CleanHaven Declutters, Formats, and Fixes Any Text You Paste In [Downloads]

By Kevin Purdy, LifehackerSeptember 17, 2010 at 08:30AM

CleanHaven Declutters, Formats, and Fixes Any Text You Paste InWindows/Mac/Linux: The email arrived with tab breaks everywhere, excess spacing, strange Word-conversion characters, and you just don’t have time for this. CleanHaven is there, on any system, to fix the text any way you need it, whether it’s human or computer error.

Paste in whatever text you’ve got, then pick from the drop-down menus and sections up top what you need fixed. CleanHaven knows how to patch up capitalization and spelling errors, sure, but can also sort items in alphabetical or numerical order, strip out excess spaces or tabs, quickly repair broken email or HTML copies, and otherwise do the things you’d grumble about while doing manually. There’s also a find-and-replace function that’s pretty powerful, and analysis options for seeing the frequency of words and phrases.

When you’ve picked out what needs fixing, the results appear in a window with a quick copy-all button. CleanHaven is easy to get used to, and since it runs on all three major operating systems, it might make good sense to keep it handy wherever you go. It’s a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

10 Amazing YouTube Channels You Should Subscribe To

By Tim Brookes, MakeUseOfSeptember 16, 2010 at 09:31PM

youtube channelsWhen it comes to wasting time on the internet, it often doesn’t get much better than YouTube. As the web’s most popular video sharing website, YouTube often has a vast array of weird and wonderful YouTube channels to subscribe to.

So sit back, make sure your Flash player is up-to-date and enjoy some of the funniest and most entertaining collections of videos on the web.

MyDamnChannel

Calling all Photoshop users, if you’ve not seen the “You Suck At Photoshop” series from MyDamnChannel then you’ll probably wet yourself when you do. The series of 20 videos follows the troubled Donnie as he teaches you how to not suck at Photoshop whilst his life gradually falls apart.

With lashings of dark humour and the occasional star (Flight of the Conchords actress Kristen Schaal features in the channel’s comedy soap opera “Horrible People”) it’s always worth checking out the latest uploads.

Ashens

Stuart Ashen’s regular video reviews have earned him a loyal following, with nearly 100,000 subscribers to his channel. The plucky Brit takes it upon himself to review the worst pieces of technology around including fake PSP-like “consoles”, terrible iPhone clones and cheap toys no child would want.

Stuart’s die-hard fanbase has grown to the point where his subscribers willingly spend their own money and send him crap bits of tech to review. The channel is updated fairly regularly, providing you with new bits of tat to gawp and laugh at.

Tokyocooney

For anyone with a remote interest in Japan, Japanese culture and the far-eastern way of living. The channel follows American comedian Kevin Cooney as he works, plays and attempts to survive in Tokyo.

Topics include how to get a haircut in Japan, the many flavours of Japanese ice cream and the day-to-day goings on of an American in the land of the rising sun. Each video is boosted by Kevin’s naturally funny narrative, and more updates are due soon (thanks to overwhelming demand on his YouTube profile).

AdamBuxton

Virtual home to British comedian Adam Buxton (as the name suggests), the channel provides somewhat geeky comedy twists on a lot of popular themes. Examples include a mash-up of Steve Jobs’ iPad keynote speech with Star Wars (I know) and clever voice-overs of TV shows and adverts.

There’s a distinctly British twist on this one, but if you’re a fan of good humour you’ll probably lap it up anyway!

Cassetteboy

A master of cutting up video and audio only to arrange it for comedic effect, Cassetteboy sets about attacking the films, radio and TV shows we know and love. A lot of his material is based on British television, but the time and effort put in to each can be appreciated by anyone.

Some of his best work took months to complete (check out Cassetteboy vs. The Apprentice above) so updates can take a while, but they’re always worth the wait.

Cyriak

Inspired by Dali? Mentally unstable? Incredibly talented? Well at least the latter is true about this freelance animator’s YouTube channel. With his own brand of internet-insanity, Cyriak’s animations often leave you with a sense of “how did he do that then?” as he takes the mundane, adds a repetitive electro soundtrack and turns up the wackiness to 11.

Dancing cows that turn into spiders? Is it art? Who cares, these things take months to make and minutes to appreciate. Some of the very best animations and CGI on YouTube, bar none.

TheRealGiantBomb

Many gamers out there will be familiar with Giant Bomb, video-games reviewers and general all-round funny guys. With weekly updates that include games reviews, features and blasts from the past this YouTube channel will suit anyone with even a relaxed interest in the world of gaming.

The team answer questions (in video format) and regularly upload play-through videos of upcoming releases, demos and other games. If you like games mixed up with humour, then Giant Bomb gets you.

