Tech

I've been using Twitter for a couple of months now, it's a mostly pointless service that I keep going back to. Some days I can think of lots to write but most days I can't think of anything. I think I'm trying too hard to post something useful or interesting rather than just something random.

I'm following a number of people now, some of them post generally interesting stuff thats happening others post crap. 

I'm interested to know what other people use Twitter for and what they get from posting stuff on there? (The same can be said for Facebook status updates).

Piclens is a plugin for Firefox that allows you to browse pictures in a fullscreen 3D envionment. It's 3D wall interface (pictured below) makes it effortless to browse thousands of photos quickly and easily.

Once you find a picture you like, a single click shows an enlarged version with any available description.

Sites have to be enabled to use Piclens however sites such as Flickr and some news sites have the ability to use it.

PicLens works on:

* YouTube
* Flickr
* Facebook
* MySpace
* Google Images
* Photobucket
* DeviantArt
* Picasa Web Albums
* Smugmug
* FotoTime
* Fotki
* Bebo Hi5
* Friendster
* Yahoo Image Search
* Ask Image Search
* Live Image Search
* AOL Image Search

 You can download the plugin from the Firefox Addons site.

I've just added a life feed to ImAFish, it syndicates everything I do on Digg, Flickr, Twitter and ImAFish.

To get your own Life Feed on ImAFish there are instructions on the forum.

Has anyone else played around with life feeds - does anyone use them?

Here are some of my top tips for additional OS X functions, most have come from my experience at home and work.

1. Plugging in a TV or Second Monitor

Most Mac models come with an external connector for attaching additional screens (normally a mini DVI connector). From this you need a mini DVI to DVI connector then another cable to plug into your screen, this can be a DVI to VGA cable, DVI to DVI cable or as I have a DVI to HDMI cable. All the cables are very cheap and can normally be picked up from Ebay.

OS X should automatically detect the second screen plugged in and you can open system preferences to adjust the resolution. You may have to play around with the settings, my 26" LG HD TV looks best on 1280 x 720 rather than its native resolution.

I've had my iMac plugged into my TV for the past 6 months and people still think its cool how I can move my mouse from one screen to another.

2. Sharing your Internet over Wireless.

While I was at University our local cable supplier didn't give out free wireless routers so to save buying one I shared the Internet out through my iMac's wireless. In Leopard the Internet can be shared from the Sharing section in System Preferences.

3. Bluetooth Internet Through Your Phone

It usually takes ISP's about two weeks to put ADSL on a phone line. Clearly I couldn't be without Internet for two weeks so I turned to my mobile phone provider (T-Mobile) to hook me up to the net. Now that 3G signal is well established (and I have a 3G phone) I got speeds of around 3mb for £12.50/month.

First you need to sync your phone via Bluetooth in iSync. If your phone isn't supported then check the manufactures website or Google to see if someone has written a plugin. My Sony Ericsson K850i isn't natively supported in iSync however fortunately someone had written what was needed.

Once you have paired the devices click on the Bluetooth icon on the menu bar, select your phone and click connect to network. With 3G you shouldn't need to enter any dialing information and as long as you have good signal you should be online within no time.

4. Watching TV through USB Stick

I was in PC World a couple of months ago and I wanted to buy something, I wasn't really bothered what I just wanted to buy something new to play with at the weekend. I've looked at USB digital TV adapters before but was never convinced to buy one. I ended up with a £25 Hauppauge USB stick for my PC, I brought it and installed it on my PC.

The Hauppauge software was useless and I was considering taking it back until I stumbled upon EyeTV and most importantly that it supported my Hauppauge USB stick. EyeTV works flawlessly and its PVR functions have completely changed how I watch TV. It has everything apart from an automatic advert skipper.

5. Running Windows Applications

There are a couple of different options for running Windows applications on an Intel Mac. If its just the case of needing Internet Explorer 7 for certain websites or for testing purposes then ie4osx is a great application.

Otherwise you have the options of Parallels or VMWare.

6. Using Mail to access your Email Through IMAP

Being able to use IMAP in Mail is nothing new but its still under used. I use Mail to organise my two Google Mail accounts, the main benefit to using IMAP over POP3 is that is can syncronise between the mail on Googles server and on my computer meaning I can view the same emails from at home in Mail and from a Web Browser at work.

7. Recording Internet radio with Audio Hijack Pro

A lot of Internet Radio sites make it very hard to record, fortunately Audio Hijack Pro makes it easy (as easy as using your PVR or tape recorder).

First find the radio show you want to record.

Next open Audio Hijack Pro and drag Firefox/Safari into Audio Hijack (you may have to restart Firefox/Safari) click the hijack button and then hit record. When recording from services such as the BBC you may have to boost the volume because of the poor audio quality (in the Effects bab).

8. Keeping an eye on memory usage with Activity Monitor.

If you find your Mac running slow it might be because you're low on memory. The usual suspects on my Mac are Firefox or Parallels, even with 4gig of memory a lot still gets used.

One easy way to keep an eye on what you're using is to open the activity monitor program and to set the dock icon to show memory usage.

Then just set activity monitor to open at login.

