Archive for August, 2007
Love cheap music? Allofmp3.com, welcome back.
Aug 30th
Want to pay less for higher-quality? Sick of how iTunes is overcharging (what, we both know it)? If you haven’t heard of it already, Allofmp3.com is notorious for it’s services.
You might have established it by now – Allofmp3.com is a music store. It’s owned and operated in Russia, which explains why its prices are a fraction of North American ones. For example – right now you’re paying $0.99 to get Maroon 5′s new single. Oh, wait – why not surf over to Allofmp3.com and get it for $0.1 (or higher, depending on the quality)?
Allofmp3.com has been attacked with many a lawsuit from the RIAA (okay, so what else is new), but it’s actually survived. In fact, it’s planning to make it’s comeback very soon. See for yourself – surf over to Allofmp3.com right now!
So, do I use Allofmp3.com? In short answer, no. I do believe financially supporting my artists. And although Allofmp3.com claims to pay the recording labels (or actually, they have a sum of money waiting for them), the money doesn’t get accepted or just gets plain old ignored (same result, right?). Thus, the money still doesn’t get to the artists. I personally don’t think that’s right – so for the artists’ sake, I’m forced to use Spiral Frog (which has officially signed contracts with two major labels – something Allofmp3.com hasn’t accomplished) or buy off iTunes (signed contracts with all four major labels and a bunch of smaller ones).
What can I say – I believe in people getting recognized and rewarded for their hard work.
Why you need four desktops; and how to get the other three.
Aug 29th
Why exactly would you need four desktops?
More screen real-estate (some of us just can’t squeeze enough pixels per inch on our monitors), more space for that clutter of windows, more processes to take up that extra RAM – the list goes on.
I alternate between my four desktops mainly when I am writing a blurb about a piece of software and feel like I need to create some screenshots. Of course I wouldn’t show you my dirty screen with all those Instant Messenger windows open. No, I like to inadvertantly brag about my cleanliness through the screenshots I take. And this is where Yet anOther (yes, anOther) Desktop Manager comes in handy.
A picture I used in the other review – I’ll explain why later. But you get the idea, right?
Okay, so I wrote about YODM3D (it uses pretty intense 3D graphics) before. But, it’s been updated! Let’s brief you on the basically what YODM3D does, first of all: it virtually adds three more desktops – operative word being virtually – and you sacrifice RAM and processing power for more virtual space. Press the combination hotkeys, and the respective arrow, and you will be able to arrive at another desktop while watching a fancy cube spinning technique. It’s actually pretty cool – if your computer can handle it.
Version 1.4 doesn’t differ too much from it’s mother, version 1.3, except that it introduces the ability to move windows from one virtual desktop to another. Sounds too good to be true? It works like a charm – after you get the hang of it.
I would like to post a few new screenshots, but the new YODM3D is not nearly as Print-Screen-friendly as its predecessor. Nonetheless, I still got a screenshot of how dragging a window to a different virtual desktop looks; it didn’t turn out too well, but you’ll certainly get the idea.
Uh, isn’t there supposed to be an equalizer on Windows Media Player?
YODM3D is a flashy desktop manager that works – if you’ve got the hardware equipped for it. My laptop barely manages to run this program with most features enabled. Think twice about it – you might actually want a desktop manager that does not eat that much computing power.
Alas, if you want YODM3D for free, you’re definitely going to be disappointed. Otaku software purchased YODM3D and slapped a price tag on it (along with some new features, undoubtedly). Still, it really blows for the rest of us consumers who don’t have the change to spend on this stuff.
Arise from the ashes, CutEdge!
Aug 29th
The hiatus has ended, and I, Herbert Lui, am back.
After a couple of days of soul-searching, and a visit to Indigo (where I was inspired and challenged by a book I found – but didn’t buy, ha ha), I realized that I had been going about blogging all wrong.
So, after a few priority shifts, a bit more planning, and a new makeover (it took me a couple of days to find a theme that I liked and described CutEdge well), I’m back. I do hope to bring you more quality articles and news until at least the end of the year 2007. Then I can look back, make some resolutions, lick my wounds, and keep going.
