coosashows.net

via lifehacker:

Windows only: PortableApps Suite 1.0 stocks your USB drive, portable hard drive, or any other drive with a full complement of software, ready to run wherever you plug in.

This new version of the suite includes the latest portable versions of Firefox, GAIM, OpenOffice, and other open-source gems. The suite also comes with PortableApps Backup for–you guessed it–making backups.

If you have a 256MB of bigger thumbdrive colleting dust, this is definitely worth checking out. Revew the full suite at portableapps.com.

Do you have wifi in your house/apartment/whatever? Are you irritated w/ the range of the router?

Don’t want to spend $50 on a bigger antenna or two?

Here’s your solution: freeantennas.com EZ-12 Parabolic Reflector

It’s pretty simple really:
- It creates a parabola. Parabolas reflect things.
- You cover it with tin foil, thereby providing an RF-reflective surface.
- It’s dirt cheap. Like less than $1 cheap.

There’s a cool side-effect to this, though. In reflecting RF from the router, you’re also dampening the RF field behind the reflector. This is a great solution, not only for boosting coverage in your house, but for getting rid of the pesky bandwidth leeches next door.

Do you own a camcorder? Do you use it? If so, then you’re familiar with the all-too-common problem of camera shake. Here’s a quick and dirty DIY solution.

For $20 in parts and less than an hour of your time, this project will create a shoulder bracket for your camcorder that attaches to the tripod mount and helps give your camcorder a more solid basis to sit on. The result? A more stable image.

Read the tutorial here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/EYCLDWU142EQ6T257Y

Flying home for the holidays?  Have a laptop in your bag?  Here’s a list of airports that provide free wifi ‘net access.

http://www.smallbusiness.com/wiki/Free_wifi_airports

This is a really slick illustration of 10 of the top photography tips. There’s also links to more advanced ones.

Check it out

OS X experts tend to agree: Dashboard is a resource hog. Most folks will never notice and, consequentially, will never care. Me? I’ve disabled mine. Here’s how.

1. Open a Terminal window (found under /Applications/Utilities in Finder).
2. At the prompt, type:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall dock

To re-enable dashboard, just repeat those commands, but replace “YES” with “NO”.

Now, when you’re editing photos or rendering video, you’ll have a small amount more of performance to squeeze out of your system.

I’ve always used SnapZ Pro X to record my screen and voice-overs but, this new app looks pretty sweet.

Check out the free open beta while it lasts. I know i’m going to.

http://shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html

via LifeHacker:

“Nothing brings out the camcorders like the holidays, which is why this is the perfect time to admit an ugly truth: You suck at making home movies.

No, really. I’m sure you’re a nice person and all, but there’s more to videography than just taking the camcorder out of the box and pressing Record.

As with photography, good videography requires a bit of know-how. Luckily, I know how, so here’s my list of ways you can improve your home movies. You won’t come out Soderbergh on the other side, nor even Singer, but your Uncle-Henry-dropped-the-turkey-on-Aunt-Edna’s-head submission to America’s Funniest Home Videos will look a lot better.”

Read the rest of the article here.