class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrive.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud" />You can’t walk five feet these days without bumping into a cloud storage service. Dropbox, Sugarsync, Box.net, Syncplicity…the list goes on and on.

All of these services are easy to use, but they are true clouds. All of your data is kept in a remote location, which leaves you with limited control over its security and limited storage space. There are only a few cloud solutions that can provide unlimited free storage – and href="http://www.bdrive.com">Bdrive is one of them.

A Personal Cloud?

style="text-align: center;"> href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/personacloud.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95396" title="personacloud" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/personacloud.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud" width="448" height="295" />

There are two basic types of cloud storage service offered to consumers. True cloud services, such as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/dropbox/">Dropbox, actually store your files in remote servers, from which they can be accessed at any time from any computer.  Personal clouds, like Bdrive, rely on your own hardware to keep the cloud active.

A true cloud service has many advantages. Your files are always available (in theory) because the servers are always up and maintained by a professional staff. Files can be accessed from any PC with an Internet connection, even if it’s not one you own. Most such services allow for sharing files with friends, as well. Yet there is one major disadvantage with a true cloud, and that’s cost. Maintaining a database with professional staff striving to ensure zero downtime isn’t free, which is why Dropbox charges once you exceed the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/earn-extra-space-dropbox-zumodrive-sugarsync/">free storage limit.

Personal clouds such as Bdrive don’t use anyone else’s hardware, so you have an unlimited data transfer limit. This is the most important thing to know about Bdrive. If you don’t need to transfer and share much data, you should just stick with Dropbox (or an alternative) and be happy. Otherwise, read on.

Bdrive Basics

A personal cloud like Bdrive is really just a streamlined way of creating a personal Internet network. In fact, the software goes so far as to offer “server” and “client” versions of the software.

How it works is simple. On the computer with files you’d like to share among multiple PCs, you install the server version. You select the folders you’d like to share and start the server. Bdrive will provide you with a BID (which identifies your server) and that’s it.

href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdriveserver.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95397" title="bdriveserver" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdriveserver.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud storage" width="510" height="410" />

Now, install the client on another PC. Enter your server’s BID and presto! You’re connected over the Internet, and you can move as many files about as you’d like. Though I assume there is some limit to the number of connections that can be made to a server but Bdrive doesn’t state what it is, and I didn’t run into it in my testing.

OS Support & Streaming Media

href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivestreaming.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95398" title="bdrivestreaming" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivestreaming.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud storage" width="560" height="296" />

If that’s all Bdrive offered, it’d be just nifty, but the developers have gone further by offering server software for both Windows and Mac and client software for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android. You can share files between platforms as easily as you can with Dropbox.

Bdrive also supports href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/streaming-video/">streaming content from your server to remote devices, such as smartphones. Some users might be interested in this software simply to use it as a remote media server. I found that streaming video was fluid on 4G, but a bit choppy on 3G. This feature also works well on phones connected via WiFi.

Versus Windows Live Mesh

href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivevswindowslivemesh.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95399" title="bdrivevswindowslivemesh" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivevswindowslivemesh.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud" width="570" height="428" />

I like the idea of a personal cloud. I have a lot of files that I like to have access to, and I need to access them on both my Windows PC and my Mac. Most cloud services are out of the question because I’d have to pay a monthly fee, and that adds up over time.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sync-files-access-pcs-remotely-windows-live-mesh-2011/">Windows Live Mesh has been my weapon of choice as a result, yet that service is not perfect. It can be confusing to set up syncing between folders, and the sync process can become laborious when working with folders that have thousands of files.

Bdrive is a much easier solution, and I’ll probably start using it instead. Setting up the server took no more than a couple of minutes, and within another minute I had installed the client on my laptop and connected it to my desktop. Within a few more, I had it on my phone.

Better yet, you don’t need to have, or log into, an account with Bdrive. Live Mesh requires a Windows Live account to use.

Conclusion

The main disadvantage to this software is that if your server goes down, you can’t access files from any device. This factor alone makes it a solution targeted more towards power users, organizations and small businesses than your average Joe. Yet this is also an extraordinarily simple piece of software, and for people (like me) who need to access my files across the Internet without paying, it fills exactly the role intended.