I could use some moral support. So why not register now? Registering is quick, easy, and free. It makes you part of the CutEdge community (and just might get you an avatar). I’m still working things out, but I am looking for a few guest bloggers. So why not apply? Send me an e-mail at luiavenues[at]gmail.com.
So it arose (after a mere three days) with a new look. But that’s not going to be the only new thing around here.
Hiatus?
Aug 26th
Time to tell you loyal readers about the status of CutEdge.
As you might have noticed by now, the blog seems to be lacking a few updates. Let me explain: during the past couple of weeks of volunteering at a day camp, I have hardly had the time to write in my blog. I sincerely apologize for this – especially for you really dedicated followers of CutEdge.
I am currently considering going on a hiatus – both to continue my education and to pursue a few of my other interests. However, this is just an idea; I love writing (it’s been a passion of mine), so I really hold my blog close to me.
This vibrant orange skin is also to be temporary; I miss the old Freshy theme I used, as it seemed to be an excellent blend of professionalism and technology, but unfortunately, I realize that many various other websites function on that template as well. I do want CutEdge to be more unique. I’ve had readers describe this orange skin as “spiffy”, but I myself am not too satisfied.
Rest assured, reader, because CutEdge will arise from the ashes once again (that is, if it falls). If I can make it happen, it will arise with a new look and a few more columns and regular write-ups (hint: I’ve done a lot of tinkering around, and I’ve got plenty to write about – including fooling around with Ubuntu. Look it up if you don’t know what it is!).
I’ve gotten a good concept of how to run the blog now. So the next time I’m back, it will be for sure. Later days.
Take 1: FREE LEGAL MUSIC – Courtesy of Spiral Frog
Aug 19th
Now that I have your attention, I’d like to tell you about practically the only true legal way to get free music.
Wait a minute, how is this possible? If they’re not making money from selling the songs, then how will the green giant (I’m referring to the site’s colours, haha) be able to pay the artists and labels for the music?
Through advertising, of course! There are various ads placed around the site, and all you have to do is surf around while your song downloads through their download manager (more on this later in the article). The revenue made from the advertisements then go to the artists and recording labels – and that is basically how Spiral Frog works in a nutshell.
Of course, there is much more to it – you are required to renew your account every thirty days (around once a month). Renewing is an easy process – answer a few questions (a survey of around three short pages) and you’re practically done. Why the surveying? Well, due to the importance of the advertising, they have to choose and target the audiences carefully. The questions are straight-forward and are strictly opinion-based, so no worries. It’s not an IQ-test or anything.
The only cons I see; first, the songs don’t work with the IPOD. Now this is horrible news for around half the population; seeing as how the iPod is the most commercially-successful digital audio player, the majority of the users of digital audio players will not be able to listen to the Spiral Frog songs (which are in .wma format). Secondly, the jailing DRM – the song can only be downloaded once on a pc and put onto two digital audio players. And the DRM expires after sixty days, so the file won’t work if you don’t renew your account after sixty days. Horrible. But hey, you’re getting your money’s worth.
Bad news for the audiophiles; the files are encoded at 128kbps. Not the greatest quality – but comparable to iTunes songs (ignore iTunes plus for now)! In fact, Spiral Frog’s files are quite similar to iTunes – they are both heavily guarded by DRM and are encoded at 128kbps. Nothing for iTunes to be proud of; 99 cents per track as opposed to free – it’s yours to choose (it’s not a difficult decision, believe me…unless you have an iPod, haha).
Downloading the track itself is easy – Spiral Frog’s got a huge collection of popular mainstream music and has contracts with both EMI Music and Universal; two of the big four labels, not bad at all. Enjoy the rocky noises of Bon Jovi or the hardcore rap of Bone Thugs n Harmony! The only weird part is the download manager – which only ensures you don’t download more than one track at a time, as far as I can see (so you view more ads, which is kind of like paying for the music – seems fair). The downloaded song appears in the folder selected by Spiral Frog during the installation (default is the My Music folder). The only pain in the neck – Vista uses a folder called Music, as opposed to My Music – so due to my carelessness I took a while to find the songs.
