thanks to some of Ubuntu's great built-in tools, this is actually quite easy to do in Linux. You'll need to install the gnome task scheduler, but all this requires is entering sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule in a Terminal window. When it's finished installing, you'll be able to access the scheduler in Applications > System Tools > Schedule Tasks. Hit the "new" button and make the description whatever you want, like "Moving Wallpaper". |
 This trick is fueled by the ever-useful wget command, which will download a photo of the earth fromdie.net at a specified time interval. In the command box, type in wget -r -N http://static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg and set the default behavior to suppress output. Die.net uploads a new photo every 3 hours, so I picked an interval of 6 hours, to compromise my desire to have a semi-accurate view of the Earth at that time and my desire to not overflow Die.net's servers. You can specify a custom time period by clicking the edit button next to a time interval in the Advanced section.
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After you've set it up, hit the run button (the one with the gears icon) so it will download the first photo. Then, right click on your desktop and hit Change Desktop Background. The photo will be stored in ~/static.die.net/earth/mercator/ on your hard drive, so navigate there and choose 1600.jpg as your wallpaper. Now, it should automatically update at the time interval you specified in the last step, giving you a cool picture of the world's sunlight at that time of day. |
Step 1 – Configure IP Addresses |
Usually, if you are using a crossover cable to connect two computers, the computers are not connected to a LAN network. In this case, you will need to configure static IP addresses for each computer. |
You have to make sure that both computers have IP addresses that are on the same subnet. For example, if you give one computer an IP address of 192.168.0.1, then you should give the second computer an IP of 192.168.0.2. |
If you used the above IP addresses, you should use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. If you use an incorrect subnet mask, the connection will not work. |
Lastly, the value for the default gateway should be the same on both machines. You can pick which IP address you want to use, but use it on both computers for the default gateway. Below is how my setup looks for one computer: |
The second thing you need to verify is that you actually have a proper crossover cable. Basically, there are a few different types of crossover cables, but it’s best to get the standard crossover cable where the green and orange pairs are swapped and the brown and blue pairs stay in the same position. |
The only pins that need to be crossed are 1,3 and 2,6. So just check your cable on both end and make sure it matches the diagram. |
Step 3 – Local User Accounts |
If you’re having problems accessing files both ways, you may have to create a user account on each computer that has the same name and same password. This helps get past any kind of Access is Denied errors that may pop up. |
Make sure the accounts are administrator accounts also! It’s best to create a new account rather than rename a current account. |
Step 4 – Disable Firewalls |
Finally, you should disable the firewall on both computers to ensure that none of the file sharing ports are being blocked. You can do this by going to Control Panel and then Windows Firewall. Click on Off. |
That’s about it! If you follow all these steps, each computer should be able to access the other properly. If you are having problems, post a comment here and I will try to help! Enjoy! |
Add in a few LED lights around the speaker wires to the old pull switch on the lamp and you've got camouflaged speakers you can actually read by! Have a clever tip, trick, or hack for concealing your audio-video gear? Let's hear about it in the comments.
Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation
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rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState
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rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0
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When you’ve clicked next on the above dialog, you’ll be asked to name the shortcut. Probably best to name it according to the right function. |
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization/
Portable applications are very useful for getting work done on the go, but how about portable servers? Here’s how you can turn your flash drive into a portable web server. |
To put a full web server on our flash drive, we’re going to use XAMPP Lite. This lightweight, preconfigured server includes recent versions of Apache, MySQL, and PHP so you can run most websites and webapps directly from it. You could use the full XAMPP, which includes more features such as a FileZilla FTP server and OpenSSL, but for most purposes, the light version is plenty for a portable server. |
Download the latest version of XAMPP Lite (link below). In this tutorial, we used the self-extracting EXE version; you could choose the ZIP file and extract the files yourself, but we found it easier to use the executable. |
When the extraction process is finished, a Command Prompt window will open to finish the installation. The first prompt will ask if you want to add shortcuts to the start menu and desktop; enter “n” since we don’t want to create start menu links to our portable server.
