Category — Everyday Genius

For all you RSS feed publishers out there, I found a Feedburner FeedFlare unit to allows readers to add your feed items and posts directly to FriendFeed. You can add the FriendFeed FeedFlare unit by pasting this URL into the personal FeedFlare box.

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I like to catalog my pictures in iPhoto by event and location. It's not only helpful as a reference, but it allows me to make cool travel photo maps online at Flickr or in Google Earth. For example, here's my geotag map from Flickr.

Since iPhoto doesn't offer a native interface for adding geotags to pictures (although some use this hack — !not recommended!), here's a quick and easy way to add location information and geotag your pictures in iPhoto, using Google Earth.

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With the holidays approaching, many people will be wondering how to download their AOL email address book to use in Mac OSX's default Address Book.

Luckily enough, AOL already has a tool that will allow you to download your AOL address book into OSX. To convert your AOL email contacts, all you need is to download the AOL Service Assistant and run the application.

The program will download and sync your AOL contacts into the Mac Address Book. (Ta-da!)

With me living out of the hotel in Orlando, I'm miles and miles away from my Tivo and the ESPN Gameplan college football package. I have to tell you - the separation has been killing me. (And my wife & dogs, too, of course.) If only there was some way to have access to my DirecTV, Tivos, and ESPN Gameplan when I'm in Orlando.

Enter the Slingbox AV.

The Slingbox links my DirecTV/Tivo to a private channel on the internet, allowing me to access my stuff anywhere in the world - just like if I were home! In other words, the Slingbox "slings" (beams) my entertainment center anywhere I go with internet access. (demo)

I can watch anything I've recorded, watch live TV on either/both tuners, and program new recordings - all through a virtual Tivo remote that looks just like the one I use at home.

The compression is exceptional, so — provided you have a broadband connection — there is very little noticeable degradation. It's literally just like watching TV.

The setup was quick and painless. Plug it in, plug in the network and away you go. The Slingbox will even set itself up in your router so that you may access it from anywhere worldwide without having to mess with any settings (port forwarding, etc).

If you travel frequently and miss a lot of your favorite programs/channels/team's games, you should definitely check out the Slingbox. I know it probably sounds like I'm shilling for them (I'm not), but this is a seriously awesome product - especially for sports fans.

I am 100% smitten with the Slingbox-ness.

JJ Abrams - the guy behind Lost and Bad Robot - has a new movie coming out… but no one knows what it is. It took the blogosphere by storm since the trailer debuted before Transformers. No one is saying what it is, or what it is about - not even the studios.

Take a look at the trailer (also available in HD), the movie website, and this wikipedia entry.

All of this is, of course, genius marketing. I — for one — can't wait for… whatever this may be.

A new site, MyDealerReport.com, has launched that allows customers to review and rate their experiences with car dealerships. I think it's an awesome idea. I'm sure it would have come in handy when Josh had his run-in with the worst Chevy dealer in Texas.

This one of the "why didn't I think of that!" ideas.

Adam Savage of MythBusters fame chimes in on an AskMetaFilter question: How long in the freezer to chill a Coke from 89F to 35F?

This is particularly interesting to me, as we've had more than one freezer disaster at Chez Kev.

Adam's answer:

That would be about 20-25 minutes in a freezer. If you put it in a bucket of ice, that would halve that time. If you put water in that ice, it'd be cold (+- 5c) enough to drink in about 4-6 minutes, if you put salt in that water, you'd reduce the chill time to just over 2 minutes. Agitating the can in the water, rolling it around, reduces the chill time even more.

The fastest possible way is to grab a CO2 fire extinguisher and unload that sucker on the can.

As G.I. Joe says - knowing is half the battle.

One of my favorite features in OS X is Automator, a clever way to expedite routine tasks.

Since I maintain my entire iTunes library on a network music server, one of my most routine tasks was connecting to the music server and then launching iTunes. On average, it's a process that took me… eh, about a billion clicks. (OK, maybe not a billion, but enough to be annoying.) But now - thanks to Automator - connecting to the music server and launching iTunes is a one-click job.

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Here's a little known fact: Your Windows PC cannot read your iPod if you formatted it with a Mac.

I found that out the hard way today, when I wanted to transfer some files from a Windows laptop to my iPod (which was formatted on Mac OS X). But the iPod is supposed to work on a Mac or a PC, right? Well, that's correct, but Windows can't read the mac HFS+ file format, so… if you're using your Mac ipod on Windows, here's the how-to.

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After 18 months or so with OS X, I've gotten to where I have a pretty good feel for what I like and what's missing - at least in my view. To bend OSX to my style, here's a list of my favorite OS X add-ons:

Letterbox for Mail.app - an outstanding widescreen, three-panel interface mod. This may be the best usability add-on out there.

MenuCalendarClock - iCal integrated menubar calendar. Why isn't this a default app/option? Jeez.

Growl - Sometimes I forget this is an add-on, because it is so tightly integrated with so many of my favorite applications. Growl gives notifications from applications & system events without changing the focus.