Best of all, href="http://www.bdrive.com/download.html">Bdrive is free to download and use. There is mention in the FAQ of “freemium” features that will be coming in the future, but they’re not unveiled yet.

If you decide to install BDrive, let us know in the comments how it went and if you like it.

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-amazons-s3-web-services/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/aws-150x150.png?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="aws" title="aws" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">4 Great Uses For Amazon’s S3 Web Services

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/otixo-access-cloud-accounts-files-place/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/00_otixo-logo-150x150.jpg?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="00_otixo-logo.jpg" title="00_otixo-logo.jpg" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">Otixo: Access All Of Your Cloud Accounts & Files From One Place

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image.png" alt="deleting temporary files"/>Life with multiple href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/browsers/">browsers, numerous applications and a constant use of IM and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/file-sharing/">file sharing programs leaves our computers cluttered with temporary files, histories etc. Many times these files are unnecessary, and can slow down our computers and take up valuable space. Sometimes we want to delete traces of things we did on a computer, like chat histories and traces left by file sharing programs.

There are many tools out there that solve this problem, the best known among them being (probably) href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ccleaner-remove-excess-files-ccenhancer/">CCleaner. Browser Cleaner (Windows) is yet another one of these tools.

As the name implies, Browser Cleaner deletes temporary files in your browsers’ cache, cookies, history etc., but it can also do this for many additional applications and other Windows items. All this is packed into a 900K file which you can carry around on a USB stick and use wherever and whenever you need it.

Installation is a breeze: You don’t have to waiver the privilege of having any new toolbars or other unwanted additions, and you can start working almost immediately.

Internet Items

Many of us use multiple browsers. When you clear your browser’s temporary files, you can choose what you want to delete and what you want to keep. But what if you could do this for all your browsers from one single window and in one single click?

The first window you’ll see in Browser Cleaner is the Internet Items tab. Here you can choose which browsers you want the program to clean up for you. You can also choose whether you want it to clean IM programs and file sharing programs.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-20h47_59.png" alt="deleting temporary files" width="386" height="493" border="0" />

When you click the “options” button next to each of the browsers, you’ll get to choose exactly what you want it to clean for each browser.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-20h48_23.png" alt="how to delete temporary internet files" width="292" height="335" border="0" />

For the IM and file sharing programs you can choose which programs Browser Cleaner will clean. This is a set list and you can’t add to it if the program you use doesn’t appear in it, and it is missing some names. But it works well for the names that do appear, clearing chat histories etc. with a snap.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-20h48_43.png" alt="how to delete temporary internet files" width="298" height="355" border="0" />

Windows Items and Applications

Clicking on the Windows Items tab will bring you to a significantly longer list of items such as the clipboard (clear your clipboard tracks), temp folder (clear temporary files), recent folder (clear all the recent open documents and files) and many more.

Choosing to clear all of these can guarantee that at least the average person will not be able to find traces of your activity on that computer. And most of the time, this is more than enough.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-20h53_57.png" alt="how to delete temporary internet files" width="387" height="377" border="0" />

The Applications tab provides a respectable list of applications and a description of what temporary files Browser Cleaner will clean. Again, this is a set list, but it contains many important applications you may want to clear your traces from.

After performing the clean-up on your selected items, you will get on OK result if all went well.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-23h16_50.png" alt="delete temporary internet files" width="388" height="518" border="0" />

The clean-up speed depends on how much you want to delete. When I chose 3 browsers and several applications, the process was almost immediate. After you go over everything once and select your preferred items, all you have to do next time is run Browser Cleaner and press the big, shiny Clean Now button. This way, you can get rid of all the unwanted files in just a few seconds (or a few minutes if your deleting many many things).

More Options

If you’re really paranoid about those more than your average person computer experts, the Wipe Free Space tab is what you need.