Running your portable server |
Using your portable server is very simple. Open the xampplite folder on your flash drive and launch xampp-control.exe. |
Install WordPress in your portable server |
Since XAMPP Lite includes MySql and PHP, you can even run webapps such as WordPress, the popular CMS and blogging platform. Download WordPress (link below), and extract the files to the xampplitehtdocs folder on your flash drive. |
Now all of the WordPress files are stored in xampplitehtdocswordpress on your flash drive.
| Soften Brown Sugar. Keep the sugar in its plastic packaging, add a few drops of water, and heat on medium for 10 to 20 seconds. |
Materials
Glass or jar
Sheet of paper
Tape
Vinegar or fruit (apple cider vinegar works especially well) |
1. Find a suitable glass or jar. Most standard sizes will work; just avoid using one that's too short or wide-mouthed, or you might have trouble positioning the funnel. |
2. Roll a sheet of paper into a cone or funnel with a half-inch opening at the bottom. |
3. Check that the funnel fits. It should fit snugly with no gaps along the rim of the glass (you don't want the flies escaping!), and there should be an inch or two of space between the bottom of funnel and the bottom of the glass. When done, secure the paper with tape. |
4. Remove the funnel and pour a small amount of apple cider vinegar into the glass. Alternatively, you can use a piece of fruit like an apple, orange, or banana. |
5. Replace the funnel and wait for flies. They will be attracted to the vinegar or fruit, fly into the cone, and either drown or get trapped. |
Additional Notes:
• If you want to go the no-kill route, use fruit, not vinegar, and release the flies outside. Just be careful when moving the glass; one small shift of the funnel, and you may have to start the process all over again! (We speak from experience...)
• To help prevent fruit flies in the first place, keep fruit refrigerated or rinse and dry it as soon as you get home.
• We have also had good luck repelling fruit flies with rue. |
Apparently the water bags do drive houseflies away. Not mosquitoes, not no-see-ums, not spiders, not roaches, not yellowjacket wasps, just houseflies. Evidently, houseflies, being highly edible and defenseless, are nervous types, and don't like to sit still when they see something moving nearby, because it could be a predator. The water bag acts a bit like a lens--try it some time--in which the movements of people in the area are reflected. Even if the fly is too far from the action to see it directly, it can see a shifting of light and dark in the water bag, which it interprets as nearby movement, and it will fly away from the bag. The reason it doesn't work on any other insects is that the other insects listed don't have eyesight worth a plugged nickel.
Prey is a lightweight application that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free.
Recover what is rightfully yours |
Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts. This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and — in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief. |
Prey uses a remote activation system which means the program sits silently in your computer until you actually want it to run. If so, it gathers all the information and sends it to your Prey web control panel or directly to y |
Find, Recognize, & Identify Any Music Track With Audiggle |
Audiggle is a music discovery and recognition application for Windows. Utilizing an intelligent recognition engine against a fairly large database, this service will allow you to play and track for a few seconds and instantly get the name of the track and the artist, while much more details and related content can be found on their website. |
Easy Way To Learning New Languages With EasyWords
Once installed, under default settings the software will ask you multiple choice questions from a preloaded dictionary at every three minutes. A trayicon will remain present to remind you that EasyWords is running. |
Certain dictionary files come preloaded with the program, including English – English, English – German, German – German, English – Turkish, English – Turkish (advanced), Turkish – German, many more. All these dictionaries can be selected from Settings, and their word size varies. |
You may also create your own, custom dictionary from the settings menu, where you need to define the dictionary’s name, languages and author. |
| When I hear terms like: “Apache” or “SQL” All I can think of is: “ouch, not again, I haven’t trained in that yet”. I don’t immediately understand developers’ jokes either. For instance, jokes like “there is no place like http://127.0.0.1″ (127.0.0.1 stands for localhost–your ‘home’), I have to Google it first. |
