I go over all kinds of text everyday. As part of an editor’s job is to make your writers look better, I’m consulting online dictionaries and thesauri all the time. I randomly came across TheSage’s English Dictionary and Thesaurus not too long ago and thought it sounded useful, but wondered if the time saved in convenience was really all that important. Turns out the portability and convenience of a local, offline dictionary/thesaurus is useful, but this program is so much more than that.
Say you can’t access Windows (“You can’t access Windows!”). Shut up.
Now, IMAGINE you can’t access Windows. Suddenly, all your files are out of reach, and you need a particular few RIGHT THE EFF NOW. You might want to panic in this situation, thinking that the fix necessary to get your Windows up and running will take far too much time, not to mention a tech to help you out since you obviously can’t fix it, you moron. But, hey, chill out. Who says you need Windows to get those files?
I like to think that, at some point, Mass Effect will stop flooding my subconscious with urges to live in the future (with an asari maiden under each arm). Then I see a video like this and realize we may be slowly edging closer to omni-tools. All that’s left is to get these bad boys some security override software with a matching game interface, and we’re only an FTL drive away from Asari bliss! I’m coming, Liara!
Continuing the trend of government officials leveling ridiculous charges over Internet content, Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson found out somebody online was making fun of him, got all sorts of butthurt and decided to sue the guy who hurt his widdle feelings. As an American, despite our wonderfullycolorfulpoliticians, this seems uncharacteristic for a public official. But then again, this is Michael Atkinson. Who is Michael Atkinson? I’m glad you asked.
See, in Australia, video games can’t get released unless they’ve been given a rating by the Classification Board. The ratings available to the Classification Board only go up to MA15+, which is roughly equivalent to America’s ESRB’s “T for Teen” rating. So, anything with more mature content than that can’t be classified and thus, can’t be released. You can see the dilemma.
Simple fix, right? Add a new rating. Problem solved! Easy! Well, not so much. In order for that to happen, Australia’s six attorneys-general must unanimously approve the new rating. And five do. Guess who the one is.
If you’ve ever tried to learn a new language, then you know it’s almost impossible unless you have a partner to speak with, whether they are learning it with you or teaching. Livemocha.com knows this, and provides that important element of language learning with one of the largest elements of the Internet: social networking.
The way that it works is that you complete a course (they offer free and paid courses) and ask other users to grade and correct it for you. You can also help out by doing the same for others. This affects your Mochapoints, a rating that lets others know how involved you are in the community: Mochapoints are determined by how many other people you help out and how many courses you finish yourself.
The whole look of the page is kind of like a brown Myspace look. You have your friend list and “Suggested Language Partners” to the right of that, which is just a list of people who are either learning or teaching the languages you know or are learning. The website has support for audio, writing, reading and flash cards. They are always adding new languages as well.
As of right now I have not really had a chance to go in-depth and play with this site, but I have been wanting to learn Mandarin for years. I guess I should just dive in and find me some Chinese friends. So drop by the site, create an account, play with it a bit and hit me back with some comments. Stop being a lazy American and learn some other effin languages!
When I first posted the link to this comic in our link roll (over on the right), I thought I had just found a funny, little tech-related strip. But after scouring the archives of The Brads, I realized that the tech crowd may now have a new comic that stands alongside those beloved stick figures. You have to understand, it’s hard for me to find something that keeps my interest on a long-term basis, so if these guys can do it (and so far I’m quite excited to see the next one), then it deserves a write up.
Since my induction to the HTC Fan Club and my recent self-appointment to the position of HTC Fan Boy (formerly Android Padawan), I have been forcing myself to try something new with the phone every day. Before I got my Eris, the closest that I had come to apps was Installous on a jailbroken iPod Touch. Due to the nature of finding and installing hacked apps with Installous, I had a “Hunt and Download” mentality rather than a “Browse and Try” one when it came to apps; it took so long to find, download and install the apps, I didn’t have the patience to just “try out” hacked apps.
Now that I have the HTC, with its thousands of free (and pseudo-free) apps, I can easily just skim through the list and install as many as I want to try. So, in my daily effort to explore my new phone, I decided to sample a whole bunch of free apps. These are some of the best ones I found:
A couple years ago, I was battling some serious insomnia. After some searching I found what I believe to be the absolute cure for sleeplessness: Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting. I downloaded a couple torrents’ worth of his show and drifted into slumber while Mr. Ross gently swept his brush across canvas. The only problem was when I woke the next morning with my computer still running. I’m not one of those power users or torrent junkies that leaves their machine on 24/7 and I was, at that time, watching my power bill like a hawk. So, I needed a way to set my computer to fall asleep when I did.
We like Tuesdays at Right-Click Reload. It’s our chance to go out, find some quality programs and tools for you, the reader, and then point you in their direction. Makes us feel all warm and fuzzy.
We also like, as you may have noticed, Google. Their steady march towards omnipresence is something to keep an eye on, but there seems to be an idealism about the company that other techno-giants have lacked. So, we are optimistic.
So, it looks like Sony fucked something up and now the PlayStation Network is down and lots of PS3s’ internal clocks are setting themselves back by about 10 years, resulting, unsurprisingly, in Twitter Madness and, quite surprisingly, a warning from Sony to not even turn on PS3s for at least a day. I own a PS3, and I have to tell you, I really don’t care.
