Tag: useful information

Categories
internets uncategorized

Cool and Useful Stuffs

Here’s a list of some cool and useful stuff i’ve compiled for Holly’s brother. I thought i’d share it here.

You never have to worry about spyware, adware, viruses, trojans, worms, or other malware, because i’ve already used this stuff, plus i only use apps and sites that are already well-known to be pretty friggin’ excellent. Every one of these sites and apps come with a solid reputation.

All of this stuff is 100% free, except for a few that you can optionally pay for, like Reaper (audio recording). Naturally, i do not recommend downloading pirated software or media content.

Awesome free stuff you have to have, or at least need to know about:

System utilities and just plain excellent basics

Cool, useful stuff for your desktop

Audio, video, media

  • Audacity (audio)
  • Reaper (audio)
  • foobar2000 (music)
  • VLC (media player)
    • http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
    • Great video player. Looks daunting, but all you have to do is play video or audio files. It’s one of the few that can open almost any file type. Can also convert, stream, save, etc.
  • GIMP (images)
    • http://www.gimp.org/
    • Like Photoshop, but a little scarier-looking. A couple of hours playing with it and you’ll get the hang of it. Powerful.
  • Irfanview (images)
  • DVDFlick (DVD authoring)
    • http://www.dvdflick.net/
    • Put your legally questionable downloaded movies on DVD with menus and everything! Not the best, but really easy to use.
  • uTorrent (downloading)
    • http://www.utorrent.com/
    • Download anything you want with this.
    • Best sites for searching are:
      • Obviously, use at your own risk. Read comments, look at details, and install anti-malware apps first. BTjunkie even has icons for # of ‘good/bad’ reports per torrent, so make sure to check them out.
        • You can use Peer Guardian to hide your IP address while you’re downloading legally questionable content. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
          • http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
  • TVersity (media center)
    • http://tversity.com/
    • Like Windows Media Center, but free and better. Download podcasts and videocasts and share your video across your home network.
    • If you have an Xbox or some other device for your TV, you can even watch your hard-drive movies/music/photos on TV. Super awesome.

Web sites that you will presently become completely, slobber-mouth addicted to, because they are awesome and will make you WIN.

  • Google Calendar
    • http://www.google.com/calendar/
    • You can even remind yourself of appointments via email or SMS to your mobile phone! You can also share calendar events and add other people’s events to yours.
  • Lifehacker
    • http://lifehacker.com/
    • Learn how to make life easier, cooler, better, and awesomer. Comes in many flavors, from real-world DIY projects to digital shortcuts
    • I really cannot say enough good about this site. Some of the best tips, tricks, and suggestions i’ve ever found for all areas of life, both digital and in meatspace.
    • Seriously. Wicked awesome.
  • Facebook
    • http://facebook.com/
    • Find old friends. Avoid others. Lots of dumb widgets, and you can “poke” people until their brains bleed. Annoying, but awesome too.
  • Picasa
  • Flickr
  • Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Twitter
    • http://twitter.com/
    • Like a micro-sized blog. Send “tweets” from your cell phone or via web.
  • WordPress
  • Indeed
  • LinkedIn
  • Craigslist
  • BoingBoing
    • http://boingboing.net/
    • “A directory of wonderful things” – weird, cool stuff, plus news you might not hear about elsewhere.
  • Digg
    • http://digg.com/
    • Social news site. Most popular submitted stories rise to the top. Addictive, interesting, and easy.
  • last.fm
    • http://last.fm/
    • Social networking, music-style. Also download their desktop player. With that you can play music tagged with descriptive keywords. For fun, try typing in “unlistenable.”

If you’re ever looking for killer software (or a web site) that does ‘X, Y, and/or Z,’ just let me know and i’ll point you to something good, safe, fun, and useful.

My username is “transmothra” on most sites – if you run into me online be sure to say hello!

Find me on: jeremy jarratt.com | FaceBook | MySpace | MySpace music | LiveJournal | Flickr | Last.fm | LinkedIn | Jobster | Digg | Google Reader | Netflix | Twitter | YouTube | FriendFeed
Categories
uncategorized

Cool and Useful Stuffs

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. Please leave any comments there.

