Windows only: Last year we shared TubeMaster Plus with you, an extremely handy program for downloading videos and music from streaming sites. TubeMaster++ has been released and comes with a slew of new features.
TubeMaster++ makes grabbing streaming videos and music incredibly simple. As long as TubeMaster++ is running, it will grab nearly every kind of media you watch over your internet connection thanks to its ability to scan the incoming data and not rely on the browser itself. Whether you’re watching a video in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera, as soon as you start watching it, TubeMaster++ will begin capturing it.
You can save files, play them back right in TubeMaster++ and convert them. What formats can you convert into? A better question would be what formats can’t you convert into. You can convert audio formats into WAV, MP3, OGG, and AC3, among others. Video can be converted into dozens of formats and presets for mobile devices including the Creative Zen, iPod, Blackberry, PSP and PS3, various mobile phone sizes, and more universal formats like AVI and MPEG4.
TubeMaster++ does lose one feature from its predecessor, because of dependencies it has on installed software it is no longer portable. The trade off will be more than worth it for most people however as the new version is more stable, offers more features, has a built in video and music search engine, and has dropped upgrade requirement to download from adult video-sharing sites. TubeMaster++ is freeware, Windows only, and requires Java Runtime Environment and WinPcap (both of which are included in the installation if you don’t have them.)
Need to monitor Linux server performance? Try these built-in command and a few add-on tools. Most Linux distributions are equipped with tons of monitoring. These tools provide metrics which can be used to get information about system activities. You can use these tools to find the possible causes of a performance problem. The commands discussed below are some of the most basic commands when it comes to system analysis and debugging server issues such as:
Seven Sexton sent us a link to this awesome 1992 video of Queen‘s Brian May talking about “The Fireplace,” his famous electric guitar that he and his dad built from scrap bits such as a mantle from a 100-year old fireplace (hence the name), a chunk of a table, a spring from a motorcycle, a piece from his mother’s knitting needle, etc. Amazingly, this is not some fragile relic he keeps in the closet, but a working guitar, one you’ve heard on many Queen songs. His family was poor and his dad built most of their home electronics, including their television and radio. Wonderful, inspiring little piece. I love the opening quote from him:
I’m still a kid. Basically, I LOVE the sound of the guitar. I love making it. I love standing there and making that noise.
Windows/Mac/Linux: Songbird is a powerful, clever music manager, but iPod/iPhone integration is its Achilles’ heel. The latest version aims to halfway heal that weakness by integrating tightly with iTunes playlists, while adding custom library management and Last.fm radio.
Full import and export functionality from Songbird to iTunes does, in a way, make it possible to manage your iPod touch or iPhone music (and other iPods you could already could sync) from Songbird—you just have to actually sync the device through iTunes and set it to grab those Songbird-managed playlists. Whether that’s an acceptable or convenient hack depends on how you regard iTunes, but it’s at least a nice gateway for those using more than one media player and Apple’s more locked-down devices.
More useful for the serious music collector is Songbird’s new folder and file management features, which definitely scores over iTunes’ one-size-will-fit-you-all option. It’s not quite boolean, but you can get specific on how your album folders and track titles are named. Last.fm radio works just like you’d think it does, and there are a good number of speed boosts and bug fixes included and explained at the Songbird blog linked below.
Songbird 1.2 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
Pandaman0529 shares his steps for a very interesting guitar mod – So what exactly are scalloped frets? Scalloping a fretboard is when you remove wood from the fretboard so that when the guitar is played, the fingers only contact the string, not the wood underneath, eliminating massive amounts of friction. It is much easier to [...]
The new app ‘Incoming!’ makes it possible to use Skype over 3G and Edge networks by turning all of your outgoing calls into incoming calls with the help of a partner desktop app. •Turn your outgoing calls into incoming calls using the Incoming! desktop application along with the iPhone application. •Depending on your phone plan, [...]
Your living room television is the next new platform for developers. And, while Apple is squandering its Apple TV lead by treating Internet television as a ‘hobby’, Boxee is opening the platform up to developers, offering an API and kicking off a developer challenge. Boxee’s move is resulting in an explosion of content on the [...]
More often than not, designers have rightfully been accused of retreating into their cocoons of ignorance as soon as their work of creating a web design is finished, leaving the dirty and more hands-on work of putting it up on the web to developers. This apathy is prevalent not only in the web-building industry, but [...]