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Playlists on Youtube
May 5th
Let us keep that joke aside for a while and accept the fact: “It is easy to find stuff when it is properly organised”. It’s cool only in comics, to have your bed heaped up with stuff scattered randomly.
I’m a huge fan of the word ‘efficiency’ and also ‘ninjas’ of course and ‘cats’. Again, quips aside, efficiency, it is a properly designed action that would give you a maximum output from a minimum input. It doesn’t spontaneously happen. It takes a conscious effort to design that action. Some people do it for you, they put in the effort needed and make your lives easier. These people are respected, they manage to gather a huge influx of goodwill from their audience (you). Such an effort directed to design that action gives them a sense of satisfaction and hence helps them to earn a living out of the work they enjoy doing.
‘Efficiency’ gives me a direction to discuss: Playlists on Youtube.
People who make Playlists on Youtube or upload videos/vlogs that are basically directed to make Youtube organized, are the people I’ve been talking about. I can recall tens of such people, who today, actively post videos/playlists on Youtube that are either compilation of a huge amounts of data from different places or an eclectic mix of information aimed at discussing a single topic/issue.
The first person I’d bring to light essentially has to be Michael Stevens. He posts these greatly informative videos overflowing with facts in his Youtube channel VSauce. His videos usually belong to LUT, DOT, Leanback, DONGS, IMG! etc, the categories he organizes them into. My favourite among these categories is the DONG category. It is an acronym and DONG stands for ‘cool free stuff you can Do Online Now, Guys‘. With each video in the DONG category directing you to a 15 or so other interesting places on the internet, for me is the most engrossing category. Similarly, videos from some categories in this channel are bound to keep you wondering for a while. Other videos will force you to replay them again and again an you’ll notice something new every single time. Some other interesting Youtube channels you’d want to go to are CGPGrey, SciShow, MinutePhysics, DanBrown (Pogobat), Veritasium, CrashCourse, Numberphile, SixtySymbols etc…
Tell me in the comments about the other channels you follow, how they help you to find/stumble-over things easily.
Make your own Ambigrams
Mar 6th
It has always been fun to write my name in a way that it reads the same (or something else) when turned upside down.
Instead of hours of brainstorming and doodling on paper you could try using FlipScript, which makes ambigrams automatically. The sad part is that it doesn’t let you have a high resolution version of the ambigram it makes for you, unless you are ordering something from their website. Still, it gives an idea on how to proceed with your doodles and saves you from the inefficient brainstorming.
note: Sometimes, when it is possible to make it into a single word, flipscript does it automatically. eg: textbox1: Friends; textbox2: Family.
The Evolution of the iPod Nano
Nov 22nd
Through all these years (since the last quarter of 2005) we’ve seen a number of revisions of the most popular mp3 player Apple still sells like hot cakes. The iPod Nano released its updated 6th generation a few days back and left us bewildered with the features it mashed up in the Nano-s all along. This infographic (an old one), devoid of the updated 6th generation, clears all doubts we’ve had regarding the iPod Nano-s. The latest Nano (2011) version comes with only a software update that can be done on the older 6th generation Nano and revised prices.
The latest OS (2011) for the Nano basically comes with 16 new clock faces, improving its appeal for the ubiquitous Nano wrist straps we find all around the internet these days. Check out an older post where I covered the wrist bands (The best way to cheat in exams)
Manage and Hide desktop icons efficiently
Nov 22nd
Even after years of polishing the Windows user interface, I think Microsoft has never been able to deliver a quick way to organize/manage the clutter that builds up on your desktop. A long time back I covered a review of the BumpTop 3D desktop which was under testing at that time. It had an amazing concept rolling, but the software package (free) couldn’t deliver exactly what users would find easy for daily use. It wasn’t very intuitive in the first place. A new version of it is available and I’m yet to try it. I’ll review it when I’m done with an exhaustive test.
Fences on the other hand, a free utility by Stardock corporation is something I have found very promising all along. A perfect example of a one-trick pony application. The charm of a clean and light user interface that blends into the default Windows desktop is very pleasing. It divides your icons into separate fences (boxes). These fences can be moved, resized and arranged independently. Giving you the power to manage the icons in a very efficient manner. The color of these fences, their transparency and labels for each of them can be changed from the right click menu. You can also have icons outside these fences which arrange dynamically when you try to overlap them with a fence. On the whole the application is pretty easy to use and configure for daily desktop use.
Another great feature of this utility, I find very useful is the ‘quick hide icons‘ option. It is this can hide all your icons with a single button on your keyboard or a double click in an empty space on your desktop. Exceptions can be added in the configuration pop out. If you are using Windows and are constantly troubled by the mess on your desktop I’d suggest you install it right away. Search no more.
[FENCES]
