corewerkz

Last week I mentioned Miro, the free and open-source Internet video downloader. I’ve been using it for about a week on my Mac Mini (connected to my TV). Here are my thoughts so far:

Miro + Torrents could equal a convenient and free alternative to PAYING for cable TV.

In fact, they are superior to typical cable TV in many ways:

• Free (besides Internet charges)
• Watch ANYTHING (just about every movie, TV show, video podcast)
• NO commercials!
• More choices; tons of Tech, Mac, Science and other esoteric categories of shows/videos you can’t find on TV
• No need to pay for a DVR or TIVO service

It also has a couple disadvantages:

• Lower Quality (in some cases)
• Miro’s interface is still buggy
• Takes time to download videos, so you need to manually search and/or setup automatic downloading (pretty easy with TVShows and Miro)

With Miro, I can also watch Bill Maher’s Overtime (the 10 minutes after the show ends on HBO) before it’s on HBO.com!

Miro also has an HD category! The quality looks GREAT on my Maxent MX-42HP from the Mini (especially after I FINALLY got SwitchResX tweaked out to perfection). There is a large range of HD channels with really interesting content.

Conclusion: I may be saving my money and ditching cable TV soon… Peace Charter!

Popularity: 3% [?]

OpenDNS just saved the day once again:

I had two computers on the same network. One was able to browse the Internet, the other wasn’t. They both had good IP addresses from the router and they could both see each other over the local network. What’s the problem??

BAD DNS! Changing to OpenDNS nameservers instantly fixed the problem.

In a rush? Jump straight to the 20 second setup.

What is DNS?

DNS or Domain Name System is your computer’s way of translating hostnames (i.e. google.com) to IP addresses (208.67.219.230). Behind the scenes, every easy to remember web address like “www.google.com” has an equivalent numerical address on a web server somewhere (208.67.219.230). You can actually type 208.67.219.230 into your web browser and go straight to google’s page.

For more technical info, check out Wikipedia’s DNS entry.
Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Fresh Apps is a brief summary of the top applications I’ve discovered over the past week.

March 2008, Week 3

Mac Applications

• Miro :: Free & Open-Source
Stand alone application to search, watch, and download just about any video from the internet; including video podcasts, youtube, and google video.

• Screen Recycler :: Shareware ($25)
Use spare networked computer monitors as additional “virtual” displays for your computer; integrates perfectly with Display system preferences to allow screen resolution adjustments, very low latency especially on ethernet connection, includes free VNC viewer.

• Docker :: Donationware ($15 Suggested)
Quickly change all Dock related preferences; including changing icon sizes, toggling 2D/3D style dock, changing the “open application” indicator, changing position, toggling effects, and changing colors; Great for newbies.

• Inquisitor :: Freeware
Enhances Safari’s google search field with auto-complete and website suggesting – didn’t think I’d like, but I love it! A must have if you use Safari.

iPhone Applications

• SpringDial :: Freeware / installer.app
Native application which allows one-touch dialing from springboard (the home screen) to specific contacts; even displays picture of contact as icon.

• Poof :: Freeware / installer.app
Native application to hide any icon from the springboard since Customize doesn’t do it with firmware 1.1.3.

Popularity: 2% [?]

You can drag-and-drop an e-mail message from Mail into iCal, but only in iCal’s Month view! I wish I would have tried this sooner, but I never use month view.

Drag-and-dropping into Month view creates an event with the Mail message link/alias that, with one click, opens my e-mail message in Mail. Perfect for setting a reminder to read an e-mail at a specific day/time.

Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Many of my clients tell me that when a program freezes they hold down the power button and shut down their computer. Even worse, one client told me she pulls the power cable out of the back of her computer (btw, NEVER DO THIS!).

If you don’t know what to do when an application freezes, you risk damaging your hard drive and potentially loosing ALL your data. Here are several things to try before force-shutting down:

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]