Here’s a list of some cool and useful stuff i’ve compiled for Holly’s brother. I thought i’d share it here.

You never have to worry about spyware, adware, viruses, trojans, worms, or other malware, because i’ve already used this stuff, plus i only use apps and sites that are already well-known to be pretty friggin’ excellent. Every one of these sites and apps come with a solid reputation.

All of this stuff is 100% free, except for a few that you can optionally pay for, like Reaper (audio recording). Naturally, i do not recommend downloading pirated software or media content.

Awesome free stuff you have to have, or at least need to know about:

System utilities and just plain excellent basics

Cool, useful stuff for your desktop

Audio, video, media

  • Audacity (audio)

  • Reaper (audio)

  • foobar2000 (music)

  • VLC (media player)

    • http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

    • Great video player. Looks daunting, but all you have to do is play video or audio files. It’s one of the few that can open almost any file type. Can also convert, stream, save, etc.

  • GIMP (images)

    • http://www.gimp.org/

    • Like Photoshop, but a little scarier-looking. A couple of hours playing with it and you’ll get the hang of it. Powerful.

  • Irfanview (images)

  • DVDFlick (DVD authoring)

    • http://www.dvdflick.net/

    • Put your legally questionable downloaded movies on DVD with menus and everything! Not the best, but really easy to use.

  • uTorrent (downloading)

    • http://www.utorrent.com/

    • Download anything you want with this.

    • Best sites for searching are:

      • Obviously, use at your own risk. Read comments, look at details, and install anti-malware apps first. BTjunkie even has icons for # of ‘good/bad’ reports per torrent, so make sure to check them out.

        • You can use Peer Guardian to hide your IP address while you’re downloading legally questionable content. Not perfect, but better than nothing.

  • TVersity (media center)

    • http://tversity.com/

    • Like Windows Media Center, but free and better. Download podcasts and videocasts and share your video across your home network.

    • If you have an Xbox or some other device for your TV, you can even watch your hard-drive movies/music/photos on TV. Super awesome.

Web sites that you will presently become completely, slobber-mouth addicted to, because they are awesome and will make you WIN.

  • Google Calendar

    • http://www.google.com/calendar/

    • You can even remind yourself of appointments via email or SMS to your mobile phone! You can also share calendar events and add other people’s events to yours.

  • Lifehacker

    • http://lifehacker.com/

    • Learn how to make life easier, cooler, better, and awesomer. Comes in many flavors, from real-world DIY projects to digital shortcuts

    • I really cannot say enough good about this site. Some of the best tips, tricks, and suggestions i’ve ever found for all areas of life, both digital and in meatspace.

    • Seriously. Wicked awesome.

  • Facebook

    • http://facebook.com/

    • Find old friends. Avoid others. Lots of dumb widgets, and you can “poke” people until their brains bleed. Annoying, but awesome too.

  • Picasa

  • Flickr

  • Gmail

  • Google Reader

  • Twitter

    • http://twitter.com/

    • Like a micro-sized blog. Send “tweets” from your cell phone or via web.

  • WordPress

  • Indeed

  • LinkedIn

  • Craigslist

  • BoingBoing

    • http://boingboing.net/

    • “A directory of wonderful things” – weird, cool stuff, plus news you might not hear about elsewhere.

  • Digg

    • http://digg.com/

    • Social news site. Most popular submitted stories rise to the top. Addictive, interesting, and easy.

  • last.fm

    • http://last.fm/

    • Social networking, music-style. Also download their desktop player. With that you can play music tagged with descriptive keywords. For fun, try typing in “unlistenable.”

If you’re ever looking for killer software (or a web site) that does ‘X, Y, and/or Z,’ just let me know and i’ll point you to something good, safe, fun, and useful.

My username is “transmothra” on most sites – if you run into me online be sure to say hello!

Find me on: jeremy jarratt.com | FaceBook | MySpace | MySpace music | LiveJournal | Flickr | Last.fm | LinkedIn | Jobster | Digg | Google Reader | Netflix | Twitter | YouTube | FriendFeed
Categories
life uncategorized

When i am dead

When i am dead, i wish to be burned to a crisp, and have my dirty ashes scattered by close friends wherever they please.

