Tag Archive | "Good"

Do You Use Social Recommendation Apps To Find A Good Place To Eat? [MakeUseOf Poll]


Last week we asked you if tablets will eventually replace laptops. We got all sorts of interesting opinions in the comments, but at the end of the day, most of you thought that tablets will never replace laptops, and that they will always have different niches to fill.

Out of 415 readers who voted, 48% think tablets will never entirely replace laptops, 32% think it might actually happen, but that today’s tablets are still missing some key components, 20% think it’s a sure thing, and is only a matter of time, and 1% think that the iPad will replace laptops, but other tablets won’t.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

As you can see, 3 voters thought that Apple’s iPad will manage to replace laptops, while other tablets won’t. Would be interesting to know the reasons behind these votes!

image

This week’s poll question is: Do You Use Social Recommendation Apps To Find A Good Place To Eat?

Social recommendation apps for restaurants are all the rage lately. Apps and websites such as Yelp and Urbanspoon are highly popular, and many people use them as a gauge when deciding where to have dinner. These apps can be a great source of information when you’re looking for a good place to eat in a new town, and can also be used to find new places in your own local city. This method is not foolproof, however, and you can find yourself in a place you would not otherwise go to, just because you trusted a stranger’s recommendation. Some people still prefer asking their own friends for help, and thus reduce the chance of falling on a dud. So what is your view on the matter?

Have you had good or bad experience with these social recommendation apps? Or maybe you never even tried them? And if so, why? Share everything in the comments.



View full post on MakeUseOf

Posted in Useful APPsComments (1)

Why Linux Isn’t As Good As Everyone Makes It Out To Be [Opinion]


class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/intro.jpg" alt="" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/service/linux/">Linux is a highly developed, stable and advanced operating system – this, I will never question. It comes in every conceivable flavour – from server solutions that simply work (again, this cannot be argued with) to desktop releases with more software than anyone could possibly ever need.

So what’s the problem? Why, in the year 2011 is Linux still not ready for the desktop? It works – sure, but after a long time using Linux as a primary operating system I’m just about ready to buy a Macbook Pro and dual boot Windows. Read on to find out why I’m a sad penguin.

Ubuntu

Enough, I’ve heard it all. “You might as well be using Windows XP if you’re going to use Ubuntu LOLZ!” – but this never used to be the case. I’ve toyed with href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubuntu-1110-oneiric-ocelot-default-programs-linux/">Ubuntu now for years, and honestly can’t remember the first release I encountered. My decision to install Ubuntu came with version 10.04, after trying out a live USB release and finally getting fed up of Windows.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ubuntu.png" alt="" width="388" height="302" />

I know that Ubuntu does not represent Linux as a whole, so why am I doting on it? Because it goes by the slogan “Linux for Human Beings” and is often referred to as the OS of choice for switchers. It’s never been the most attractive, streamlined or powerful of the many thousands of distributions out there, but for a bit of web, publishing and a brief foray into the world of Linux it generally worked, with great stability and few issues.

In my experience much has changed. Ubuntu 11.04 introduced a new interface – href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubuntu-1104-unity-big-leap-linux/">Unity – and I can’t stand it. Sure, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-install-gnome-shell-ubuntu-1110-newer-linux/">I could turn it off but most people won’t – do you have to turn off the default Windows or OS X interface for it to become usable? The two machines running Ubuntu in my household felt noticeably slower after the update, partly due to sluggish animations which lagged on both installations.

Add to that the plethora of driver issues that appeared overnight with 11.04 – reduced wireless performance, graphical errors and the most annoying persistent sound sync problem and I’m done. Way to break a perfectly operable operating system. Which leads me on to…

The Many Distributions

I’m not arguing with the server side of things. If you want a solid, reliable server and you’re comfortable with command line access then do yourself a favour and build a Linux box. However – for the newcomer, the dabbler and the experienced-with-Windows user there’s simply too much to choose from.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/linuxdistros.jpg" alt="" width="477" height="400" />

Some people complained when Microsoft announced multiple versions of Vista and 7, stating it would “confuse the consumer” – but we all know that’s rubbish as the manufacturer generally sells Home Premium or Professional for a not-so-painful OEM price, and if you really need Ultimate then you can always upgrade. The many possibilities that exist for those looking to install Linux can be off-putting and confusing.

Of course once you’ve listened to 101 suggestions, ruled out the ones you don’t like and finally installed your distribution of choice you’ve then got the small issue of…

Software

Free href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-free-open-source-programs-replace-commercial-windows-software/">open source software isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes it’s worth paying for a quality product. Take GIMP for example, which after experiencing it, you’re either going to love or hate. If you hate GIMP, be it the workflow, interface or just general shortcomings in comparison with Photoshop then you’ve not got much in the way of alternatives.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/gimp.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="300" />

GIMP is about as good as it gets on Linux when it comes to imaging software, and even compared to the Windows-only solution href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-simple-free-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-under-2-mb/">Paint.NET it can feel outdated, messy and not particularly intuitive to the Adobe generation. There’s no Adobe line-up for Linux despite the community’s many pleas (Flash support is pretty horrendous at times too).

If you’re a musician used to Traktor, Cubase, Reason, FLStudio (I could go on) or even Garage Band then you’re out of luck there too. There are a few decent solutions, but there’s a reason most music is produced on a Mac or Windows machine.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/reason.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="203" />

Serious video editing is a no-go too. Despite the many capable solutions out there that are built for Linux, there’s still nothing that compares to industry standards like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier. Of course these are expensive software suites I’m mentioning, but they’re also widely used and bought for a reason. Linux simply can’t compare when it comes to this level of professional software, and it also can’t compare when it comes to…

Gaming

Things have got better when it comes to gaming on Linux over the last few years, but “better” should not necessarily be confused with “good”.  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/selection-freetoplay-steam-games/">Valve’s distribution service Steam has had a major impact on PC gaming, playing a pivotal role in delivering everything from small indie games to full price new ones. The bad news is that it’s probably never heading to Linux (and even if it did, most games would probably not see the journey through).

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/steam.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="421" />

There are lots of free games on Linux, but if you’re into your hardware-testing first person shooters or any of the latest releases then you’re going to need Windows. Aside from the odd free-to-play title, very little in the way of recent releases make it to Linux.

Dual-booting is always an option, but if you’re into your games in a big way you probably won’t be bothered with that.

Conclusion

Linux is not a write-off, but as a primary operating system it’s got some serious problems. Not all of these can necessarily be fixed either, though that’s not to say the humble penguin doesn’t have a place where it can be useful.

If you’re lucky enough to find a distribution you love, don’t play games and couldn’t care less about Adobe’s Creative Suite or a powerful video editor then that’s awesome. And those old PCs or netbooks without a lot of grunt might just get a new lease of life with Linux. Good luck!

What do you think about Linux? Do you agree? Disagree? Have a say in the comments, below.



View full post on MakeUseOf

Posted in Useful APPsComments (0)

INFOGRAPHIC : Twacked – When Good Twitter Accounts Go Bad


class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/twitterbird.jpg" alt="" />Without a shadow of a doubt, there are some really stupid people online but there are also many more evil people.  Those that fall under the “stupid category” are those who have really obvious passwords such as “password” or “123456“.  Or their password recovery security question is something which can be easily answered with a simple Google search.  But there are also many evil people online whose sole aim is to cause distress and havoc to peoples lives, and there’s nothing more distressing than having an online account hacked into. I speak from bitter experience.