I think that happens mostly due to laziness, at least in my case. When you really decide to approach the matter with the perspective that it is not scary,you realize that it wasn’t as terrifying as it seemed. The experience is similar to when you were, once upon a time, looking at CSS coding from the other side of the bench while you were still in the tables camp and by the end of the day, you realized it wasn’t that hard, it just took a bit of commitment. |
One of those “scary things” is to set up your very own personal web server to test your web projects like your WordPress templates. But I always feel I don´t have the patience to set it up. Fortunately we have solutions like Opera Unite but that is not the only option, you can set your free personal web serverusing free tools. All the required info is placed in http://fpws.org/ by a colleague and friend of mine Charles-Andre Landermaine. In the lines below is an interview with some questions about his fpws. |
mao: Charles could you introduce yourself please? Your background and your geeky interest for the web? |
Charles: I am a 30 year-old computer enthusiast, and I have professional and personal background working with computing, especially web design and web hosting. |
| mao: What motivated you to create that page Charles? |
Charles: A few months ago, Opera launched “Unite” to “revolutionize” the web. It’s been years that it’s been easy to host your own web site on your computer, so I wanted to show people how to do so as an alternative to Opera Unite. |
| mao: Why you felt an altertive was necesary? |
Charles: Opera Unite doesn’t allow you to use familiar applications such as PHP. One of the problems with Unite is that you rely on Opera’s proxy server, which goes against Unite’s philosophy. Last, but not least, you don’t need Opera to host your web site on your computer. |
You can very well keep a low-energy consumption netbook on 24/7 as a file server and web server, which is handy if you’re a web designer who wishes to keep your customers up-to-date with current projects easily. You can also share download spaces for people to download stuff off your computer in a secure way. |
mao: Well I was going to ask for the benefits to use a personal web server but you have already pointed some. Could you mention some others? |
Charles: Yes, the main benefit is not having to upload through FTP up-to-date stuff from your computer to a remote web server on and on for some one else to see changes. If you are designing a web site or making changes, do them locally, and your customer or coworker will see them just refreshing his page. It also saves you time because you don’t have to upload anything. |
mao: Any last thoughs ? for the s2o readers? |
Charles: Yes, I know most s2o readers are graphic designers, and at first they may be reluctant prior to hosting their own web site, because of some obscure and lengthy configurations. Fear not, following the procedure is not difficult at all, just read and follow directions properly, it will work for you, and there’s always some one on the web to give you a hand ;) |
mao: Charles, thank you so much, for your time and to share your unite alternative for a personal web server, and to iluminate us designers in the dark arts of web developing! |
I believe this interview rounds up the subject for itself. Don’t hesitate on leaving your comments, doubts or pieces of advice. They’re always welcome! :) |
ImageDiff 1.0.1
ImageDiff is a pixel by pixel image comparison tool. ImageDiff allows you to compare two images side by side, and see a difference mask showing you the exact pixels that have changed. Features include: Compare images of different formats, including JPG, GIF, BMP, and TIF, PNG. Compare images of different proportions and imageDiff will scale and calculate the difference automatically. |
FastStone Photo Resizer 1.4
FastStone Photo Resizer is a free image converter and resizer intended to enable users (especially digital-camera owners) to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text, and watermarks to images in a quick-and-easy batch mode. The application supports major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, and PNG. Drag-and-drop mouse operation is well supported. |
Easy Thumbnails 2.91
Create thumbnails and scaled copies of all your images. With Easy Thumbnails, you can find and process images individually, in groups, or in whole folders using a simple file selector and built-in image viewer. Use slider controls to rotate images and adjust contrast, brightness, sharpness, and other attributes. Thumbnails can be created in any existing folder or a new folder, and you can identify them clearly by adding a prefix or suffix to their names.