It is my wish that whatever organs are desperately, vitally needed by someone else in their direst hour be given to them, free of charge, with the condition that such license to use and/or modify shall be taken up by them also, and that no derivative works shall result in profit. After all, i am an open source, Creative Commons person.

My stuff shall be dispersed however my few close friends see fit, with the understanding that of course my dear love Holly should have pretty well everything to start with, shared mainly with anything my dad & uncle  might want (so you better ask them all real nice if you want my Cure CDs). However, Tony D. is not to have anything until he sobers the hell up. There’s no point in giving anything to a man who’s only going to exchange it for crappy booze or some other escapist bullshit. On the other hand, his wonderful daughter Abby is welcome to just about anything she chooses.

I want my unfinished work to be wrapped up somehow. I don’t care how, so long as i become extremely famous and fabulously wealthy after death. Just don’t screw it up like you do everything else. This is Important Shit.

A grave marker will be permitted if anyone wants to bury my ashes, as long as the epitaph is funny as hell. My suggestions:

  • “I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
  • “Whew! Good thing that’s over.”
  • “Oops!”
  • “Not here, and not there either.”
  • “Thankfully gone, decidedly forgotten.”

If you have something better, go for it.

No serious religion shall stake a claim on any part of my death, including but not limited to any services performed to mark my exit. No rites or stupid ceremonies are to be performed, with the lone exception being that my homies will be permitted to spill some on the curb for me. No spiritual messages are to be given, and no priest of any faith shall officiate. It is to be wholly remembered that i was a devout agnostic, who leaned heavily toward atheism. Anyone caught claiming that i somehow had a soul that lived on after death shall be haunted by my fictitious ghost forever, or until they come to the conclusion that i am not haunting them at all, whichever comes first. I lived through enough horse shit; i don’t need to deal with more of it once i am dead and gone forever. My passing should be viewed as permanent. There is to be no prayer of any kind, except in jest. Silent meditation is permitted, but please: no god shit, and no afterlife crap.

Two religions which are permitted practices and/or short rites are the Church of the SubGenius and the P.O.E.E. (disciples of Eris, goddess of confusion – i think), and they should mock the whole goddamn thing, if they even bother to show up. I also do not mind Buddhism all that much.

No flowers, please. Take your money and donate it to a non-religious charity that does work with AIDS patients or research, breast cancer (again, patients or research), homelessness, runaways, asthma, the environment, civil and/or human rights, putting an end to consumerism, humanitarian efforts, nuclear disarmament, or anything related to promoting atheism or agnosticism or the like.

On the other hand, any services performed to mark my escape from this terrible veil of lies should have a darkly humorous bent, and anyone eulogizing me must include at least one tasteless joke at my expense, or (more preferably) the expense of others. Weirdness should be encouraged at any cost. Attempts should be made at gallows humor. Thou shalt have joy, and laughter, damn it. Death is nothing serious. Be wholly glad i am gone!

Categories
uncategorized

When i am dead

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

When i am dead, i wish to be burned to a crisp, and have my dirty ashes scattered by close friends wherever they please.

It is my wish that whatever organs are desperately, vitally needed by someone else in their direst hour be given to them, free of charge, with the condition that such license to use and/or modify shall be taken up by them also, and that no derivative works shall result in profit. After all, i am an open source, Creative Commons person.

My stuff shall be dispersed however my few close friends see fit, with the understanding that of course my dear love Holly should have pretty well everything to start with, shared mainly with anything my dad & uncle might want (so you better ask them all real nice if you want my Cure CDs). However, Tony D. is not to have anything until he sobers the hell up. There’s no point in giving anything to a man who’s only going to exchange it for crappy booze or some other escapist bullshit. On the other hand, his wonderful daughter Abby is welcome to just about anything she chooses.

I want my unfinished work to be wrapped up somehow. I don’t care how, so long as i become extremely famous and fabulously wealthy after death. Just don’t screw it up like you do everything else. This is Important Shit.

A grave marker will be permitted if anyone wants to bury my ashes, as long as the epitaph is funny as hell. My suggestions:

  • “I probably shouldn’t have done that.”

  • “Whew! Good thing that’s over.”

  • “Oops!”