Our infographic today comes courtesy of href="http://www.veracode.com" rel="nofollow">Veracode Application Security and it’s all about security on Twitter (or the lack of).  You can see some of the 401 passwords that Twitter bans its members from using.  It then moves on to some of the Twitter accounts that have been hacked such as Justin Bieber who got his revenge by finding out the hacker’s phone number and tweeting it.  The hacker then received 26,000 text messages.  You can also see that the top ten Twitter accounts with the most followers have all been hacked at least once.  The price of fame it seems.

What do you think of Bieber tweeting the hacker’s phone number?  Sweet revenge or losing the moral high ground?  Have you ever “done a Wiener” and accidently tweeted something embarrassing to your followers?  Tell us all about it in the comments!

As usual, just click on the infographic to see a much larger, more easily readable version.

href="http://www.veracode.com/resources/twitter-infographic" rel="nofollow"> src="http://www.veracode.com/images/media/twitter-infographic.png" alt="" width="580" />

Infographic by href="http://www.veracode.com/" rel="nofollow">Veracode Application Security /> Image Credit : href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/creative_tools/5360884710/in/photostream/" rel="nofollow">Creative Tools



View full post on MakeUseOf

Posted in Useful APPsComments (0)

3 Ways To Temporarily Change A Website’s Font If The Original Font Is Not Good Enough


class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RightAlign.png?54167" alt="" />How many times has someone sent you a link to a website infested with incredibly hard-to-read  class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/fonts/">fonts? It’s happened to all of us, and there’s not much we can do about it – or is there?

There are a few folks on the Internet who have experienced the same problem as you, and fortunately, they decided to do something about it. So graciously accept Grandma’s chain class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/email/">email link with no questions asked, and try out these web tools that all have one sole purpose – to allow you to see text on the web how you want to see it.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.fontfonter.com">FontFonter [Web App]

It should be made clear that FontFonter isn’t going to transform the world’s worst website into something pristine and beautiful. Let’s face it. Bad class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-websites-quality-html-coding-examples/">web design is bad web design, and there’s nothing you can do to change it. However, it will make websites easier to read. Just punch your desired URL into FontFonter’s address bar, click the “FontFont It!” button, and embrace the glorious class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/typekit-online-font-library-for-your-website/">TypeKit font-changing magic.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/FF1.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="240" />

With FontFonter, we can change any website’s fonts using three classifications: serif, sans-serif, and all. Basically, that means you could fix the website up with a whole new font scheme, or you could make everything uniform by deciding all the fonts should be the same. The tool is fairly easy to use in that you can replace all of a website’s sans serif fonts with your choice, and vice versa for serif. As mentioned, you can replace both of the website’s sans-serif and serif fonts with the same typeface.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/FF5.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="167" />

The downside to FontFonter is the fact that it doesn’t provide previews of what fonts look like, so if you don’t have a mental list of TypeKit fonts, you are going to end up playing the lottery for a little while trying to find something suitable. Granted, this is a small price to pay, for as you use FontFonter over time, you will become familiar with your top choice selections.

class="vt-p" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/engndlnldodigdjamndkplafgmkkencc">Google Font Previewer [Chrome Extension]

The class="vt-p" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/engndlnldodigdjamndkplafgmkkencc">Google Font Previewer was created with web developers in mind, but it is also quite useful for the standard Internet consumer. The class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/chrome/">Chrome extension is designed for web designers who want to see how fonts from the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/google-font-directory-custom-fonts-on-website/">Google Font API directory appear on webpages when in use, but it can also be a nice aid for those desiring a better font for easier readability.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/CE1.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="377" />

After downloading the Font Previewer extension, you’ll be able to find it just to the right of Chrome’s address bar. Simply click it while on the website of your choice, and it will provide you with a multitude of options to mix things up. Select the fonts using the provided list, and customize with options such as increasing the text weight, changing the entire text to caps, or bumping up the percentage of text size in increments of 50.

In the case that you are actually designing a website, you could tackle the job using the Font Previewer’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/css/">CSS selection feature. Instead of testing your entire site while only looking at one selected font, you could actually enter specific tags that will change only parts of your work. This method is better than going back into the code every time you want to tweak something just to see how it would look.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.barisderin.com/?p=325">Readable [Firefox Add-on]

Back in MakeUseOf’s past article, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/">4 Tools to Make Web Pages Easier to Read for People with Poor Eyesight, we were introduced to the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox/">Firefox class="vt-p" href="http://barisderin.com/?p=325">Readable add-on (as well as its almost-identical relative, class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reader/">Reader). The add-on does not necessarily change the text styling of the actual website per se, but it does make the text found on it, well… readable.

If you want to read a particular article but struggle with the font that it is written in, simply click the Readable button for a nice change of scenery. Upon its activation, the add-on will open the content of the website in a theater-style presentation that features the page’s text and images in a very primitive, yet user-friendly, sans-serif form. Furthermore, highlighting a portion of the text only converts the selection, reducing clutter that you would normally have to scroll through.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/R1.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="320" />

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/R2.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="397" />

Granted, even really nice things have their flaws, and in a cruel move, the activation button itself is the Achilles heel of Reader. The browser button is ironically incredibly tiny and almost blends in with the browser itself, presenting a very difficult-to-see design feature for those that the add-on is designed to help. However, this one problem does not sink the Readable boat, for as a whole, it is an excellent tool that can be used for the reading-impaired.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/R4.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="598" />

Conclusion

These three web-tools primarily focus on the text content of a website rather than the website as a whole, but as someone who once suffered serious migraines due to a great deal of in-browser reading, they are certainly a blessing. However, if you would like to find even more resources for easier in-browser reading, you should take a look at MakeUseOf’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-firefox-addons-improve-web-page-readability-level/">7 Firefox Add-ons That Improve Webpage Readability Level.

What are some of your least favorite fonts used in web design? How have these tools helped you? What other tools would you recommend?

Image Credit: class="vt-p" href="http://morguefile.com/archive/display/186280#">jeltovski, class="vt-p" href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/movies/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-2-review.html?hp">The New York Times

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-temporarily-change-websites-font-original-font-good/">3 Ways To Temporarily Change A Website’s Font If The Original Font Is Not Good Enough is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/browsing-tools/" title="browsing tools" rel="tag">browsing tools, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/chrome-extensions/" title="chrome extensions" rel="tag">chrome extensions, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox-addons/" title="firefox addons" rel="tag">firefox addons, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/fonts/" title="fonts" rel="tag">fonts, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/reading/" title="reading" rel="tag">reading, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/web-design/" title="web design" rel="tag">web design, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/web-development/" title="web development" rel="tag">web development />

Similar articles:

class="st-related-posts">
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/xmarks-syncs-bookmarks-passwords-major-browsers/" title="XMarks Syncs Bookmarks & Passwords Between All Major Browsers (September 18, 2010)">XMarks Syncs Bookmarks & Passwords Between All Major Browsers (21 comments …)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/web-reading-place-readability/" title="The New Readability Addon Converts Pages To Read-Friendly Format (March 23, 2011)">The New Readability Addon Converts Pages To Read-Friendly Format (8 comments …)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-chrome-extensions-easier-web-reading/" title="The Four Google Chrome Extensions For Easier Online Reading (September 7, 2010)">The Four Google Chrome Extensions For Easier Online Reading (30 comments …)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-multiplatform-app-save-information-read/" title="Read It Later: Save Information To Be Read Later On Any Device (February 10, 2011)">Read It Later: Save Information To Be Read Later On Any Device (13 comments …)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickly-easily-add-safaris-reader-feature-chrome-firefox/" title="Quickly & Easily Add Safari’s Reader Feature To Chrome & Firefox (June 10, 2010)">Quickly & Easily Add Safari’s Reader Feature To Chrome & Firefox (309 comments …)


  • View full post on MakeUseOf

    Posted in Useful APPsComments (105)

    6 Good Web-Based FTP Clients For When You Are On The Road


    class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ftpkeys.jpg" alt="ftp clients" />Most of the time, when you need to transfer files to your web hosting account or any other remote server, you might be at home on your laptop where you’ve got your favorite desktop FTP client installed. However, when you’re on the road or using a friend’s computer, a desktop FTP client may not be available.