Spiral Frog is a great concept – and even if it does not succeed (no matter how unlikely that sounds), I think that music companies can learn from the idea of free music. I just wish that the formats were iPod-compatible – and that the DRM wasn’t so darn strong. But I can’t complain; it’s a free service, and if I don’t like it, I should just buzz off (same goes for you, haha).
Take 1: Sony Ericsson s500i
Aug 10th
Wow, a fresh stunning Sony Ericsson! Well, all Sony Ericssons are pretty stunning, but you’re definitely going to want to take a look at this. After receiving much praise from the enthusiast community, I decided to take a look at this phone myself.
First off, I discovered that it was available to Canada through TigerDirect.ca! Yes! We finally get something we’ve always wanted (alright so I didn’t always want this – sue me)..
TigerDirect has both a yellow and black model available – in the picture, they generally look pretty sleek and shiny. I personally would prefer the black one, as it looks a lot more masculine, but the yellow one (err, seems more golden though now that I look at it closer) is not too bad of a selection at all. They’ve both got “high-class” written all over them.
Source: http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/wp-content/phoneimages/2007/05/s500-1.jpg
As you can see, the s500i is a slider phone. Which is a big plus in my book – I love my slider phones. However, this also means that it can be a lot more fragile – I know someone who has a D809, and the slider has been a major problem for him (well, people keep fooling around with the slider) – it’s had to be sent to repair quite often.
Now that you know I wasn’t lying about the S500i, you’re probably wondering about it’s specifications. It rocks a two-megapixel camera, with a 240 x 320 pixel screen (wow, that’s pretty darn nice; 262K TFT!), 12mb of storage built-in (with support for Memory Stick Micro M2 of course), quad-band support, and EDGE support (no 3g support, darn). In short, it’s pretty standard for a high-end phone nowadays.
At $398.99 CDN for the “mysterious green” variant (the black one I was talking about, I guess they like green more than the black, haha) and $385.99 CDN for “spring yellow”, this phone definitely does not come cheap. But when it’s got the features that will last you for a while, and a look that’s bound to attract that annoying guy at the end of your street, or that intimidating boss at work, or any unexpected spectators.
I can’t say I would “highly” recommend it, but I can say it looks a lot more than it actually is. But hey, many phones do nowadays. Besides, you can expect typical Sony Ericsson quality!
And if you’re really interested, here’s the link: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3235561&CatId=1809
CutEdge: The new site.
Aug 9th
Here at CutEdge, the site formerly known as Herb’s Blurbs, we have undergone some (major) re-branding. Same site, same material; different name, different look. It is your gizmo and software blog, but it is not your regular tech site.
I do thank you for spending the effort to find me back here, and I hope you have a nice day. Look forward to more updates very soon!
In the meantime, if you are an appreciator of architecture, you can visit my sister blog called NeoView. They are related, but they’ve got nothing much else in common. See you around!
Voki of the day!
Aug 7th
My main moose, Moose the Voki Avatar, has earned the spot of Voki of the Day at Voki!
I’m very pleased to have accomplished this achievement. I’d like to thank Hannah over at Voki for putting my dear Moosey up as the Voki of the Day.
I do hope to integrate Voki with my Blurbs Blog eventually, but I’m still taking into consideration many alternatives and am in the process of expanding; thank you for patience.
Have a nice day (hope you’re feeling as great as I’m feeling right now).
Take 1: Wallop
Aug 6th
First, there was Myspace. Then came Facebook, a little while later. And now there is…Wallop?
Well, I know Wallop sounds like a pretty silly name; in fact, it doesn’t sound like a name for a social network site at all! But I remember the first time I saw it, and it’s all-exclusive invitation only service, I was already interested in it. After all, it looks a lot cooler than Facebook (let’s not even mention Myspace and it’s layout disasters).
