Portable Thunderbird

Do you use Thunderbird on your computer and wish that you could separate your email, account settings and address book from the computer and take it with you? Well, you can. Give Portable Thunderbird a try:

Windows

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/thunderbird_portable

Mac

http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps:thunderbird/

iCADE - What everyone with an iPad needs!

the iCADE from ThinkGeek.com

Saw this cute little thing at thinkgeek.com and thought everyone should have one -- that is, as long as you already have an iPad.  After all, what else are these expensive tablets useful for other than playing games?  And this makes it totally awesome -- no "touch pad" controls -- real controls the way video games should be.  Just slide your iPad into the case, link up via bluetooth, and get your game on!  It's only $99.99...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e762/

I found a few neat apps for the SMDC to consider for macs

These are both interesting applications I found over the summer.


This is a great open source Power PC emulator that we could use for backwards compatibility, if someone brings in a file of some sort. Personally, I've used it for oregon trail, Age of Empires 1, Starcraft Broodwar's Map Editor, and a couple of other ancient games.
http://sheepshaver.cebix.net/
Chubby Bunny is a pre-configured OS9 version that I can't seem to find online, but I have set up presently on my macbook pro.

http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
We could use this to check on our hard drives; it's pretty straightforward, and I think it would be a decent addition to the SMDC.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14067/soundflower
This was a way for me to record sound on my laptop; I already had a screen monitor, but this makes a perfect MP3 (or whatever type of sound file you want) out of every noise that your computer makes.

Closed computing sites.

FYI

According to the Review, Harrington and Christiana Commons are closed.

To Pay

On this blog we have posted links to sites that offer "free" images, videos, and music. What about those people who actually have money and want to purchase excellent quality "royalty free" images, videos, and music? Here are some sites that will appeal to them (Note: some of these sites offer all three):

Images

iStockphoto http://www.istockphoto.com/
Getty Images http://www.gettyimages.com/
shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com/
bigstock http://www.bigstockphoto.com/

Music

SmartSound http://www.smartsound.com/
Stock Music http://www.stockmusic.net/

Videos

Pond5 http://www.pond5.com/
BBC Motion Gallery http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/

Pinterest

In case you haven't heard, there is a website called Pinterest that is a virtual pinboard for collecting "the things you love." It is a great visual approach to sharing, keeping and discovering the web.

http://pinterest.com/

An Atlernative to Digital Tablets

Digital tablets like the Wacom Bamboo and Intous series might be great peripherals for digitizing hand movements and sketching, but it is still different than using a real pen on real paper. The Wacom Cintiq comes close allowing you to use the pen directly on the screen but it is still an electronic stylus instead of an ink pen.

Wacom and E FUN have recently announced similar products that allow the user to write on any pad of paper with a special ink pen and receiver that tracks the pens movements. This way you can naturally draw or write while creating a digital image.

Wacom Inkling

The Inkling uses a pressure sensitive ink pen and receiver that clips to the top of a pad of paper. The data can be exported to Adobe Photoshop as a raster file or Adobe Illustrator as a line-and-node vector file (CS3 or newer). The Inkling can also export to Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011, as well as Wacom's own Sketch Manager that includes a few feature to manipulate your drawing. The Inkling has over 2,000 pressure points something that sizes up to the pressure sensitivity of Wacom's other popular tablet styluses.

The Inkling should be available to purchase later on this month.

E FUN APEN

E FUN's APEN is similar to the Inkling in the way it works. There is an ink pen that sends the information to a receiver that you place on the top of a pad or piece of paper. The APEN does not, however, have a pressure sensitive pen like the Inkling. The APEN does have the option of using Bluetooth to send pen strokes to a compatible. cell phone or the data can be stored to transfer through USB to a computer.


Links:
Wacom Inkling on Gizmag.com
Inkling Official Product Page

E FUN APEN on Gizmag.com
APEN Official Product Page