    The fastest solution for transferring files from anywhere in the world is by using a web based FTP client. Using such clients, you can transfer images or files from a digital camera or memory stick to a remote server from any computer. Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve covered a number of the best desktop FTP clients like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/transfer-files-by-ftp-with-filezilla/">FileZilla, which Mark reviewed and various other FTP clients for class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-ftp-clients-windows/">Windows or class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-free-ftp-clients-for-mac/">Mac.

    id="more-53643"> /> When you’re on the go, desktop FTP clients just won’t do. You’ve got pics on the memory stick that you’ve got to upload to your website, and you need to do it now. So pull into a library or Internet cafe, fire up the web, and browse through this list of the five best web-based FTP clients.

    The Top 6 Web Based FTP Clients

    JavaFTP

    class="vt-p" href="http://www.javaftp.com/">JavaFTP is actually a java-based FTP client that I stumbled across when I first signed up for a web hosting plan at Webmasters.com. Over time, I’ve found that Webmasters isn’t the best hosting company in the world, but they did create this awesome web-based FTP client.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="size-full wp-image-53647 aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp1.jpg" alt="ftp clients" width="570" height="344" />

    The reason it deserves the top rank for online FTP clients is because of the side-by-side window pane setup. I’ve noticed most Internet FTP tools use a very non-intuitive single-pane interface. However, the two-pane web-based clients have the look and feel of the best desktop clients. Transferring files is as simple as selecting the file in the left pane, and then clicking the “upload” button.

    AnyClient

    Since side-by-side clients represent the best of the FTP breed of web-based clients, then it makes sense that the class="vt-p" href="http://www.anyclient.com/applet.html">AnyClient FTP tool comes in a very close second. With AnyClient, you select the file in one pane and click the arrows to transfer to the other pane.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53649" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp21.jpg" alt="free ftp clients" width="570" height="354" />

    style="text-align: left;">The only reason I placed this one behind JavaFTP is because the control interface is a bit scattered throughout the tool, so it takes a little bit of searching around to figure out exactly what you want to do and how to do it.

    style="text-align: left;">The next few apps one the list are single-pane FTP clients, but they make the top 5 list because they offer additional functionality and are well-programmed. If I was hard pressed and ended up on a computer without the ability to run Java apps, I would resort to using one of the following clients.

    Net2FTP

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp8.jpg" alt="free ftp clients" width="570" height="339" />

    style="text-align: left;">When I first visited class="vt-p" href="http://www.net2ftp.com/index.php">Net2FTP, I really didn’t think I’d like it. The main page has the look of a very cheaply made website. However, once you log in and get into the tool, it’s actually well designed and very functional. Aside from the typical uploading and downloading functionality, you can also edit the files online by clicking “Edit” under the actions menu. This is a very useful feature because you can edit webpages on the fly without the need to download and then re-upload after edits – very cool!

    FTPLive

    style="text-align: left;">Next up is class="vt-p" href="http://www.ftplive.com">FTPLive, for the same reason Net2FTP made the list, because you get the added functionality of editing the files by clicking the edit icon under the “Operations” field.

    style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp5live.jpg" alt="free ftp clients" width="570" height="327" />

    style="text-align: left;">I don’t like the layout of this tool as much as others, or the fact that you have to scroll down to the bottom of the window to access the upload or download functions.

    style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp6.jpg" alt="online ftp" width="501" height="195" />

    style="text-align: left;">With that said, the tool works well and offers everything you need in a web-based FTP client, and then some.

    SmoothFTP

    style="text-align: left;">The next online FTP tool that made the list is class="vt-p" href="http://www.smoothftp.com">Smooth FTP. I actually like the look and feel of this tool. You can’t edit files on the fly, but you can change permissions and rename, and all of the functions like directory modifications or file transfers are all handled by clicking on the menu options at the top of the tool.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp7.jpg" alt="online ftp" width="570" height="392" />

    style="text-align: left;">Smooth FTP is easy, convenient, and it’ll get the job done fast.

    Web to FTP

    style="text-align: left;">The final tool that I’d like to mention is called class="vt-p" href="http://www.webtoftp.com/index.php">Web to FTP. When I first saw the login page for this tool, I was sure it would make the top of the list because it looked like one of the other high-quality Java tools I’ve mentioned. Unfortunately, once you log in it looks like the rest of the single-window FTP tools.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-53650" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/webftp3.jpg" alt="ftp clients" width="570" height="393" />

    style="text-align: left;">It is laid out a bit odd, and the functionality is a bit lacking, but if you just need to quickly upload a file and you need a quick online tool to do so, Web to FTP is ready to serve.

    style="text-align: left;">What FTP tools do you use when you’re not at home and you  need to upload files to your website? Do you have any of your own favorite online FTP clients? Do you have a favorite from this list? Offer your take in the comments section below.

    Image Credit: /> class=”vt-p” rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.sxc.hu/photo/615959″>T. Al Nakib

    />Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. />
    />

     

    href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-web-based-ftp-clients/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-web-based-ftp-clients/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-web-based-ftp-clients/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-web-based-ftp-clients/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-web-based-ftp-clients/&title=6 Good Web-Based FTP Clients For When You Are On The Road&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-web-based-ftp-clients/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

     


    Similar MakeUseOf Articles

    class="st-related-posts">

  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-3-browser-based-ides-code-cloud-2/" title="The Top 3 Browser-Based IDE’s To Code In The Cloud">The Top 3 Browser-Based IDE’s To Code In The Cloud (6 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-ftp-clients-windows/" title="The Three Best Free FTP Clients for Windows">The Three Best Free FTP Clients for Windows (26 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/podcast-15-syncing-calendars-the-cloud-and-the-igun/" title="Podcast #15: Syncing Calendars, the Cloud and the iGun">Podcast #15: Syncing Calendars, the Cloud and the iGun (4 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-ftp-online-without-installin-a-client/" title="Online FTP Clients: Use FTP Online without Installing A Client">Online FTP Clients: Use FTP Online without Installing A Client (18 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/map-your-ftp-drive-as-a-local-drive-with-netdrive-windows-only/" title="Map Your FTP Drive As A Local Drive with NetDrive (Windows)">Map Your FTP Drive As A Local Drive with NetDrive (Windows) (15 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/jolicloud-operating-system-download-for-netbook/" title="Jolicloud: The Operating System Download for Netbook You’ve Been Looking For">Jolicloud: The Operating System Download for Netbook You’ve Been Looking For (56 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cloud-computing-work-technology-explained/" title="How Does Cloud Computing Work? [Technology Explained]">How Does Cloud Computing Work? [Technology Explained] (17 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-yourself-a-virtual-cloud-to-fall-back-on/" title="Build Yourself A Virtual Cloud To Fall Back On">Build Yourself A Virtual Cloud To Fall Back On (22 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/anyconnect-incredibly-easy-set-multiprotocol-client-software/" title="AnyConnect – Incredibly Easy To Set Up Multi-Protocol File Transfer Client Software">AnyConnect – Incredibly Easy To Set Up Multi-Protocol File Transfer Client Software (1 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tonido-makeuseof-giveaway/" title="Amazing Personal Cloud Computing with Tonido [MakeUseOf Giveaway]">Amazing Personal Cloud Computing with Tonido [MakeUseOf Giveaway] (181 comments)


  • View full post on MakeUseOf.com

    Posted in Useful APPsComments (3)

    Registry Fix Org ? – Is it Really Good ?


