Deal

Jul 15 2010

Dissecting a frog for Biology class? Yup, there’s an app for that.

Available for the Apple iPad for US$4.99, Frog Dissection features a chloroformed virtual specimen, with clear instructions guiding you through the process of slicing him up. Dissection tools include pins, marker, scissors, scalpel, and forceps but, since it’s on the iPad, they are all controlled by multi-touch. Once you’ve gutted your frog, you’ll be able to view the individual organs which have been rendered for you using 3D imagery. All this without having to touch a slimy dead from or deal with those nasty chemicals.

Frog Dissection has received awards from advocacy groups like PETA for creating an effective replacement for real animal dissections. An updated version is expected soon which will have additional systems and interactive quizzes.

I’m beginning to think there really is no corner of human experience that there is not an app for… and if there is, there will be an app for that too very soon.

What’s the weirdest iPhone or iPad app you’ve found? Leave a comment and tell me about it. If I write about it, I will be sure to give you credit for its discovery.

By RickMacMerc • apps, iPad • 4 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

Life after Spam

When you signed up for that exciting new email list you never suspected they’d sell you out or that you’d be deleting “Amazing Free Deal” emails for months. You were young and naive, but now you know better.

So what do you do about all that unsolicited “spam” email? Call the boys in blue at SpamCop. This week we’ll take a look at one of the most useful free services on the net.

For most of us, spam is a rude reality of working and playing on the Internet. You unsubscribe, complain and filter, but not even the Bulk Mail folder or Mail’s bounce feature can save you. You were doomed to the daily ritual of cleaning out the inbox… until now.

In all my experience in combating spam (yeah, I signed up for the same email list) I have found only one effective weapon, my ace in the hole. When I went to SpamCop, it was more out of a desire to spite the spammers than hope of deliverance. But SpamCop has brought my daily spam count from the 50′s and the 60′s to the 3′s and 4′s.

SpamCop is a spam reporting system. To make it work you need to do three things. First you open an account. SpamCop will assign you an email address which you will use to report spam. Second, you forward your spam email to the assigned address. If you use Entourage, use the free Spam Reporter Script to speed up this step. SpamCop replies back to each forwarded message with a link to a report. Follow this link and scroll to the “send report” button and you’re done.

From there on out, SpamCop takes over. Routers are called in for questioning and shady IP packets are hauled off in cuffs. Really I have no idea what happens, but what I do know is that it works.

A bit of advice to you: SpamCop reporting may seem time consuming or tedious at first, but hang in there. It is more than worth the time put in. This brings me to my final point…

Now this may sound a little out of character for a cheapskate like me, but listen up. I spent months, even years drifting from one email address to the next, hiding out only to be found again. Thanks to SpamCop, my record is clean (or at least my InBox). Even though SpamCop’s reporting is free, it is definitly worth a donation. So when you breathe your big sigh of relief on finding “no new messages”, consider tipping your hat to the Spam Cops.

-Brian

By admin • Articles, Freeloader Friday Download of the Week • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 27 2009

Screw CommandsóStart Gesturing

By: Jon Gales

Key-commands are great. I love ‘em. Why shall we dump them? Meet Cocoa
Gestures.
It’s a freeware application that lets you use the movement of your mouse as
a command. I know that sounds insanely hard but it’s not. There are only a
few movements you need to know:

  1. Up
  2. Down
  3. Left
  4. Right

Yep, it’s just the X/Y deal that you did in Algebra (that’s all mice can do
if you had not realized by now). What Cocoa Gestures does is take combinations
of
said
movements
and
remembers them
specific
to
applications.
Example:

Left, Down, Right with your mouse looks like this on your screen:

cocoagesturesgraph Screw CommandsóStart Gesturing

You don’t have to have rigid lines and sharp cornersórough works. It’s pretty
easy to set each gesture up, you just go to the application menu, select Cocoa
Gestures and click the add button. After you input the actual mouse movement
it shows you what it saw in the form of single letters (u,d,l and r). There
are a lot of combinations of the 4 movements and since they are application
specific you won’t have to worry about running out.

As with everything, there are a few problems. The major one with this app
is that it only works with Cocoa apps. You’ll notice that a lot of your apps
happen to be Carbon…
Even
the
Finder
isn’t
Cocoaóit
was written in Power Plant (according to my programmer friends). How do you
tell if it’s a Cocoa app? Go to the Application menu (next to the Apple Menu)
and see if Cocoa Gestures is there. If not, you’ll have to keep up the key
commands.

Also, if you don’t have a mouse that has two buttons or a scroll wheel then
part of the usefulness of this application is lost. For instance, when I’m
browsing pages in Camino I can just hit the scroll wheel, drag to the left
and view the tab to the left of the page I’m viewing. Quite handy and very
geek chic. On the other hand, if I was using an Apple mouse I would have to
hit a key on the keyboard to tell Cocoa Gestures to start watching the mouse.
If you’re a true power user, you’ll have a two button mouse any way… This
shouldn’t be a problem.

If you use Cocoa Gestures and have some killer tips for everyone, please send
them in. If they really kick butt, I’ll post them and give you credit (if you
want it).

By admin • Articles, Power User Monday Tip of the Week • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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