MailPod - Mail.app add-on which allows you to send messages to a folder on your iPod. The more you work with filtering/smart folders, the more you'll enjoy this one.

MailTags - I was late to the "tagging" game, but tagging emails makes them *very* easy to find with search or Spotlight - think receipts, reservations, etc. You can also tag items for follow up in iCal - very cool.

GoogleMaps for Address Book - One click access to Google Maps & directions for Address Book entries.

Todos - Every app at your fingertips. Todos is basically a visual program launcher, instantly available via hotkeys.

RCDefaultApp - Adds a preference pane to the System Tools that allows you to specify your default applications (browsers, mail programs, etc) and actions (launch "x" when camera attached, etc).

Witch - I think I got this one from Josh, but it is one of my favorite add-ons. Witch is a hot-key driven window manager that allows you to switch from window-to-window for all open apps, instead of just app-to-app a la Expose.

Meteorologist - I'm a sucker for weather apps, and Meteorologist is a great menu-bar tool for multi-location weather (ie my zip & the beach house!). It interfaces with multiple weather services, gives current weather, forecasts, alerts, and more.

SlimBatteryMonitor - A great menu-bar tool for laptop battery status (or UPS battery status, if you're so inclined). I prefer it over the Apple tool because it is much, much smaller & customizable.

New York Times writer David Pogue has field tested and debunked the myth that higher mexapixel cameras take better pictures.

Pogue had a professional photo lab print out one photo (16" x 24") at 13, 8, and 5-megapixels. He then posted the photos side-by-side in Times Square and asked people to pick the "best looking" photos. Dozens of people gave up, saying there was no difference. Only one woman - a photography professor - was able to pick the highest resolution photo. (Pogue contends she may have been a lucky guesser).

In theory, you should be able to tell the higher resolution, but the reality is that it is very hard for humans to discerne a substantial difference at 5-megapixels or above, regardless of the photo subject.

So… for those of you who are looking for digitial cameras this year, just keep Pogue's test in mind. Hold off on the super-pixel cameras and just buy the 5-ish megapixel camera that meets your needs.

One of my biggest complaints about iTunes is that it doesn't monitor folders for new music. Well, after a little trial and error, here's a quick way to make iTunes scan a folder and add any songs that aren't currently in your music library.

• Run iTunes.
• Choose "File" > "Add To Library…"
• Browse and choose the folder you wish to scan

This will cause iTunes to scan the music folder, adding any new tracks that in the folder and subfolders without duplicating music that is already in your iTunes library.

Side note to Merrin: To use for your laptop, browse & select the Music folder on the network drive.

Graeme Mathieson has a good tip to enhance my post on how to backup Google Gmail. I do this because I would hate to lose some of my email if GMail were to ever lose a server or something. (Hey, ya never know!)

Graeme shows how to sort your Gmail into it's proper folders in Mail.app, for example, something that I completely overlooked.

Set your conditions as follows:

The first is if the ‘From’ address contains your own GMail email address (foobar@gmail.com, for example). This covers all the messages you send directly from your official GMail address. The second is to match the ‘Sender’ header. You won’t find it listed in the drop-down by default. Select the bottom entry — Edit Header List…, click the + to add a new entry and enter Sender as the value. I don’t know for sure, but it’s probably case sensitive, so best to make that a capital ‘S’. Now click ‘OK’ and select the drop-down again and ‘Sender’ should appear. You want to see if that’s equal to your GMail email address. That will cover sending from any other address you have set up in the accounts tab of your GMail. The actions to perform are to move the message to your ‘Sent’ folder, mark it as read (you read it while you were writing it, right? ) and stop evaluating any more rules. Click OK to save the rule. It will ask if you want to apply the rule to currently open mailboxes. Click ‘yes’ to have it process the messages already in your inbox, and you should notice all the mail you sent magically disappear.

Thanks, Graeme!!

Great tip from Alex at DiscoTank: Use "Bounce" in Mail.App to reduce or eliminate spam.

Basically, Alex suggested taking all of your Junk mail, and sending "bounce" messages to the servers. Many spammers use auto-generating server tools which remove addresses that return a bounced email address (not that the spammers actually care, per se, but they are set up that way to lower the overhead on the servers). So, by sending the bounce message, the spammers server may/should remove your email from their list. AWESOME!

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Since there's no White Castle restaurants down here, we may just have to swing through Krystal and make some White Castle Slider Stuffing for Thanksgiving.

Slyder Turkey Stuffing
10 White Castle hamburgers(slyders), pickles removed
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
1 1/4 tsp. ground thyme
1 1/2 tsp. ground sage
3/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup chicken broth

In a large mixing bowl, tear the burgers into pieces and add diced celery and seasonings. Toss and add chicken broth. Toss well. Stuff cavity of turkey just before roasting. Makes about 9 cups (enough for a 10- to 12-pound turkey). Note: Allow 1 hamburger for each pound of turkey, which will be the equivalent of 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound.

Now, maybe I'm just a sucker for those little slyder hamburgers, but this sounds pretty damn tasty to me!