    Unfortunately, you likely know from personal experience that your windows system has a few flaws; if it’s urgent that you fix problems with Registry Fix, keep reading for an easy solution. Sadly, a lot of us (unless we have technical training) don’t know how to go about fixing these bothersome pc errors. You should definitely make the effort to look over this helpful material to educate yourself on a technique to get rid of common pc errors.

    Click here to fix problems with Registry Fix now!

    Of course it’s extremely irritating when these errors appear out of nowhere, so we’ll get this sorted out right now – it’s easy. Just looking into this for a few minutes on the web uncovers some essential knowledge: in most cases, the root of the problem is a problematic windows registry. Perhaps you haven’t learned this yet, but a lot of errors occur because of corruption in the registry due to improper software installations/removals. Handling a problematic registry is quite complicated; the problem can be solved, however, with tools created for the purpose of fixing problems triggered by a damaged registry. These utilities are quite effective if you wish to scan your pc and get a detailed ‘health’ report about the root of your pc’s recent or ongoing issues.

    In plain english, for example – as the required information for operating your device drivers is housed in the windows registry, a windows registry that is somehow impaired might give you problems when trying to boot windows. One of the plusses of these tools is that there will be no need to pay a computer repair service an arm and a leg on trouble that you can easily repair by yourself. Watch out for suspect or unknown files – besides introducing virulent code to your pc, it’s not unusual that these damaging files will “mess up” your registry system.

    Following what we’ve discussed in this article if you want to fix problems with Registry Fix your very first order of business will be to check the integrity of your registry system. It may be that your computer isn’t the newest or the fastest, but you may not have to upgrade yet; first you should see what a registry cleaner can do – your old computer may start behaving brand new. Let’s shed a little more light on this: these registry cleaners will not do away with dangerous codes, or the like – for this job, you’ll have to utilize a program which was produced just for that reason. Computer users have become more and more advanced in their skills, thus they want to have the capability to repair their computers’ various difficulties all by themselves, whenever possible. Of course there is a lot more to this subject, but i’m sure you’ll discover these facts and tips will be adequate to help you get rid of your pc troubles.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    “creating Videos for Website” Tool


    Wish to benefit from the advantages provided by Webvideo marketing? Get yourself an advanced “Creating Videos For Website” Tool – it can save you a lot of trouble and frustration. Webvideos are definitely more effective than plain text, what explains their growing popularity among Website owners. In this article you will be able to explore the latest VDO-to-Web techniques that can help you to easily play a movie on your own Webpage.

    Some background

    It was developed for one important purpose – “Creating Videos For Website” Tool focuses on converting your videos to .FLV format which is among most popular Web display formats. By quickly adding a short html code to your page and sending the files to the Webserver the entire process is completed. Just for you to know – this encoding process actually generates streaming webvideos – they are available in real time with no download waiting time.

    Main advantages

    This smart solution provides several clear advantages:

    * Easily converts popular file formats such as: AVI, WMV, MOV, MPG, FLV, VOB, ASF, and MP4.
    * It helps your visitors feel more comfortable doing business with you online.
    * Enables you to redirect visitors to your newsletter registration page.
    * Videomarketing is more viral than plain content marketing.
    * It attracts your visitors to stay more on your Website(s).

    There are plenty other benefits provided by this advanced tool simply because it this powerful web-marketing tool provides so many opportunities for quick and creative web-marketers.

    Summarizing this article

    Well, we can say that “Creating Videos For Website” Tool enables you to quickly upload Flash-Videos and attract more of your Site’s visitors to buy/download/subscribe. At this point the best advice would be to test this technology so you could truly experience how it can improve the performance of your marketing efforts.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (1)

    “create Videos to Adobe Flash” Tool


    Is “Create Videos To Adobe Flash” Tool really necessary for Webmasters who embed video(s)? Many users search for various VDOs on the Web: training, demos, solutions – it is a great opportunity for you to generate a lot more traffic that way. In the following review you will learn about new ideas and techniques on how you can easily add a movie into any Webpage.

    Some background

    Before you can start playing video(s) on your site you need an advanced “Create Videos To Adobe Flash” Tool that’ll enable you to transform and compress your videos into a special file format called .FLV. After processing your file(s) all you’ve got to do is paste a small HTML code to your Webpage and upload the new file(s) onto your hosting Site. The following technology creates streaming webvideos for you – they enable you to start watching them immediately without having to wait for a complete download.

    Quick benefits and advantages

    When we examine the benefits provided by this technology, we find the following:

    * Enables you to upload movie files at any quality and size.
    * Enables you to download, convert, and play YouTube videos on your Website(s).
    * It is simply more convincing than writing another sales letter or newsletter.
    * Website(s) visitors today respond more to movies than to text.
    * An excellent solution to pass your message to busy and impatient visitors.

    If we search a little more, we could easily find other benefits provided by this advanced tool simply because it enables you to easily manage this highly effective multimedia technology on your own without being dependant on others.

    Article summary

    When we need to quickly upload demo or sales movies for example to a Webpage, no doubt that “Create Videos To Adobe Flash” Tool is one of the most effective solutions available. By the end of this quick review the best advice would be to test it live so you could quickly benefit from the various opportunities that it provides.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    What Is An API & What Are They Good For? [Technology Explained]


    class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/communication.jpg" alt="what does api stand for" />What does the acronym API stand for? API means Application Programming Interface and they say that APIs are the underlying aspect of Web 2.0.  But what does it really mean – what is an api? Let’s try to demystify the term a little.

    The word to really pay attention to is “Interface”. If you have any experience at all with programming, all kinds of abstractions and contracts must be coming to your mind when you hear the word “interface” but we are more interested in the classical meaning of the term.

    An interface is a common boundary between two separate systems. It is the means or the medium via which these two systems communicate.

    id="more-51415">

    Definition

    An API is the interface implemented by an application which allows other applications to communicate with it.

    Why Is It Needed?

    In one word – communication. You might ask why communication is so important. Just imagine Notepad couldn’t copy-paste to and from Microsoft Word or class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/chrome/">Google Chrome. Imagine having to type each and every time although the text is already there in some other application. This is only one of the examples of communication between applications and all this communication is made possible via APIs.

    What Is It Really?

    You cannot run an API like you would run say a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/notepad/">Notepad application. This is because APIs are generally invisible to the end users like you and me. APIs are carefully thought out pieces of code created by programmers for their applications that allow other applications to interact with their application.