In contrast to Facebook’s blue and white colour scheme, Wallop seems to be following Microsoft’s Windows Vista’s pattern – a pretty gothic, yet classy, glossy black. I like it! Reminds me of someone’s blurbs *wink*…
I’ve also noticed that there are no squares in Wallop – it all contributes to a very futuristic vibe. The avatars are circles, the friends list is a circle (which looks really cool, circled avatar arranged in a circle), and the page itself is surrounded by a menu that’s curved.
There are themes that you can change to make your page more “you”. Seems like a good thing; it’s not customizable to an HTML level like Myspace, but it’s a heck of a lot more customizable than, oh say, Facebook (not customizable at all, I’ll be happy to say). You can change your background wallpaper too – I just left mine a nice green gradient (I like black and green – looks like a pretty good combo, right?).
The coolest part of Wallop though, would have to be the uploads – you can upload pictures onto Wallop (yes, but Facebook and Myspace had that already); you can also upload MUSIC onto Wallop. Yes, your favourite music tracks can be uploaded onto Wallop and made available to the public audience or just your friends (or for you selfish people out there, you can make them available to just yourself). I’ve been listening to some songs that I haven’t acquired yet, and the quality isn’t too shabby, although you shouldn’t expect too much of it. It’s a very nice way to listen to a friend’s favourite music though; no more going to their house or borrowing their CD (or illegal downloading) required!
It’s GUI is actually pretty intuitive, and pretty natural. It is all flash-based (no HTML, which is a new concept in social networking sites), which makes it have a lot more eye-candy but take a bit longer to load as well (and you also need the Flash plug-in, which every one of you should already have). A lot more animation and effects (such as fading), which I can say are a definite plus in my book; it seems to be bringing the future of social networking.
Last, but not least – there is already a mod shop! A “mod” on Wallop is a little flash application that allows you to do various things; it can display a calendar on your page, or let you play some videos. Unfortunately, these mods do cost money (on Wallop, the currency is called “Wollars”); you do get 5 Wollars for free though, so you can invest in a couple of mods if you had to.
The only negative thing is that it’s kind of quiet; why? It has all these wonderful features, and it’s still quiet? What’s going on here?! Well, it’s invitation-only, so not everyone can just sign up when they want to. If you’re really interested in Wallop, you can e-mail me (check the contact page!), and I’ll do my best to get you an invitation as soon as I can.
Could Wallop be the future of social networking? It most certainly can; it’s definitely got a lot more potential going for it than oh, say, Facebook or Myspace. But don’t let me tell you about it – find out for yourself (how? read the preceding paragraph)!
Ultra Hal Assistant
Aug 5th
Ultra Hal Assistant is an artificially intelligent piece of software that will keep track of many events and dates for you; do you always forget when you get your hair cut? Or how about your loved one’s birthday? Hate how you can’t remember much, but can’t seem to fix it? Ultra Hal Assistant is definitely heaven-sent to help you.
I was skeptical about this artificial intelligence software – after all, I once had a nice purple monkey that talked to me, when I was a young man. Then it infected my computer and planted a lot of devious spyware in there. It’s name? Bonzibuddy.
Thank goodness for decent pieces of software like Ultra Hal Assistant! As a real artificially-intelligent “robot”, it can speak to you and actually hold conversations with you! Now, I know at odd hours, it might seem like no one is online on your favourite Instant Messaging client – and you might want to talk to your computer; well, let’s just say now you can with Ultra Hal Assistant.
Ultra Hal Assistant is brought to you by the lovely folks at Zabaware; to be honest, I have not heard of them before this, but they seem like a pretty genius company to have pioneered (and kind of popularized) this kind of software.
You don’t have to type to speak to Hal; with a mic, you can simply speak English and it will be able to reply! Isn’t it amazing? Almost as great as holding a conversation with a human (alright, a lot better than those conversations with that always-cranky guy down the street).
So why not give it a try? It can’t be spyware-loaded, if you’re as skeptical as I was once; after all, it is hosted by Cnet, which checks their software (or claims to do so). I can only advise you to be careful with your future software. Anyway, check it out at Zabaware’s website for a free 30-day-trial (what, did you expect this piece of software to be freeware? hah!)!
