You might have just bought (or are looking into buying) those swirly Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. (Shame on you if you haven’t already! Just kidding, of course.) They are supposed to last around ten times longer than an ordinary incandescent lightbulb, and because they don’t use heat to produce light, they are all the more efficient.

photo credit: Velo Steve

This is good for the environment. This is good for your wallet. And it means you don’t have to go through the work of throwing out as many bulbs! But, you may notice them dying, or having some bizarre quirks. Here are some tips to make them as normal as possible.

After you first install your CFL bulb, make sure you keep it on for at least twenty minutes. I would explain it, but I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be technically correct, and I hate geeks pointing these trivial things out: leaving it on for twenty minutes allows the ions in the gas to charge fully. This means that subsequently, you won’t have to wait to have the lightbulb charge to full power.

Secondly, on-off cycles kill CFL bulbs — so leave them on for at least fifteen minutes! This might seem counter-intuitive, but they’re super-efficient anyway — keeping them on for another extra ten minutes won’t cost you as much as replacing the bulb! (These bulbs are quite heavy on the wallet initially, but they do pay themselves off — if you can make them last.)

So make them last! Enjoy your CFL bulbs.

In 1998, Blizzard unleashed their secret weapon for taking over the world: Starcraft. Making an absolutely huge splash in the gaming and RTS community, Starcraft still has a huge fanbase and is still one of the most popular games in the world.

When Starcraft 2 was announced, followers (including myself) shed tears of joy as Tychus Findlay uttered the fateful words: “Hell, it’s about time.” And when you found out about the opportunity to sign up for the open beta you jumped at the opportunity.

Jimmy Raynor, Heaven's Devils.

Like myself, you didn’t get into the beta. (If you did, congratulations and you should be proud.) So you watched videos that HD Starcraft and Husky post onto the Youtube channels, and that kept your fix in check.

Now, I am proud to announce that even you can play the Starcraft 2 beta on your computer. I’ll tell you the catch straight up front — you can’t play against other players online, only against AI bots. But what the hell, that made no difference for me and probably wouldn’t for you.

You need, of course, the Starcraft 2 beta. You can probably find it on some Torrenting sites, but I’m not going to point them out. Do your own dirty work. Haha. Or, if you’re in university, you can get it off your DC++ network! It’s approximately 1.68GB in size, shouldn’t take anymore than a night to download.

Once downloaded, head over to the Teknogods forums using this link: http://teknogods.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2229 and download the launcher (but follow the instructions on the page, please). This launcher allows you to directly start a SC2 game without going through SC2. And that’s basically it, you can now play SC2.

With that said, you will probably run into an issue. There will be an antivirus warning claiming that the launcher is a piece of spyware or a trojan. This is because it is a piece of third-party software that illegitimately accesses SC2 and forces it to start the game. So it is kind of malicious. But it shouldn’t harm you.*

So, fellow Starcraft 2 lovers, game on and enjoy. Tell me what you think of SC2!

Image source: http://us.starcraft2.com/screenshots.xml

*I am not responsible for what happens to your computer, use at your own risk. But for what it’s worth, it hasn’t harmed me yet. The juice is definitely worth the squeeze.

There was trouble in paradise. Don’t get me wrong – I really love OS X. I can say with my integrity (boy, that word doesn’t come up much anymore) intact that I love OS X with all my heart. It’s here to stay. There have just been a few tough patches in the transition from Windows Vista to OS X.

Firstly, I had to buy a new version of Office. When mine was totally fine. Stupid.

Then Photoshop. Stupid.

Stupid, but at least do-able. I was able to get my hands on these items (which can be acquired by other “torrent”-ial means, I’ll just say) and install them into OS X. And they worked like a charm!

Friends over at APH Networks also introduced me to Darwine and TRiX, and I was able to get some Windows applications running. Most unfortunately, Windows Live Writer just wasn’t one of them (apparently some .NET incompatibilities were the cause or something like that).

Anyway, that was that. For a month, I’d had to write using WordPress’ built-in service. I tried Qumana, but that was mediocre (no offense) – even though it was easily the best out of all the free OS X blog publishing software I could find. Downgrading from Windows Live Writer to Qumana was probably the only negative to my transition to OS X.