    APIs are specially crafted to expose only chosen functionality and/or data while safeguarding other parts of the application which provides the interface. Creating an API is indeed time well spent, because ultimately the more applications that interact with your application the more popular it becomes.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/twitterclients.jpg" alt="what does api stand for" />

    An excellent example is class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/twitter/">Twitter. Most people prefer their favorite class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/twitter-clients-web-apps-desktops-apps/">Twitter client instead of the web interface. You can interact with Twitter whether you are using a mobile phone, a smart phone, an iPod or a computer. This has been made possible by the excellent class="vt-p" href="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/">Twitter API.

    What Is It Good For?

    As we have seen, APIs facilitate communication allowing different applications to communicate effectively with each other. So these are really well suited for extending a platform and for class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/mashup/">mashups. We have already seen Twitter as an example of how APIs are useful in extending a platform. When you combine data or functionality from more than one application to create another application, you have essentially created a mashup.

    Such mashups are extremely popular on the Internet these days. The Internet thrives on communication so it is an ideal place to take advantage of APIs. It is a common practice to expose part of your functionality or data as an API to others on the Web. They can then tap into what you offer, combine it with what they (or someone else) offers and then provide improved and added functionality to their users.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/googlemapsyelp.png" alt="what does api stand for" width="519" height="370" />

    class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/search-fo-worst-local-businesses-yelp">Yelp for example has data on restaurants, hotels, shopping destinations and other local services but it would be a wasteful and tedious job if they set out to create their own Maps engine to let users know where the various destinations are. So instead they tap into the Google Maps API and plot their data on top of it, thereby increasing the utility of their service to the end user. This is a typical use of an API.

    Popular APIs You Can Use Or Try

    APIs are all over the place. The most popular ones are the Web APIs like class="vt-p" href="http://code.google.com/apis/maps/index.html">Google Maps API, class="vt-p" href="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/">Twitter API and the  class="vt-p" href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/">Flickr API. These are not the only ones though. You can find a complete, classified and searchable directory of APIs at class="vt-p" href="http://www.programmableweb.com">Programmable Web and class="vt-p" href="http://www.webmashup.com/">WebMashup. Here you can see the level of interest in an API, what services are provided by the API and which services are making use of the API.

    How you actually use an API depends upon your needs and your level of expertise. You might want to create the next big thing on the Internet, in which case you would most likely need to program for the Web using languages such as PHP, ASP.NET, Java or Python. A good starting point is to visit the official API page for the service you choose. Look for libraries others have written in the language of your choice. Usually these libraries make your job a lot easier and faster. Twitter for example mentions a number of these class="vt-p" href="http://dev.twitter.com/pages/libraries">libraries on its API wiki. You can also find tutorials, official documentation and best practices on these pages.

    APIs have existed in one form or another for a very long time. The first communication between cooperating applications may or may not have been through an officially documented API, but nowadays they are an important component of your application especially if yours is a Web application.

    Have you ever created or used an API? We would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

     

    href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/&title=What Is An API & What Are They Good For? [Technology Explained]&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

     


    Similar MakeUseOf Articles

    class="st-related-posts">

  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-javascript-how-works/" title="What is JavaScript and How Does It Work? [Technology Explained]">What is JavaScript and How Does It Work? [Technology Explained] (19 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-how-to-computer-program-with-microsofts-smallbasic/" title="Learn How To Write Computer Program with SmallBasic">Learn How To Write Computer Program with SmallBasic (19 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/five-free-game-development-tools-make-your-own-games/" title="5 Free Game Development Software Tools To Make Your Own Games">5 Free Game Development Software Tools To Make Your Own Games (32 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/invented-pascal-program-case-wondering/" title="Who Invented the Pascal Program? [In Case You Were Wondering]">Who Invented the Pascal Program? [In Case You Were Wondering] (12 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-3-browser-based-ides-code-cloud-2/" title="The Top 3 Browser-Based IDE’s To Code In The Cloud">The Top 3 Browser-Based IDE’s To Code In The Cloud (6 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pencil-project-turn-firefox-diagramming-prototyping-tool/" title="Pencil Project – Turn Firefox into A Diagramming and Prototyping Tool">Pencil Project – Turn Firefox into A Diagramming and Prototyping Tool (10 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-to-code-at-any-level-with-google-code-university/" title="Learn To Code At Any Level With Google Code University">Learn To Code At Any Level With Google Code University (9 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kids-can-learn-programming-from-scratch/" title="Kids Can Learn Programming From Scratch!">Kids Can Learn Programming From Scratch! (45 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/write-google-android-application/" title="How To Write Your First Google Android Application">How To Write Your First Google Android Application (41 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/develop-simple-iphone-app-submit-itunes/" title="How To Develop A Simple iPhone App & Submit It To iTunes">How To Develop A Simple iPhone App & Submit It To iTunes (29 comments)


  • View full post on MakeUseOf.com

    Posted in Useful APPsComments (1)

    3 Good Online Sources For Free Ebooks & A Free Ereader App


    style="border: 0px none;margin-left:20px;float:right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/bookread_thumb.jpg" alt="completely free ebooks"/>It’s hard to judge the state of play with ebooks. There are conflicting standards, various formats, multiple cost models, and an awful lot of material which simply doesn’t find its way out to the world as a result.

    I’m going to cut through some of the confusion, and show you how to get, keep, and consume free ebooks. It’s a fairly quick skate across the surface though, so you’ll need to do some more work yourself.

    Just to clarify, ebooks, for the sake of this discussion, are books which are available electronically, rather than printed on dead trees, and which can be read on an electronic device of some sort. And completely free ebooks, just now, are those which are legitimately available for free. Other options exist. We all know that.

    id="more-50770">

    Getting Free Ebooks

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Free-eBooks-by-Project-Gutenberg.jpg" alt="completely free ebooks"/>

    The largest source of out of copyright ebooks is class="vt-p" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project Gutenberg. If you want a book from before your parents were born, this is the place to start.

    Books are available in a number of formats, categories and languages.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ManyBooks.net-Free-eBooks-for-your-iPad-smartphone-or-eBook-reader.jpg" />

    For a slightly different view of what’s available, you also might like to take a look at class="vt-p" href="http://manybooks.net/">manybooks. They have a more modern approach to things. Some categories are not appropriate for everyone. Take care.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Baen-Books-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-Home-Page.jpg" alt="free ebooks online" />

    If you’re looking for some niche products, then you need to use the web to search things out. For instance, the nice people at class="vt-p" href="http://www.baen.com/">Baen Books have a class="vt-p" href="http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm">free ebook library for science fiction.

    There are plenty of other options out there for broad or narrow fields of study. class="vt-p" href="http://books.google.com/books">Google is your friend. Be cautious of the sites that require you to sign up, and watch what you download.

    Managing Free Ebooks

    Once you have some sources for ebooks, you need to give some thought to taking care of them. If you are ever going to have a decent stash of electronic tomes, then you need to think about how to go about it. I’m going to quickly show you how to make use of a product called Calibre, which has already been covered in some depth by class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibre-ebook-management-synchronization-software-multi-os/">Simon and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-entire-newspapers-blogs-ebook-reader-calibre/">Justin. Calibre is huge. We’re just going to nibble off a little corner.

    Specifically, I want to show you how to organise your books, and then how to convert them. You’ll see why by the time we get to the end of this.