  • “Not here, and not there either.”

  • “Thankfully gone, decidedly forgotten.”

If you have something better, go for it.

No serious religion shall stake a claim on any part of my death, including but not limited to any services performed to mark my exit. No rites or stupid ceremonies are to be performed, with the lone exception being that my homies will be permitted to spill some on the curb for me. No spiritual messages are to be given, and no priest of any faith shall officiate. It is to be wholly remembered that i was a devout agnostic, who leaned heavily toward atheism. Anyone caught claiming that i somehow had a soul that lived on after death shall be haunted by my fictitious ghost forever, or until they come to the conclusion that i am not haunting them at all, whichever comes first. I lived through enough horse shit; i don’t need to deal with more of it once i am dead and gone forever. My passing should be viewed as permanent. There is to be no prayer of any kind, except in jest. Silent meditation is permitted, but please: no god shit, and no afterlife crap.

Two religions which are permitted practices and/or short rites are the Church of the SubGenius and the P.O.E.E. (disciples of Eris, goddess of confusion – i think), and they should mock the whole goddamn thing, if they even bother to show up. I also do not mind Buddhism all that much.

No flowers, please. Take your money and donate it to a non-religious charity that does work with AIDS patients or research, breast cancer (again, patients or research), homelessness, runaways, asthma, the environment, civil and/or human rights, putting an end to consumerism, humanitarian efforts, nuclear disarmament, or anything related to promoting atheism or agnosticism or the like.

On the other hand, any services performed to mark my escape from this terrible veil of lies should have a darkly humorous bent, and anyone eulogizing me must include at least one tasteless joke at my expense, or (more preferably) the expense of others. Weirdness should be encouraged at any cost. Attempts should be made at gallows humor. Thou shalt have joy, and laughter, damn it. Death is nothing serious. Be wholly glad i am gone!

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

You can quote me on that

For those designers who want to do the fancy-pants block-quotes thing, here is the CSS. Note that you have to put a DIV element in there to give it padding and close the quotes. That’s because the current specification for CSS do not allow for more than one background image for any single element. This may change in the future, but for now, we must write fairly non-semantic markup in order to achieve the cool effect.

blockquote {
background: transparent url(path/to/quote-left.img) left top no-repeat;
}
blockquote div {
background: transparent url(path/to/quote-right.img) right bottom no-repeat;
padding: 0 50px;
}

… And this is what it looks like:

I used to be really, really humble.

It just made me big-headed.
x jeremy jarratt

I added a :hover behavior to mine. What will you do?

Categories
current events internets uncategorized

Get Internet Explorer 7

I highly urge you to get Internet Explorer 7. It is far and above any previous version of IE which you may have found somehow pleasurable. In addition to enhanced security, it features tabbed browsing, support for RSS feeds, and is much more standards-compliant than its predecessor.

And it’s really not all that bad. I’d still recommend Opera or Firefox, though.

Get Internet Explorer 7

Categories
current events uncategorized

Your history.

May I just take a moment of your time to point out that:

Every white (and non-American Indian) person living in the United States today is a descendant of debatably illegal immigrants? And that, while we’re on the topic, the non-white immigrants to this country were nearly exclusively brought here in chains by whites?

So just exactly what god damn right does anyone have to say that any human being is illegal or that they are trespassers?

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
-Emma Lazarus

Categories
internets local uncategorized

OregonDistrict.com

Goddammit. I was so totally going to do this very thing! OregonDistrict.com – a social networking site for the Gem City! Has a ton of potential. Register and find me.

Categories
current events uncategorized

Evolution

Most Americans Agree with Evolution – that’s a bit of a surprise, given the current climate in this country. Still, assuming you can still find a knuckledragging specimen of evolutionary failure, you can use this Scientific American article to knock them down a rung or fifteen.

Categories
internets media podcasts uncategorized web design

A note on web syndication

Syndication is a really cool way to not ever have to actually come here to know what’s going on at this site. Think of it as “set it and forget it” web surfing. Let me explain.

You can use a news reader or other application (such as web-based apps like My Yahoo!) to read content from this and other sites without having to actually go there. The advantage is that you can see what’s going on in the world around you without ever having the leave the application (or site) that you’re looking at. New articles are delivered to you (instead of the other way around), so you don’t ever have to remember to check in.