GIMPshop 2.2.8
GIMPshop is a modification of the free/open source GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make users of Photoshop feel comfortable using GIMP. |
The GIMP 2.2.13
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is a powerful piece of software with capabilities not found in any other free software product. |
Note: You will need to download both GTK+ Runtime Environment and The Gimp installers. Install GTK+ before installing The Gimp. |
IrfanView 4
IrfanView is a fast and compact image viewer/converter. It tries to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals. Many supported file formats and features. Features include: multi-language support, Thumbnail option, slideshow, toolbar skins, fast directory browsing, batch conversion/editing, multipage editing, file search, change color depth, scanning, cut/crop, IPTC edit, capturing, lossless JPG operations, effects (sharpen, blur, Adobe Photoshop filters), EXE/SCR creating, many hotkeys, command line options and plugins.
Inkscape 0.45
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara ,m using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more.
InsightPoint 3.2.5.2
InsightPoint creates sophisticated illustrations and layouts for Web and print. When it comes to spelling out and sharing your ideas as text and graphics, InsightPoint is the fastest and easiest way to get you there. Built on top of XML technologies, comprehensive object-oriented vector design tools, trivial learning curve, and smooth drawing experience.
Project Dogwaffle Free
This is a free program for PC, developed in VB by special fx artist, animator & novelist Dan Ritchie, and made available for free downloading and use. (Not for resale without express written permission – please contact Dan if you wish to include a copy of his software with your commercial products.) Any non-commercial distribution is fine; that includes placing it on cover CDs with magazines and books. |
Terragen 0.9.43
| Terragen is a scenery generator, created with the goal of generating photorealistic landscape images and animations. It is available for Windows and the Mac OS. At this stage in its development, Terragen is free for personal, noncommercial use. |
Although Terragen is a continually evolving work-in-progress, it is already capable of near-photorealistic results for professional landscape visualisation, special effects, art and recreation. |
UnFREEz 2.1
UnFREEz is a high-speed Windows application that will take any number of images, saved as separate GIF files, and create a single animated GIF from those images. What makes this program unique from its competitors? First and foremost, UnFREEz is freeware, which means you may use it forever without paying a cent or feeling the slightest bit guilty
LOOXIS Faceworx 1
LOOXIS Faceworx creates a 3D head out of two standard 2D photos. You need two well illuminated pictures; one from the front (mugshot style) and one from the side.
Bryce 5.5
Create breathtaking realistic 3D landscapes and animations with DAZ 3D Bryce. The easy user interface simplifies the design process for a novice or the seasoned professional. Start out building or importing a landscape as impressive as the Grand Canyon. Populate it with buildings, people or any other object you create or from the extensive DAZ 3D library. The Light Lab provides you robust control over your sunsets, moonlight nights or high-noon ambiance. |
**Update 7/30/07**
You wont find any free download link for the Bryce 5.5 at the official site, because the download is provided via download.com. A direct link to the program @ download.com is provided below. |
Blender 2.44
| Blender is the open-source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. It is available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License |
Google SketchUp 6.0.277
3D Canvas 7.0.1.2
Alibre Design Xpress 9.2 SP1
Flash Slide Show Maker Professional 4.31
LiveSwif Lite 2.1
LiveSwif Lite 2 is a free Flash maker that lets you create Flash movies, buttons, or banners quickly and easily. It provides several classic vector drawing tools, including Freehand, Curve, Shape, Spline, Contour, and an in-place text editor. LiveSwif is a typical, keyframe-based animation system. Based on the capability of drawing tools, it provides a path-motion and transform-motion tool. In setting a new position, angle, size, or color in keyframes, LiveSwif will blend the in-between frames automatically. The setup package contains 500 library components. |
Digital Image Tool 1
Do you take photographs, own a digital camera or work in multimeda or design? This user friendly tool was created specifically to batch process images quickly, applying flexible resizing methods, rotation, cropping, scaling, watermarking, renaming and more. As a multimedia designer Digital Image Tool has come in very handy…..we made it originally for use in-house but decided to put a little more effort into the program and release it for free to the public!