    Organise

    Let’s quickly grab a few books from a couple of sites first: War & Peace from Gutenberg, The Body Snatcher from ManyBooks, and the highly recommended Sheepfarmer’s Daughter via Baen.

    Download and install class="vt-p" href="http://calibre-ebook.com/">Calibre.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/addbooks.jpg" border="0" alt="free ebooks online" width="564" height="103" />

    Start Calibre, and from the main toolbar click on the Add Books… button.

    Browse to wherever you downloaded the books, and add them one by one.

    Once the books are imported, you’ll be able to see them all listed in the main screen, and you can sort and filter in a number of different ways. The important thing here though is to add whatever metadata is appropriate, such as the name of the author, and the title. Calibre does its best to work out what to add, but you need to help.

    Metadata

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/meta1.jpg" alt="free ebooks online"/>

    Right-click one of the titles, select the metadata edit option.

    Fill in the data as best you can. Once your collection starts to grow, you will find you can select items such as authors from the combo box without typing them in full.

    You can rate the books between zero and five stars, and attach each of the titles to series information if you wish.

    There is also an option to download the metadata for the book from the Internet. I had mixed results, but it’s worth a shot.

    Once you have finished with all the metadata, you’ll be able to filter, sort and search your books effectively. Not much use with three books, but you can use your imagination.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/filter1.jpg" border="0" alt="free ebooks online" width="503" height="360" />

    Reading Free Ebooks

    One of the great things about Calibre is the way it can convert between file formats.

    The format that you want will depend almost entirely on the device you want to use to read your books. You can choose, but I just need to use an example. First though, Calibre specifically states support for a large number of devices directly, and supports enough class="vt-p" href="http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/faq.html#what-formats-does-app-support-conversion-to-from">file formats to cover most anything else.

    Calibre can also manage the device syncing in many cases, but we’re not going to do that today.

    We’re going to convert each of the files we downloaded, and for the example we want to change them all to .PDB files, so that I can transfer them to class="vt-p" href="http://www.ereader.com/ereader/home.htm">my device. Find something that works for you, and stick with it as much as you can.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Convert1.jpg" border="0" alt="Convert1" width="600" height="252" />

    So, War and Peace from HTML to PDB: Right-click the book, choose Convert books, then Convert individually.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pdb1.jpg" border="0" alt="completely free ebooks" width="413" height="68" />

    On the left are a big list of option categories. Leave all of those alone, and look over to the right and select the file type you want, set any other sub-options you need, and then click on OK. Give the system a minute to deal with your request, and then that’s it. Convert the rest.

    Browse to the location of the library, and take a look. Additional files exist. Copy or synch them to your device, install the reader application, and you’re all set. You can also use the built-in Calibre reader on your PC for most formats.

    So which parts of this are confusing? Any need for a deeper article on parts of it? Any questions? Let me know in the comments. />
    />Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to target="_blank" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-share-share-spread-word/">share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. />
    />

     

    href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/&title=3 Good Online Sources For Free Ebooks & A Free Ereader App&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

     


    Similar MakeUseOf Articles

    class="st-related-posts">

  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ebook-reader-makeuseof-poll/" title="Which eBook Reader Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll]">Which eBook Reader Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll] (18 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-multiplatform-tools-create-ibooks/" title="Two Free Multiplatform Tools To Create iBooks">Two Free Multiplatform Tools To Create iBooks (6 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kindle-reader-for-mac-arrived/" title="The Kindle Reader For Mac Has Arrived [Mac]">The Kindle Reader For Mac Has Arrived [Mac] (8 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reading-ebooks-ipad-ibooks-amazon-kindle-mac/" title="Reading Ebooks on The iPad with iBooks & Amazon Kindle [Mac]">Reading Ebooks on The iPad with iBooks & Amazon Kindle [Mac] (32 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-reading-on-your-computer-a-pleasure-with-martview/" title="Make Reading on your Computer a Pleasure With MartView">Make Reading on your Computer a Pleasure With MartView (28 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lucidor-clean-crossplatform-ebook-reader/" title="Lucidor – A Clean, Cross-Platform eBook Reader">Lucidor – A Clean, Cross-Platform eBook Reader (12 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-convert-scanned-pages-into-ereader-ebook-format/" title="How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format">How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format (14 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-entire-newspapers-blogs-ebook-reader-calibre/" title="Download Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With Calibre">Download Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With Calibre (19 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibre-ebook-management-synchronization-software-multi-os/" title="Calibre – Mighty eBook Management Software (Multi-OS)">Calibre – Mighty eBook Management Software (Multi-OS) (13 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/barnes-noble-ereader-superior-to-ibook-and-kindle-in-almost-every-way-ipad/" title="Barnes & Noble eReader – Superior to iBook and Kindle In Almost Every Way [iPad]">Barnes & Noble eReader – Superior to iBook and Kindle In Almost Every Way [iPad] (5 comments)


  • View full post on MakeUseOf.com

    Posted in Useful APPsComments (7)

    3 Good Online Sources For Free Ebooks & A Free App To Read Them


    style="border: 0px none;margin-left:20px;float:right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/bookread_thumb.jpg" alt="completely free ebooks"/>It’s hard to judge the state of play with ebooks. There are conflicting standards, various formats, multiple cost models, and an awful lot of material which simply doesn’t find its way out to the world as a result.

    I’m going to cut through some of the confusion, and show you how to get, keep, and consume free ebooks. It’s a fairly quick skate across the surface though, so you’ll need to do some more work yourself.

    Just to clarify, ebooks, for the sake of this discussion, are books which are available electronically, rather than printed on dead trees, and which can be read on an electronic device of some sort. And completely free ebooks, just now, are those which are legitimately available for free. Other options exist. We all know that.

    id="more-50770">

    Getting Free Ebooks

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Free-eBooks-by-Project-Gutenberg.jpg" alt="completely free ebooks"/>

    The largest source of out of copyright ebooks is class="vt-p" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project Gutenberg. If you want a book from before your parents were born, this is the place to start.

    Books are available in a number of formats, categories and languages.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ManyBooks.net-Free-eBooks-for-your-iPad-smartphone-or-eBook-reader.jpg" />

    For a slightly different view of what’s available, you also might like to take a look at class="vt-p" href="http://manybooks.net/">manybooks. They have a more modern approach to things. Some categories are not appropriate for everyone. Take care.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Baen-Books-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-Home-Page.jpg" alt="free ebooks online" />

    If you’re looking for some niche products, then you need to use the web to search things out. For instance, the nice people at class="vt-p" href="http://www.baen.com/">Baen Books have a class="vt-p" href="http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm">free ebook library for science fiction.

    There are plenty of other options out there for broad or narrow fields of study. class="vt-p" href="http://books.google.com/books">Google is your friend. Be cautious of the sites that require you to sign up, and watch what you download.

    Managing Free Ebooks

    Once you have some sources for ebooks, you need to give some thought to taking care of them. If you are ever going to have a decent stash of electronic tomes, then you need to think about how to go about it. I’m going to quickly show you how to make use of a product called Calibre, which has already been covered in some depth by class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibre-ebook-management-synchronization-software-multi-os/">Simon and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-entire-newspapers-blogs-ebook-reader-calibre/">Justin. Calibre is huge. We’re just going to nibble off a little corner.

    Specifically, I want to show you how to organise your books, and then how to convert them. You’ll see why by the time we get to the end of this.