When files are deleted, they are generally just marked as free space to be overwritten at some point in the future when the need arises. If someone really wanted to, he could recover your browsing history files and recent documents and prove that you were actually downloading picture from Facebook when you were supposed to be working. Browser Cleaner can wipe this free space and make the files harder to recover.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-20h51_36.png" alt="delete temporary internet files" width="387" height="378" border="0" />

Don’t forget to check out the basic-yet-useful settings, where you can arrange for Browser Cleaner to perform its magic every time you exit a browser or shutdown Windows, and also control its notification methods.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-20h52_00.png" alt="delete temporary internet files" width="371" height="448" border="0" />

When you’re all done, you’ll hear an 80s sort of beep and a balloon will pop up to reassure you that all is well. You can control this, of course, if you don’t want the whole office wondering why your computer is beeping. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-03-21h06_02.png" alt="deleting temporary files" width="329" height="115" border="0" />

Bottom Line

Browser Cleaner is a lightweight, portable and easy to use application. If you’re using multiple computers and need some data wiped after each usage, this one is a must-have for you. It’s not big and it’s not fancy, but it works well and does so with finesse.

What do you use to clear your computer and your tracks? Share in the comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image139.png" alt="type in different languages" />Tapping out a text message on a touchscreen is not my idea of a good time. Annoying typos happen, and even once you gain some skill, the process still feels irritating. I first heard about sliding keyboards via the much-hyped class="vt-p" href="http://swypeinc.com/">Swype keyboard. But Swype seems to be eternally in Beta, and was difficult to get a hold of. So I set out to find a good sliding keyboard that I could actually install and use, and I found SlideIT.

This was about a year ago, and I’ve been using it ever since as my default keyboard in Android. It’s a paid app, and at $6.44 it’s not cheap for an Android app. But it’s one of the absolute best keyboards for Android, and it keeps getting better with the recently-released version 4. If you have an Android device and are not using a sliding keyboard, here are some of the great things about sliding keyboards in general, and SlideIT specifically.

The Basic Concept

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image140.png" alt="type in different languages" width="580" height="348" border="0" />

With a sliding keyboard, you don’t tap out your letters one by one. You start by tapping the first letter of the word you’re trying to write (say, “keyboard” which is why you see the letter K depressed in the screenshot above), and then you drag your finger across the other keys for the word you’re trying to type. You’re basically tracing over the path of where you want to tap. The keyboard is (hopefully) smart enough to figure what it is you’re trying to type.

It sounds iffy at first, but it is remarkably accurate, and is a really fast way to type.

SlideIT Features

There are a few features I like about SlideIT in particular. First is the extensive language support. It not only supports English and other major languages, but also niche languages such as Hebrew, Turkish, and Icelandic. Even in English, it supports multiple keyboard layouts, such as Dvorak and the awesome class="vt-p" href="http://colemak.com/">Colemak (which I use on my PC).

Another handy SlideIT feature is that it can be resized. Here are two screenshots side-by-side, showing the same keyboard at its maximum and minimum size:

/> Quite a difference, right? Also, if you don’t like the black look, you can go for one of several skins. Here’s a skin called class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dasur.slideit.skin.tealblue">Teal Blue:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image143.png" alt="type in different languages" height="348" border="0" />

Skin support is new for version 4, and Dasur (the developer) already put out a number of lovely skins.

Cons & Alternatives

After trying out Swype, I’m really not sure it’s better than SlideIT in any particular way. SlideIT is easier to get, supports more languages, and its word detection algorithm feels just as robust.

One sliding keyboard that does challenge SlideIT is the excellent class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nuance.flext9.input&feature=search_result">FlexT9 by Nuance, which makes the NaturallySpeaking dictation program. FlexT9 has sliding input in English, but it also boasts amazing speech recognition, better than Google’s own. If you mainly (or only) use your device in English, FlexT9 is one fantastic keyboard you should try before settling on one sliding keyboard. I will be giving it a more complete review soon.

Trying SlideIT Out

If you just want to take SlideIT for a spin, you don’t have to shell out $6.44. There’s a class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dasur.slideit.vt.lite&feature=more_from_developer">Lite version you can try out for free. Do be sure to take the time and tweak some of its options (accessible via Settings > Language and Keyboard > SlideIT Keyboard. If you use any language other than English, to be sure to give SlideIT a spin – it can transform your Android typing experience.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image139.png" alt="type in different languages" />Tapping out a text message on a touchscreen is not my idea of a good time. Annoying typos happen, and even once you gain some skill, the process still feels irritating. I first heard about sliding keyboards via the much-hyped class="vt-p" href="http://swypeinc.com/">Swype keyboard. But Swype seems to be eternally in Beta, and was difficult to get a hold of. So I set out to find a good sliding keyboard that I could actually install and use, and I found SlideIT.