BBC Comedy

The BBC Comedy YouTube channel is a regularly updated portal for the whole world to enjoy (unlike many of the BBC’s other services, which are UK-specific) that features web-exclusive content that’s bound to make you laugh.

With coverage of many comedy festivals, snippets from BBC programming and the latest and greatest stand-up acts from around the world there’s something for everyone.

OkGo

The only band to appear on the list, these guys made internet history with the Here It Goes Again video which featured some very tightly choreographed treadmill work. Since then they seem to have spent as much time coming up with viral videos as they have writing music.

Even if you’re not a fan of the music the videos will make you smile, and it’s quite easy to appreciate the immense amount of time and effort goes into each new release.

NurdRage

If you’re interested in science, how things work and even attempting your own home-based science experiments then this one’s for you. The channel focuses on experimentation, on subjects such as how to make your own glow sticks (and how they work, of course) to plunging your hand into liquid nitrogen (wouldn’t recommend it).

As well as genuinely fascinating science, there’s information on where to get many of the chemicals used in the experiments so you can join in too if you’re brave enough. Just don’t do anything stupid.

Any awesome YouTube channels we’ve missed? How about other video sharing sites? Post your favourites in the comments below.


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SpiderOak – An Online Data Backup & Sharing Solution [Cross-Platform]

By Jessica Cam Wong, MakeUseOfSeptember 15, 2010 at 09:31PM

online data backupThere are many applications that abound for users concerned with online storage and local backup. You might be comfortable using something like Dropbox, but when you have important files outside of your Dropbox, or simply crave a little more than the simple options you get with Dropbox, you can’t go wrong with SpiderOak.

The beauty of the latter, which has been featured before in our directory, is that it puts you in complete control over which data gets backed up, synced, and shared. It also offers many options to choose or exclude files to back up by type, size or age.


For those interested, the installation is pretty straightforward, without any third-party toolbar offerings of any kind. The program does require about a little over 18 MB of hard drive space. Note that you’ll need to create an account so that you can log onto SpiderOak’s website and access your backed-up files.

Backing Up Your Data

SpiderOak lets you choose which folders you wish to backup in the Backup tab of the desktop client – either Music, Movies, Pictures in the default Basic view. If you have specific folders in mind that you want to backup, simply click on the Advanced button at the top right. You’ll be able to select any folders in your main drive here, as well as external and network drives. On the right, you can still pick pre-selected folders, such as Desktop, Documents, etc.

online data backup

Since SpiderOak comes with 2GB of free storage, you can preview how much space each folder will take by looking at the bottom storage bar (which becomes red if your folder selection exceeds 2GB), making it easier for you to pick your folders accordingly.

Whenever you finish your selection, click on the Save button to start the backup. SpiderOaks saves any changes in existing files as well as new files. You can modify the backup schedule by clicking on Preferences and heading to the Schedule tab.

Over in the Backup tab to the left, you have more options to maintain control of what files get backed up. You can choose to exclude files that exceed a certain size or age.

Archiving Your Data

If you deselect folders in the Backup tab, future changes in those folders will not be backed up.

However, those folders will remain archived in your SpiderOak account. This also means that those folders will occupy part of your 2GB of storage unless you remove them on the View tab. This can helpful for users that need to archive currently-unused-but-important folders.

Syncing Folders Across Devices

remote data backup

Unlike syncing applications like Dropbox, SpiderOak lets you sync any folders in your computer (which must also be any currently backed-up folder in SpiderOak). You can be very specific about which folders get synced across, say, your external drive and your computer’s internal hard drive. Just create a new Sync on the Sync tab, give it a name, choose the folders to sync, and voila!

remote data backup

Sharing Folders Via Password-Protected ShareRooms

remote data backup

You can create ShareRooms to share specific folders for different audiences. First, you’ll need to create a public login ID, which is known as ShareID in SpiderOak. Then select a name for the ShareRoom, a RoomKey (the password), the folders to share, and you’re done!

backup data storage

Any changes you make to the folders will be instantly reflected on the ShareRooms (and to your guests via RSS feeds). Your guests can access the ShareRoom if you provide them with the URL, but they can also log in on the SpiderOak website, under Share Login.

backup data storage

Viewing Your Backed Up Data

Over in the View tab, you’ll be able to verify which folders are backed-up and shared. You can also view the previous versions of files, which are indicated by the numbers in parentheses in the filenames.

In this tab, you can also remove archived or backed up folders on your SpiderOak account to get back space, without having to worry about getting those same folders deleted from your computer.

backup data storage

Downloading Your Files

online data backup

You can either download your files in the SpiderOak website, once you’re logged in, or in the desktop client, under the View tab, by highlighting a folder and clicking on the Download button. SpiderOak also comes with a handy Merge option (view a demo here) that you can use when you don’t want to delete any folders.