So I finally took the dive and got Windows XP.

Similarly, I downloaded a piece of FREE software by the name of VirtualBox; in comparison to the software Parallels and VMware Fusion (both paid solutions), VirtualBox was free and still comparable. I finally got Windows Live Writer back on OS X, running simultaneously with all my OS X programs.

You must be wondering how I did it.

1. Get your hands on Windows XP. Preferably Professional, as always.

2. Get VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/

3. Create a new machine in VirtualBox, and don’t forget to go into Settings and make sure your computer’s optical drive is in-sync with the virtual computer.

4. Insert Windows XP into your optical drive, boot your new virtual machine and install Windows XP.

4i. Go into Devices, and install guest additions. Trust me, they’re a huge help (especially in adjusting screen resolution, whew).

That’s it! 4 simple steps, probably takes you an hour or two. And now you have Windows XP on OS X, and not using dual-boot (rebooting is so 1999). Haha.

I’m still really new to my MacBook Pro, and I’ve only recently discovered the program known as iCal. As a university student, I’ve now formatted iCal so that my classes are set as recurring events in the work calendar.

I never really knew what to do with iCal before because I never had a need for it — I never planned my days because they were so rigid; school would be from 8AM-3PM, I’d do homework until around 6PM, and then do whatever until 8PM, when I’d eat dinner. And then, I’d do whatever.

But I’ve realized that those days are long gone, and aren’t coming back anytime soon (oh sweet summer, why won’t you arrive sooner?). And if I were to gain an edge over other students, and survive this semester of university, I would have to step up my game. Everyone’s focused, and everyone’s determined to be the best. How could I separate myself from the rest of the pack?

I decided firstly to make the most use of my time. I decided that I’d focus on whatever I was doing at the time, so I could work hard and produce good work for a series of days (getting into the flow of work), and then enjoy my time the rest of the days. How would I go about doing this?

Planning, friends. Planning.

I’ve decided to make it a habit before I go to sleep to open iCal and figure out what I would do with my day. I usually have a morning lecture (for about an hour or two), then a long break and an afternoon lecture. This can be seen as a beautiful or a disgusting thing; if I didn’t use the time wisely, then my day would end late and I’d have to do homework. If I did manage to use this time well, then I would be able to do some work, reinforce my learning, and possibly even kill the workload so I wouldn’t have to do it after my afternoon lecture.

Sweet.

What do I do with the spare time?

There are a ton of extracurriculars that I hope to be a part of at this university. Not to mention that CutEdge.org could use more updates and more content. I usually enjoy writing articles, because I find that it’s good practise and Lord knows I could use it. But my whole goal is still to be more productive — not to enjoy my time (well, there are times for that — they’re called weekends), but to kill everything so that I can recreate hard on weekends and focus on schoolwork on weekdays.

Here’s an article that I ran into today to inspire me:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574429151858232582.html?mod=rss_careers

Hope I was of some help. I realize that this is taking off in an untraditional CutEdge.org direction, but I do hope to explore not only technologies, but also techniques that help people. And not just useless gadgets that people get sick of so very quickly.

Ladies and gentlemen, Snow Leopard is out. And with Windows 7 nearing release, mark the celebration by changing your wallpapers! There is a Snow Leopard wallpaper pack, as well as various Windows 7 wallpapers available for download! You’ll be surprised at how drastic a change that wallpaper makes. Enjoy.

http://ka-booka.deviantart.com/art/Snow-Leopard-Wallpaper-Pack-132160873

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/downloads/personalize (navigate to the Desktop Backgrounds tab).

Here’s an idea — if you’re usually using Windows, download the Snow Leopard pack. If you’re using Mac, use some Windows 7 wallpapers. It’s an interesting change.

Alright, so we’ve got Windows Vista or XP, and we can’t wait for Windows 7 to come out. We absolutely have to make Vista look nice. Like, right now. Here are 5 tools to instantly make Windows Vista or XP that much more bearable. Best of all, they’re free.

1. Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Ever needed to slightly alter the appearance of Windows? Enter Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a utility for Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 to adjust the details of Windows. For example, I remember one time when I decided that shortcut arrows were a nuisance and I didn’t want them to appear on the icons of my desktop. I went into Ultimate Windows Tweaker and performed the adjustments from within – one reboot later, presto! They were gone.

Visit: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista

2. Avedesk

Avedesk is a favourite amongst many computer customization enthusiasts – it is a program that basically adds a layer onto your desktop that enables gadgets (aka applets, widgets, desklets, etc) to run. I like Avedesk because there are a ton of applets ready to be downloaded, and because it looks beautiful. However, I wouldn’t suggest running it on anything that can’t run Windows XP smoothly – it can significantly slow startup time.

Visit: http://www.avedesk.org/

3. LogonStudio

What’s the first thing anyone sees after the boot screen (excluding those single users who don’t set up a password)? Your login screen! I remembered the first time I saw Vista’s beautiful Aurora-styled login screen – but after a certain number of reboots, it got old. If you’re as bored of the background as I am, be sure to give LogonStudio a look.

Visit: http://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/

4. Samurize

Somewhat along the lines of Avedesk (don’t ask me which was the original), Samurize offers a bunch of applets to enhance the look of your Windows desktop. I think Samurize to be a bit more computer-intensive than Avedesk, but it’s still worth a go (hey – it’s free) if you’re wanting to take computer customization to the next level.

Visit: http://www.samurize.com/

5. VistaGlazz (+ DeviantArt)

VistaGlazz is a beautiful two-in-one application – basically, it patches the uxtheme.dll on your computer and replaces the default Aero theme with one that has transparent windows even when maximized. By patching the uxtheme.dll, VistaGlazz opens the world of non-Microsoft themes up to your computer. The transparent Aero theme is reminiscent of the updated theme in Windows 7.

As for third-party themes, there are a ton – stuff designed to emulate OS X, Windows 7, or stuff that’s just way out there. For a grand collection of these themes, visit the Vista Visual Styles collection at DeviantArt (links below).

Visit: http://www.codegazer.com/vistaglazz/

Visit: http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/vistautil/visstyles/

Can you still complain about the ugly look of Windows after running through these five applications? And even if you despise Windows, I’m sure that these applications or patches will make things all the more bearable. More importantly, have fun modifying Windows! Hacking and modifying is an excellent experience to have under your belt.

I’ve recently developed a philosophy of using things to their fullest potential: originally, I was forced to replace my older gadgets with new versions repeatedly. It wasn’t until a short while ago that I decided against my consumption for a variety of reasons:

• It wasn’t a healthy way of gaining happiness (an interesting topic on its own).
• It wasn’t a wise way to spend my money — I already had an iPod Video, why did I need an iPod Touch? I could be saving up for that Macbook I always wanted.
• It wasn’t satisfying me anymore. I think I’d exhausted all satisfaction that I might’ve gotten originally from buying gadgets. That’s the problem with consumerism.

Don’t get me wrong — I still buy new gadgets: but now, my new gadgets typically are used to replace something thats been lost/broken/malfunctioned, or for the sake of convenience (combining two gadgets into one). Or to introduce a whole new concept into my life (I’m looking into getting a PSP…we’ll see how that works out, haha).

But I’ve discovered an alternative to the constant consumption and re-consumption of gadgets — using basic computer knowledge, a keen eye, and a spirit of adventure to find out how to leverage your gadgets and use them to their fullest potential. I’ve done what I’d thought was previously unimaginable — my deeds (so far) include:

• Putting Leopard 10.5.2 on my Dell Inspiron 6400 (I don’t advise you do it if you are of the faint of heart — I should also mention that it’s against Apple’s agreement you have to click in order to use Leopard, because you’re installing Leopard on non-Apple hardware). Don’t get me wrong — it wasn’t easy, and I only recently figured out how to do it to near-perfection, with sound and dual-monitor support.
• Installing Android on my HTC Touch. That one turned out to be a fail (fail used as a noun — yep: an event where one fails miserably and hilariously at an attempt; http://failblog.org), as everytime I tried starting Android up (I installed it as a .cab file so it can be easily installed and removed) I was left with a white screen or my phone would turn off. Fail.
• Tweaking my iPod Video 5.5G so I could play Pokemon Red on it. I also installed other themes on my iPod 5.5G so I could make it look ‘fresher’ — like an iPod Touch, if I may. Both using custom firmware (which might void iPod warranty, so be careful with that — I figured since my iPod was so old anyway, I might as well give it a shot, haha).
• I’ve also managed to make my Wii play .mp3 files, .mp4 files, homebrew games (that should give the secret away), and even — DVD’s. That’s right — and I didn’t even have to touch the hardware.

photo credit: You Are The Conductor..