This was about a year ago, and I’ve been using it ever since as my default keyboard in Android. It’s a paid app, and at $6.44 it’s not cheap for an Android app. But it’s one of the absolute best keyboards for Android, and it keeps getting better with the recently-released version 4. If you have an Android device and are not using a sliding keyboard, here are some of the great things about sliding keyboards in general, and SlideIT specifically.

The Basic Concept

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image140.png" alt="type in different languages" width="580" height="348" border="0" />

With a sliding keyboard, you don’t tap out your letters one by one. You start by tapping the first letter of the word you’re trying to write (say, “keyboard” which is why you see the letter K depressed in the screenshot above), and then you drag your finger across the other keys for the word you’re trying to type. You’re basically tracing over the path of where you want to tap. The keyboard is (hopefully) smart enough to figure what it is you’re trying to type.

It sounds iffy at first, but it is remarkably accurate, and is a really fast way to type.

SlideIT Features

There are a few features I like about SlideIT in particular. First is the extensive language support. It not only supports English and other major languages, but also niche languages such as Hebrew, Turkish, and Icelandic. Even in English, it supports multiple keyboard layouts, such as Dvorak and the awesome class="vt-p" href="http://colemak.com/">Colemak (which I use on my PC).

Another handy SlideIT feature is that it can be resized. Here are two screenshots side-by-side, showing the same keyboard at its maximum and minimum size:

/> Quite a difference, right? Also, if you don’t like the black look, you can go for one of several skins. Here’s a skin called class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dasur.slideit.skin.tealblue">Teal Blue:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image143.png" alt="type in different languages" height="348" border="0" />

Skin support is new for version 4, and Dasur (the developer) already put out a number of lovely skins.

Cons & Alternatives

After trying out Swype, I’m really not sure it’s better than SlideIT in any particular way. SlideIT is easier to get, supports more languages, and its word detection algorithm feels just as robust.

One sliding keyboard that does challenge SlideIT is the excellent class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nuance.flext9.input&feature=search_result">FlexT9 by Nuance, which makes the NaturallySpeaking dictation program. FlexT9 has sliding input in English, but it also boasts amazing speech recognition, better than Google’s own. If you mainly (or only) use your device in English, FlexT9 is one fantastic keyboard you should try before settling on one sliding keyboard. I will be giving it a more complete review soon.

Trying SlideIT Out

If you just want to take SlideIT for a spin, you don’t have to shell out $6.44. There’s a class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dasur.slideit.vt.lite&feature=more_from_developer">Lite version you can try out for free. Do be sure to take the time and tweak some of its options (accessible via Settings > Language and Keyboard > SlideIT Keyboard. If you use any language other than English, to be sure to give SlideIT a spin – it can transform your Android typing experience.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs8.png" alt="" />Have you ever went to download something only to realize that your hard drive is almost full? Have you even wondered where all of your space is going? I know I have, and fortunately GetFoldersize is here to rectify the situation by calculating the exact amount of space every single folder on your computer is using.

This is great because you can decide what you really need and what you don’t. You can then realize that maybe you don’t need that 300GB folder of “adult entertainment” you have held onto for years.

It will take a little time and effort on your part, but thanks to GetFoldersize, it becomes a lot easier to find out what is taking up the largest amount of space on your drive. Once you free up the space with GetFoldersize, make sure to adopt some helpful class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-free-up-disk-space-netbook/">techniques to help conserve space and keep your hard drive running like a dream.

Installation

Head over to class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com/">GetFoldersize’s website, click download and choose one of the available servers to download from. They have a standard Windows edition, as well as a portable edition if you prefer to install the program to a thumb drive. They support every major version of Windows in both 32 and 64 bit.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs1.png" alt="" width="560" height="414" />

Once the file is downloaded, extract and run the .exe. Follow the installer instructions.