There may be a bit of a learning curve for this application as it offers so many options, so I highly recommend watching SpiderOak’s video demos, which are short and sweet, but also explain visually what I’ve detailed here.

If you’ve tried SpiderOak, feel free to tell us in the comments whether you find it useful and better than other applications or not!


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Pew Survey Finds Predictable Trends Among Mobile Phone Users

By Devin Coldewey, TechCrunchSeptember 15, 2010 at 07:40PM

Pew Internet has just completed a survey of nearly 2000 mobile users in the US and has come up with some not particularly startling statistics about phone and app usage. Still, it’s good to have some cold hard numbers to look at, even if the sample size seems a bit small.

Here’s the gist of the survey and writeup, which is rather wordy.

Continue reading this article…

Top 10 Online Sources For Funny Mobile Sound Clips

By Saikat Basu, MakeUseOfSeptember 15, 2010 at 07:31PM

funny sound clipsHumor is the best ice-breaker there is. Have you ever seen how heads turn when your mobile phone starts buzzing with a funny sound? Dressing up your mobile phone with cool wallpapers, and cooler applications is fine of course. But to take the banner of the ‘coolest’, think of funny sound clips.

You can use sound clips as ringtones, message tones, or just keep them around to spread some cheer. I cast my line in and tried to fetch some of the funniest sound clips you can download and use on your mobile.


The disclaimer with such an effort says that we all have different tastes of what’s funny and what’s crass. I tried to avoid the latter and reach for the former. Even if the funny sound clips fail on the humor scale, you can browse the sources and pick up the ones that make you smile.

Let’s start the count of funny sound clips and ringtones by revisiting a few of the 10 Websites For Free Mobile Phone Ringtones & Other Mobile Downloads.

Zedge

funny sound clips

Zedge has a very large collection of free ringtones created and uploaded by its community of users. Nearly 25,000 funny ringtones find a place among its 5 million strong database of mobile downloads. If baby sounds make you smile, try out the Baby Rap. Or hear the impersonation of Mr. Bean.

Soundboard

funny sound bites

Soundboard as the name says is a collection of audio clips in various categories. Each category has specific folders called ‘soundboards’ which are like entire MP3 albums. For instance, click on the Comedians category and see the soundboards listed. Make sure you are browsing the public soundboards which are free. I particularly like Jim Carrey and the collection of sound clips from “The Mask”.

Entertonement

funny sounds

Sound bites are put in collections. So you have one called ‘Funny’. Check out their About page where the people behind the website have embedded their favorite sound bites below their profiles. My favorite one is the Math Homework 911 call. But if you are a Trekkie, the Kirk-Spock love mashup on Love Trek might crack you up.

Mobile9

funny sounds

Mobile9.com also has a large category of funny mobile tones. Selected ones are also marked with a Popular or Featured badges. If you are not a teetotaler, the Beer Beer ringtone should be to your taste. Also try out Answer Me Quick.

Tehkseven

funny sounds

How do you think a drunk phone talks? Check it out with a free download from this site. The site covers a lot of models and brands. Select the one for your make and drill down to the Funny ringtone category.

FreeAudioClips

funny mobile clips

Free Audio Clips has a section devoted to comedy sound clips in the wav format. You can further choose from Answering Machine, Cartoons, Comedians, and Parody-spoofs. I wish I could recommend a few, but it’s better if you browse and pick yourself. The Answering Machine clips stir the funny bone though.

Mobiles24

funny mobile clips

If you are crazy for Borat, the fictional character from Kazakhstan and his comic utterances, check out the 42 strong collection of free mocking MP3 ringtones. You have to register (free) to download the ringtones to your PC.

MyTinyPhone

If pigs could swear they would curse like Porky Pig. Catch him in the act with the collection of Porky Pig ringtones here. How about Porky Pig – Son-of-a-B****!

LOL101

funny sound clips

I bumped into this website while searching for Michael Caine (Michael Caine Blows Your Head Off) impersonations for ringtones. The site has a neat collection of MP3 audio files in its Funny MP3 section.

Simpson’s Sounds

funny mobile clips

Then if you are a fan of the Simpson’s TV show, check out this little collection of sound clips from the series. I liked the short but funnily insulting – Bitch, bitch, bitch. Sound files are in MP3 and Wav formats.

These ten websites give you ample choices to pick up and decorate your mobile phone with funny ringtones and sound clips. The examples given are just that – examples. When you sift through the websites, you will pick up your personal favorites. Let us know about them in the comments.

Image Credit: Geek And Poke


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