I’m no expert. I’m just an ordinary guy — probably a bit nerdier, but still pretty ordinary. And if I can do it, you most definitely can — so here are a few lessons that I learned along the way.

• Google will be your best friend. That’s right. You’ll get by just typing in ‘(insert gadget name here) modifications’ or ‘(insert gadget name here) hacks’.
• If you fail once, brush yourself off and try it again. And if you fail again, then change something. Or Google it again.
• Forums will be your second-best friend. Register if you have to (I registered anonymously on InsanelyMac). Use their search functions regularly, because you probably won’t have been the first person to experience a certain kind of problem.
• Don’t try modding new gadgets. Unless you can afford to replace it — because typically warranties don’t cover that kind of stuff.
• Don’t be afraid to push it! I remember when I was installing OS X, I installed a bunch of incorrect drivers that eventually required a format. It was discouraging, and I had to start over again, but I remembered that I used to live without it just fine, and so I can continue to live without just fine. If you can’t live without it, then you might want to pay for it (legitimately — not that leveraging is usually illegitimate).
• Not all gadgets can be leveraged — here’s the Herbert rule: if it has a screen/screen output, it can be leveraged.

I’m not sure if anyone’s ever associated the term ‘leveraging’ with ‘gadgets’, but I recently learned of the term in a business course and I wanted to use it. That and the word ‘synergy’ really jumped out at me. If the public demands it, I will begin posting general guides on how to leverage gadgets, so it can be a learned process (these won’t be step-by-step though, I don’t like writing comprehensive stuff — sorry). And even if the public doesn’t demand it, I think I just might.

What would you think if I told you that I figured out two ways to connect my iPod to my car — for less than $20? You might be skeptical. $20 is awfully cheap — does it really work, Herbert? I actually just stumbled upon the first alternative a week ago, and it’s been working well for me and my ’98 Chevrolet Cavalier (yeah, I’m on a really tight budget haha).

I was sick of not having a CD player in my car, and not being able to play my own music. I’d been spending more and more time in my car, and so I decided it was about time I figured out a way to connect my music to my car. Just to try it out. Well, it really does improve the driving experience — although it might become a bit…distracting. Keep that in mind. My advice would be to leave it on a pre-made playlist and only hit the Next and Previous buttons.

1. The FM Transmitter

There’s this idea that FM transmitters are expensive. I know I entered the market with that notion. Before I did anything, I decided to visit my local TigerDirect (yeah, a retail store) and pick up an FM transmitter. They had two different kinds in stock — one by Monster (sold for upwards $100, which I considered for probably a second) and one by Prolynkz. Unfamiliar? So was I — but hey, it’s $14. What could go wrong, right?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3896269&CatId=193

And it did go off without a hitch. Initially, my friends and I found it a bit sketchy — it came without a battery, and I don’t think it works on the cigarette charger alone (didn’t work for me, anyway), so I had to find a couple of AAA’s to plug in. Also, there were no english instructions — which added to the iffiness of the product.