    Organise

    Let’s quickly grab a few books from a couple of sites first: War & Peace from Gutenberg, The Body Snatcher from ManyBooks, and the highly recommended Sheepfarmer’s Daughter via Baen.

    Download and install class="vt-p" href="http://calibre-ebook.com/">Calibre.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/addbooks.jpg" border="0" alt="free ebooks online" width="564" height="103" />

    Start Calibre, and from the main toolbar click on the Add Books… button.

    Browse to wherever you downloaded the books, and add them one by one.

    Once the books are imported, you’ll be able to see them all listed in the main screen, and you can sort and filter in a number of different ways. The important thing here though is to add whatever metadata is appropriate, such as the name of the author, and the title. Calibre does its best to work out what to add, but you need to help.

    Metadata

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/meta1.jpg" alt="free ebooks online"/>

    Right-click one of the titles, select the metadata edit option.

    Fill in the data as best you can. Once your collection starts to grow, you will find you can select items such as authors from the combo box without typing them in full.

    You can rate the books between zero and five stars, and attach each of the titles to series information if you wish.

    There is also an option to download the metadata for the book from the Internet. I had mixed results, but it’s worth a shot.

    Once you have finished with all the metadata, you’ll be able to filter, sort and search your books effectively. Not much use with three books, but you can use your imagination.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/filter1.jpg" border="0" alt="free ebooks online" width="503" height="360" />

    Reading Free Ebooks

    One of the great things about Calibre is the way it can convert between file formats.

    The format that you want will depend almost entirely on the device you want to use to read your books. You can choose, but I just need to use an example. First though, Calibre specifically states support for a large number of devices directly, and supports enough class="vt-p" href="http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/faq.html#what-formats-does-app-support-conversion-to-from">file formats to cover most anything else.

    Calibre can also manage the device syncing in many cases, but we’re not going to do that today.

    We’re going to convert each of the files we downloaded, and for the example we want to change them all to .PDB files, so that I can transfer them to class="vt-p" href="http://www.ereader.com/ereader/home.htm">my device. Find something that works for you, and stick with it as much as you can.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Convert1.jpg" border="0" alt="Convert1" width="600" height="252" />

    So, War and Peace from HTML to PDB: Right-click the book, choose Convert books, then Convert individually.

    style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pdb1.jpg" border="0" alt="completely free ebooks" width="413" height="68" />

    On the left are a big list of option categories. Leave all of those alone, and look over to the right and select the file type you want, set any other sub-options you need, and then click on OK. Give the system a minute to deal with your request, and then that’s it. Convert the rest.

    Browse to the location of the library, and take a look. Additional files exist. Copy or synch them to your device, install the reader application, and you’re all set. You can also use the built-in Calibre reader on your PC for most formats.

    So which parts of this are confusing? Any need for a deeper article on parts of it? Any questions? Let me know in the comments. />
    />Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to target="_blank" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-share-share-spread-word/">share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. />
    />

     

    href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/&title=3 Good Online Sources For Free Ebooks & A Free App To Read Them&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

     


    Similar MakeUseOf Articles

    class="st-related-posts">

  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ebook-reader-makeuseof-poll/" title="Which eBook Reader Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll]">Which eBook Reader Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll] (18 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-multiplatform-tools-create-ibooks/" title="Two Free Multiplatform Tools To Create iBooks">Two Free Multiplatform Tools To Create iBooks (6 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kindle-reader-for-mac-arrived/" title="The Kindle Reader For Mac Has Arrived [Mac]">The Kindle Reader For Mac Has Arrived [Mac] (8 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reading-ebooks-ipad-ibooks-amazon-kindle-mac/" title="Reading Ebooks on The iPad with iBooks & Amazon Kindle [Mac]">Reading Ebooks on The iPad with iBooks & Amazon Kindle [Mac] (32 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-reading-on-your-computer-a-pleasure-with-martview/" title="Make Reading on your Computer a Pleasure With MartView">Make Reading on your Computer a Pleasure With MartView (27 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/lucidor-clean-crossplatform-ebook-reader/" title="Lucidor – A Clean, Cross-Platform eBook Reader">Lucidor – A Clean, Cross-Platform eBook Reader (12 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-convert-scanned-pages-into-ereader-ebook-format/" title="How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format">How To Convert Scanned Pages Into eReader eBook Format (14 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-entire-newspapers-blogs-ebook-reader-calibre/" title="Download Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With Calibre">Download Entire Newspapers or Blogs To Your eBook Reader With Calibre (18 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibre-ebook-management-synchronization-software-multi-os/" title="Calibre – Mighty eBook Management Software (Multi-OS)">Calibre – Mighty eBook Management Software (Multi-OS) (13 comments)
  • href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/barnes-noble-ereader-superior-to-ibook-and-kindle-in-almost-every-way-ipad/" title="Barnes & Noble eReader – Superior to iBook and Kindle In Almost Every Way [iPad]">Barnes & Noble eReader – Superior to iBook and Kindle In Almost Every Way [iPad] (5 comments)


  • View full post on MakeUseOf.com

    Posted in Useful APPsComments (0)

    It is Advisable To Maintain Your Desktop Computer’s Hardware In Good Condition


    A computer is there to make your life easier. Remember, a computer is composed of several pieces of equipment. The latter is composed of a multitude of things, each of which needs the proper care so that they will endure.

    There are many thing you can do to get to your goal. You won’t need any special skills to do this. If you are committed to having an optimally working computer then you are going to take care of it in the proper way.

    You can get help in several different ways. Read the following procedures to achieve these.

    It is easier to maintain the external parts of your hardware/as opposed to he internal parts. Guardianship of computer peripherals from moisture is the best thing one can execute.  When not in use cover your computer with cloth or plastic to prevent damage. Make sure your computer gets sufficient airflow. Excess heat can damage the system. If you will be using the system for an extended period of time, it is vital that you ensure that the processor does not overheat.

    It is essential to check your system periodically. This is complete when you run the Scan Disk and Defragmenter often. You will want to do these at times when you aren’t using your computer. There are many sites on the internet you can browse to see what is needed to help your computer system maintain its speed and abilities.

    It is also crucial to run anti-virus programs through your system occasionally. This is particularly accurate if you use the Internet often, as your computer may be frequently exposed to harmful viruses that can hinder its effectiveness.   Your whole system can be easily shut out by viruses. You should download the most recent upgrades from your virus protection company to avoid this happening to you.

    These vital steps are only a few of the essential things you can do to keep your hardware working optimally.  To benefit from their industry-known tricks of the trade, it’s best to consult a professional in the field before rendering services.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    Choosing a Good Accounting Software (stellar Accounting Software)


    Have you ever wanted to buy good accounting software or have you experienced error prone software. Companies that handle large amount of accounts prefer good accounting software. Finding of good accounting software is a difficult task. The cost of maintaining manual accounts of the company can be eliminated by good accounting software. Are you looking for best account automated software? Your search ends here. With good accounting software you can increase the productivity of the company manifold.  

    Accounting Software by stellar has been designed keeping in view the necessities of companies, financial institution, agencies or any other business institution. Accounting software is useful for small, medium and large scale business. With good accounting software you can do the inventory, accounts or any other financial transaction of the company very easily. Owing to very simple, easy to use, error free, outperforming capabilities, flexible in nature, software by Stellar has gained immense popularity in business world. The software with powerful features and capabilities maintain the complete transactions of the company and management of the company can access any real time information without any delay. Once you install accounting software, you do not need to look for any other software because it has abandoned capacity to handle any difficult accounting transactions. 