For instance, I’ve got my Thunderbird set up with a whole slew of news feeds. Instead of actually checking in with BoingBoing, Huffington Post, Ze Frank, and Pitchfork every day, I let them come to me. I get all of the content I want, delivered to me almost as if it were an e-mail.

You can find all sorts of applications out there that will read news feeds for you and put them all in one place for you to check out.

To add a feed, look for the icon, which may vary from site to site, or a link, usually saying something like “RSS”, “XML Feed”, or some suchlike. Copy the link and add it to your client application (follow their instructions).

You can get feed links for this site toward the bottom of the page, in the sidebar (under “syndicate”). There are links to add this site in a variety of ways.

Special tip: you can append “/feed/” to the end of the URL for any category or page on this site. For example, to keep track of updates on the “podcasts » songs” category, you would use: https://transmothra.com/category/podcasts/songs/feed/

Extra special tip: There’s also a comments feed at jeremyjarratt.com/comments/feed/

See also:

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

New tutorial: HTML Beginner’s Course pt 1

I’ve just finished posting the latest tutorial: HTML Beginner’s Course pt 1. This tutorial covers basic HTML formatting and some common tags. Nothing intensive here, just a crash course in what it is and what it does, with a little bit of the fundamentals. Topics to be covered later include lists, images, links, tables, and CSS.

Get your feet wet now, we’ll be doing some fun diving soon enough! There’s even an RSS feed to the tutorials pages, so you can keep up with the latest tute’s.

Categories
life uncategorized

My favorite gadgets

Gadgets that seemingly transport me weeks into the future:

  • SanDisk Sansa e140
    • Now i am never without my first true love – music. 1 Gigabyte will easily store 15 albums’ worth of good-quality mp3s. Expandable with an SD card. And an FM tuner for when you’re standing right next to a radio tower and want to nearly discern what’s being broadcast.
  • various LED flashlights
    • I will use these things at the drop of a hat – even in direct freakin’ sunlight. And i have yet to change the batteries after months of constant use. Very bright.
  • Samsung LCD monitor
    • Flat, sleek, crystal clear, colorful, nearly weightless, and relatively microscopic footprint. Very sexy.
  • Acu-Rite weather monitor w/ remote sensor
    • I only say “what’s it like outside?” out of pure habit. I don’t really mean it, though. I can know at a mere glance. Makes one feel meteorologically omnipotent.
  • Yamaha tuner/metronome
    • Always in tune, always in time. Theoretically, anyway.
  • Mad Catz wireless controller for PS2
    • Now if only my PS2’s fuse wasn’t going bad, i could play without that stupid big thick stiff cable always knocking shit over.
  • Digitech Distortion Factory
    • I can dial in any tone, from warm overdrive to jangly crunch to thick meaty distortion to scooped out slog-metal. Rawk.
  • Laser pointer
    • Don’t knock this relatively old-school tech – it’s the best dog toy ever created! No crazy squeaking to annoy you during the late-night movie sessions, and it won’t make your pooch morbidly obese.
  • Logitech wireless optical mouse
    • Overlooking the battery drainage, the fact that it won’t get in your way, stays smooth as silk, and never needs cleaning makes this damn thing a killer piece of tech.
  • various small desktop-style speakers
    • I seem to have pairs of these things all over the freaking apartment for TV/DVD/PS2, boomboxes, PC, etc. Although i’m not yet 5.1, i’m never without rich, stereo sound, and they never get in the way. Even the wires are easily hidden under small rugs.
  • rechargeable batteries
    • I never lack power or mobility. Not for several hours at least. Then, i transform back into my regular, mild-mannered, powerless and immobile self. But only until i recharge a few more cells!
  • Phillips automatic A/V selector
    • Doesn’t matter what device i turn on, the TV will show me what i want to see most. Well, within reason. I’m still waiting to see a semi-intelligent, at least partially-evolved creature take back control of the most powerful nation on Earth. And 24/7 boobies. In that precise order.
Categories
creative internets music

EQ tips

EQ tips – excerpt from “The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook” by engineer Bobby Owsinski