Still, it works well. Its transmission quality varies upon location in the car (weird, eh? But I’m sure this ‘issue’ isn’t unique to this product). Typically, I’d be pointing out the poor sound quality issues — but my Cavalier didn’t have good speakers to begin with, so I can’t really criticize. If you’re on a tight budget, or if your car can’t perform up to par anyway, then I’d suggest picking the Prolynkz product up. However, if you’re looking for great sound quality, I’d suggest either spending a bit more on the transmitter or even getting a custom deck installed inside your car. Or, if you’ve got a tape deck…

2. Cassette Tape Adaptor

Initially, I had my eye on this solution because it was cheap. A ‘legitimate’ version created by Belkin (a trusted name in my books) can be found for a mere $19.99.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10033668&catid=25017

I like that in comparison to the FM Transmitter, the Cassette Tape Adaptor would probably be less trouble. For one thing, you don’t have to seek out a station without any airwaves bugging it — I know that my transmitter’s music includes even a bit of static at the best of stations (I use FM 89.3 for now). Also, I would feel much safer with Belkin than with Prolynkz initially (even though Prolynkz is acceptable, haha).

Get in my Car!

Driving is just that much more enjoyable now — I can listen to what I want, when I want. No more changing radio presets or listening to that bad ol’ rap music (just kidding guys, I love rap). Life is good.

Today, I was invited to a family dinner that was slightly to slow-paced for my taste. The food ended up taking an hour to come, and the conversation dragged on from purchasing glasses to Chinese names. I have hardly any experience in the latter category, so you might imagine I grew quite bored. I drew out my Sony Ericsson w600i, which does happen to be a camera phone like all phones made in the last two years, and began fooling around with the camera. Luckily, the restaurant was very well designed and decorated, so I had many items to try it out on.

Before continuing, I’d like to disclose some information:

• My own Sony Ericsson w600i is almost two years old – it has been released for nearly the same amount of time, so as you can imagine, the camera quality will not be as great as one of a w810i or the world-class camera phone complete with Xenon flash, k790i.
• I am not a professional photographer – quite the contrary; I’ve got the interest in photography but definitely lack the skill and experience.
• I am aware I probably looked like a doofus, especially to people who walked through when I was taking a picture. However, my sense of boredom overcame my sense of shame and I decided to go along with such a scheme anyway.
• If you’re looking to put stuff in your portfolio or your school project or even something just as simple as remembering precious family moments, don’t use a camera phone.

We’ll start with my main point: every camera and phone is different, so you’re going to want to experiment. It takes time to find out the optimum settings to take pictures. I realized soon that the maximum resolution was sacrificing response time, so I decided on lowering it to a moderate 640×480 (the w600i has a 1.3mp camera, meaning it has a maximum resolution of 1280×1024). I switched the quality to Fine and mainly tampered with the White Balance, shifting from Incandescent to Fluorescent and then Cloudy. Here were the results; you tell me which one you thought was best.

The next step: how you hold the camera phone will affect the result. If you’re going for the “fly” look and hold it with one hand, it’ll show. If you’re holding it like a normal person with two hands, it’ll show. Some will look much less blurred, some will look like they were taken with a real camera! Because the average human’s got pretty jittery hands, you’re going to want to hold it with both hands, even if it makes you look like a nimrod (unless you’ve got really steady hands). Also, pull the sniper-trick – I read about this in Wired once, if I’m not mistaken: breathe in for five seconds, hold your breath for five seconds, and breathe out for five seconds. Repeat. This is supposed to slow your heart rate (assuming I remember correctly) and calm you down a bit, meaning you’ll have steadier hands.

If you’re going to turn a deaf ear to my advice, and want to replace your camera with a camera phone, common sense will tell you to invest your money in a powerful camera phone. Something like a Sony Ericsson k790i, k850i, or a Nokia N95 costs a sure heck lot more than a normal camera, but if you really want results from a camera phone, then this is what you’re going to want. Higher resolutions, Carl Zeiss lens, Xenon flash, and all the trimmings. Not to mention they’re pretty powerful devices that can do pretty much anything you want them to do.

There really aren’t any universal tricks to taking better pictures, as it’s already pretty subjective to compare which photo looks better from a camera phone: you have to take into consideration the focus (or lack thereof) and the colour capture, not to mention a whole mountain-sized pile of other things. To recap, if you’re resolving to take better pictures:

1. Experiment with your camera phone. Perhaps practise, even.
2. Throw away your dignity and hold the camera phone like a normal person.
3. Invest your money in a stronger camera phone.
4. Thank Herbert Lui for such a wonderful and common-sense filled tutorial.

Have fun snapping those shots away.