9. Saving You Tube videos with Get Tube.

Occasionally there might be a need to save a YouTube video. There are various programs for OS X but the best one I've found is Get Tube.

First find your favourite video on YouTube.

Next open Get Tube and select which browser you're using. The video will then download. You can use Tube Cart for multiple videos.

10. Take a screen shot

You maybe wondering how I've taken all these pictures for this article. The basic way to take a screen shot on your Mac is by Command+Shift+3, this takes a screen shot of the screen and save it as a file on the desktop, alternatively Command+Shift+4, then drag around the area - takes a screen shot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop.

Related

52 Ways to Speed Up OS X
The history of the iPod

It's been quiet here at ImAFish for the last week because we have been working on our latest project:

www.ipodhistory.com

iPod History has pictures and details on every single iPod including size, battery life, compatibility and launch date.

The site is a great place to find out what others have to say about iPod models they have owned and to put across your views. It's still early days for the site so all comments are appreciated.

We have tried to make the site as informative as possible but are open to suggestions. If you like the site then please stumble it or add it to your blog!

For more check out www.ipodhistory.com

When deciding on service providers there is often a clear choice, whether it be because they have a local monopoly (like my water provider) or because they offer you a good deal (like my mobile phone provider) but when it comes to finding an ISP noone has a good deal.

At the one end there are the free/very cheap providers that are unreliable, have poor techical support and a low bandwidth cap. At the other end are the very expensive providers that I don't want to fork out for. Then there are the providers that throttle traffic at certain times to one degree or another.

Somewhere in the middle fell the provider I decided to go with - Plus net, for £20 a month they offer 20gig of bandwidth and are open about what they restrict and at what times. Hopefully I've made the right choice!

This ones a no brainer, Laptops Direct will give you £5000 to have their name tattooed on your head.

The requirements are strict and may put some peope off:

• You must take a drug test and successfully complete a short psychological questionnaire to ensure you are of sound mind
• You must be over 18 years of age and have had no previous mental health problems
• You must be a tattoo virgin - It would cramp our brand if there were other competing tattoos
• You must attend an annual check-up to ensure you have not removed the tattoo, have not had any other tattoos added and are still of sound mind.

Tattoos for other parts of the body are also available if you don't fancy walking around with it on your forehead. Arms/Hands - £1000, Shoulders/Back - £500 or Legs/Feet - £100.

Of course the grand prize is clearly the forehead tattoo.

Anyone going to be getting one?

We've reported a couple of times on the BBC iPlayer and looked at reviews from other sites slating it. There was issues that the BBC had wasted license payers money on some software that was useless and no one would use, however it seems our concerns have been listened to and a new version has been launched that is greatly improved.

So whats made it so much better?

There is now no application to download just for streaming video - it is all done through the web browser. This makes the whole experience more like viewing a YouTube video, it is faster and more reliable. All the videos are in wide screen (unlike YouTube) and the quality is almost as good as normal TV (you can see slight pixelations in full screen when sitting close to the screen).

It is also cross platform now meaning that the iPlayer will work in any browser with Adobe Flash installed (96% of browsers) on Windows, OS X and Linux.

Watching Ricky Gervais's Extras is now a breeze through the updated iPlayer.

The BBC Radio Player has also been rebranded as part of the iPlayer, the content has not changed and Real Player is still used for streaming.

Overall the updated iPlayer is a huge update bringing the BBC's content into a more accessible modern era.

For more check out the BBC iPlayer.

A number of website value calculators have sprung up on-line recently that calculate how much your site is worth based on search engine and Alexa rankings.

The CyberWire Calculator valus ImAFish at $1565 (about £750) with the following data:

Alexa Ranking: 733,509
Google Page Rank: 5
Yahoo Backlinks: 0 (not sure why as we have a lot of pages indexed in Yahoo)
Altavista Backlinks: 1550
All the Web Backlinks: 1530

I'm not sure how accurate this data is and I certainly wouldn't sell ImAFish for only £750. The calculator also predicts how much your site could make through advertising though this figure is not accurate in the case of ImAFish.

Google.co.uk is worth: $57,996,230
news.bbc.co.uk: $106,263,437
thesun.co.uk: $1,096,125
ebuyer.com: $295,650
itn.co.uk: $32,646
channel4.com: $954,510

In the case of ITN the calculator predicts they can only make $240/month on text link advertising which hardly enough to support a news site. Surely this figure would have to be ten times higher to support such a site?

Remember this value is based purely on search engine data and Alexa rank so in the case of Ebuyer I'm sure the actual site value would need to include sales data.

I'll be interested to hear how accurate anyone else found these online calculators for their website worth or predicted advertising revenue to be - let me know!

Cnet is reporting that NASA is looking to take on astronauts for training in 2009 onwards. They are looking for between 10-15 candidates who have a bachelor's degree in engineering, science or maths and three years of relevant professional experience.

I have a bachelors degree in computer science but unfortunately only one years experience in relevant work (well my experience in. The job gives you the opportunity to drive moon buggys, fortunately I currently have a clean driving licence.

One of the requirements of the job comes from this money quote:

"Frequent travel may be required"

I always wanted to be an Astronaut when I was growing up, perhaps this is my opportunity - application is open until next summer!