     Accounting software by stellar is an affordable solution to any difficult accounting problems. Most of the accounting software’s have something in common. But accounting software by stellar has an edge over others for many reasons. That’s why even reluctant people buying to any software have purchased our software. Our customers are enjoying the benefits of our best quality software. Accounting software provides incredible solutions to any accounting problem. The advent of software by stellar has forced the competitors to decrease their market prices and has led to too much benefits to its customers. This is possible because of constrained efforts done by software expert Team of Stellar. Accounting software by Stellar has outperformed their opponents.

     There are number of accounting software companies in the market, but no one has courage to challenge the quality, flexibility, performance of our software. It is very simple and users with little knowledge of computers can use it very easily. Those who have bad experience with any accounting software will find wonderful software here. Those who zeal to buy our software can submit their query to our website http://www.stac.in/enquiryform.htm Once you will buy, you will be free from any sort of tension for maintaining account manually. Accounting software by stellar is a blend of inventory, accounting or any other accounting problem to small, medium or large business organizations. With this invention, the days of manual accounting or any accounting problem are over. This software has distinct modules that are available at very cheaper rates. Even very small businessmen can afford to buy this software. This software is available in every technology. Ever since the complexity in business has increased the demand for accounting software has increased. Today, almost every financial institution or any other business house is looking for best accounting software. Accounting software is a friend in your business. Accounting software is a best accounting technique which is used by every business house in this world. So, always beware of buying any other accounting software. Don’t be mislead by false claims of their owners. Always choose accounting software by Stellar.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    “creating Videos for Website” Tool


    Wish to benefit from the advantages provided by Webvideo marketing? Get yourself an advanced “Creating Videos For Website” Tool – it can save you a lot of trouble and frustration. Webvideos are definitely more effective than plain text, what explains their growing popularity among Website owners. In this article you will be able to explore the latest VDO-to-Web techniques that can help you to easily play a movie on your own Webpage.

    Some background

    It was developed for one important purpose – “Creating Videos For Website” Tool focuses on converting your videos to .FLV format which is among most popular Web display formats. By quickly adding a short html code to your page and sending the files to the Webserver the entire process is completed. Just for you to know – this encoding process actually generates streaming webvideos – they are available in real time with no download waiting time.

    Main advantages

    This smart solution provides several clear advantages:

    * Easily converts popular file formats such as: AVI, WMV, MOV, MPG, FLV, VOB, ASF, and MP4.
    * It helps your visitors feel more comfortable doing business with you online.
    * Enables you to redirect visitors to your newsletter registration page.
    * Videomarketing is more viral than plain content marketing.
    * It attracts your visitors to stay more on your Website(s).

    There are plenty other benefits provided by this advanced tool simply because it this powerful web-marketing tool provides so many opportunities for quick and creative web-marketers.

    Summarizing this article

    Well, we can say that “Creating Videos For Website” Tool enables you to quickly upload Flash-Videos and attract more of your Site’s visitors to buy/download/subscribe. At this point the best advice would be to test this technology so you could truly experience how it can improve the performance of your marketing efforts.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    “creating Videos for Website” Tool


    Wish to benefit from the advantages provided by Webvideo marketing? Get yourself an advanced “Creating Videos For Website” Tool – it can save you a lot of trouble and frustration. Webvideos are definitely more effective than plain text, what explains their growing popularity among Website owners. In this article you will be able to explore the latest VDO-to-Web techniques that can help you to easily play a movie on your own Webpage.

    Some background

    It was developed for one important purpose – “Creating Videos For Website” Tool focuses on converting your videos to .FLV format which is among most popular Web display formats. By quickly adding a short html code to your page and sending the files to the Webserver the entire process is completed. Just for you to know – this encoding process actually generates streaming webvideos – they are available in real time with no download waiting time.

    Main advantages

    This smart solution provides several clear advantages:

    * Easily converts popular file formats such as: AVI, WMV, MOV, MPG, FLV, VOB, ASF, and MP4.
    * It helps your visitors feel more comfortable doing business with you online.
    * Enables you to redirect visitors to your newsletter registration page.
    * Videomarketing is more viral than plain content marketing.
    * It attracts your visitors to stay more on your Website(s).

    There are plenty other benefits provided by this advanced tool simply because it this powerful web-marketing tool provides so many opportunities for quick and creative web-marketers.

    Summarizing this article

    Well, we can say that “Creating Videos For Website” Tool enables you to quickly upload Flash-Videos and attract more of your Site’s visitors to buy/download/subscribe. At this point the best advice would be to test this technology so you could truly experience how it can improve the performance of your marketing efforts.

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    How to Make a Good Choice While Choosing Cheap Music Downloads Site?


    Music is said to have a universal appeal. Almost everyone cherishes good music irrespective of his or her cast, creed and ethnicity. Collecting music albums is one of the commonest hobbies of people across the world. Haven’t you had a collection of CDs and DVDs to listen to in your pastime? It is by far the most soothing and entertaining pastimes. If you agree with me, you will also agree that you are one of the music buffs who keep on searching for best and cheap music downloads available online!

    We always tend to get anxious when we visit a specific music downloading site that promises to be authentic. Well, in this era of cheating and deception being a universal phenomenon, it’s obvious for us to get anxious. But bear in mind that getting overtly anxious is not really necessary these days. The music downloads industry has gone far and is facing tremendous competition from the fellow sites. Everyone is trying to give hundred percent to the customers. Then how to make a good choice while choosing cheap music downloads site?

    Things you should look for:

    • Unlimited downloads availability
    • Cheap download option
    • No extra charge per song
    • Reliability and good speed of download
    • Money back guarantee
    • Spyware protection
    • Availability of free CD/DVD burning software
    • Compatibility with all operating systems
    • Collection of millions of songs

    If the music downloads site offers these options, then hit download and download without any hassles. Most of the sites which give you these many options are reliable and can be trusted.

    Some sites like Flickr, Music Platinum, Unlimited Download Center, Ares, and Sharing zone are very popular and they are really the sites that you should trust for. So, what is the most important step before you start downloading from the site? It’s pretty obvious that the comparative study of different music downloads site is the most crucial step if you do not want to fall prey to cheats!

    Well, if you can do your comparative study all on your own it’s great. But it is also true that in this fast life, studying different downloading sites, comparing them, and then opting for one of them is time consuming. We want to hear music not for killing our time but for having a good kind of recreation in our day to day life. This is the reason we should go for the websites that give us a good comparative study of various downloading sites and helps us achieve our goal of reliable site without more efforts on our part.

    Such sites are no doubt valuable tools in assessing the various site options when it comes to cheap music download. Gaining knowledge about different music downloads sites like Flickr, MP3 Audio Station, Hot MP3 Download, and Unlimited Media Access is in itself a great booster for our music love! We are desperate to download our favorite music video and now we have at our hand the authenticity and features of the site. Now, nothing can hold us back from enjoying our favorite hobby of collecting our favorite music albums! Let’s rock and roll!

    Comparing your cheap music downloads sites is no more difficult! Visit http://www.cheapmusicdownload.net/ and satiate your thirst for quality and cheap music download!

    Posted in UtilitiesComments (0)

    Blogroll