Using The Program

GetFoldersize has one main purpose, and that is to calculate the amount of space all the folders on your drive are taking up, and then break it down by percentage, so you can see exactly where your space is used. The program is very easy to use, so even a computer novice will be able to run it smoothly.

When the program first opens you are given all your drives and the available space on each. You get a percentage of how much space is free, and how much space is used.

You can either scan all your system drives, which will take a little time depending on how big they are and how much stuff you have on them, or you can choose one drive and run a scan on just that one. The buttons for scanning your drive are at the top of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs4.png" alt="" width="519" height="236" />

The results will show up on the left side of the screen. It will display all the folders on the drive, how much space each one is occupying and the overall percentage of the drive it is using. To navigate through the various folders on your drive simply click the plus and minus buttons next to a folder name to expand or contract that folder.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs5.png" alt="" width="500" height="137" />

Features

The most useful reason for running a scan like this is to find out which programs are really sucking down your space. When you go to the Add/Remove programs section on Windows, many of the programs do not list their size. With GetFoldersize that will no longer be a problem, since it will scan your program files folder and let you know exactly what useless program is sucking the life from your hard drive.

GetFoldersize also allows you to scan remote machines on your network. This is pretty nifty for businesses that want to know where their hard drive resources are going.

It will also find the largest file on a drive. This allows you to quickly and easily tell which files are taking up your space the most. Simply click the icon labeled “123″ to see a list of all files sorted by size.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs7.png" alt="" width="398" height="55" />

When you find something that is taking up too much space which you don’t need any more, you can delete the file right there in the program. So there’s no need to open up Windows Explorer to get rid of the space eaters.

Conclusion

class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com">GetFoldersize is a pretty cool program that does what it sets out to do, and does it in a very easy fashion. It’s completely free, and worth checking out if you are looking to clean up your hard drives and get some better performance out of your machine.

Did you try GetFoldersize? What was taking up all of your space? Let us know in the comments.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/getfoldersize-calculates-hard-disk-usage-quickly-easily-windows/">GetFoldersize Calculates Hard Disk Usage Quickly & Easily [Windows] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs8.png" alt="" />Have you ever went to download something only to realize that your hard drive is almost full? Have you even wondered where all of your space is going? I know I have, and fortunately GetFoldersize is here to rectify the situation by calculating the exact amount of space every single folder on your computer is using.

This is great because you can decide what you really need and what you don’t. You can then realize that maybe you don’t need that 300GB folder of “adult entertainment” you have held onto for years.

It will take a little time and effort on your part, but thanks to GetFoldersize, it becomes a lot easier to find out what is taking up the largest amount of space on your drive. Once you free up the space with GetFoldersize, make sure to adopt some helpful class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-free-up-disk-space-netbook/">techniques to help conserve space and keep your hard drive running like a dream.

Installation

Head over to class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com/">GetFoldersize’s website, click download and choose one of the available servers to download from. They have a standard Windows edition, as well as a portable edition if you prefer to install the program to a thumb drive. They support every major version of Windows in both 32 and 64 bit.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs1.png" alt="" width="560" height="414" />

Once the file is downloaded, extract and run the .exe. Follow the installer instructions.

Using The Program

GetFoldersize has one main purpose, and that is to calculate the amount of space all the folders on your drive are taking up, and then break it down by percentage, so you can see exactly where your space is used. The program is very easy to use, so even a computer novice will be able to run it smoothly.

When the program first opens you are given all your drives and the available space on each. You get a percentage of how much space is free, and how much space is used.

You can either scan all your system drives, which will take a little time depending on how big they are and how much stuff you have on them, or you can choose one drive and run a scan on just that one. The buttons for scanning your drive are at the top of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs4.png" alt="" width="519" height="236" />

The results will show up on the left side of the screen. It will display all the folders on the drive, how much space each one is occupying and the overall percentage of the drive it is using. To navigate through the various folders on your drive simply click the plus and minus buttons next to a folder name to expand or contract that folder.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs5.png" alt="" width="500" height="137" />

Features

The most useful reason for running a scan like this is to find out which programs are really sucking down your space. When you go to the Add/Remove programs section on Windows, many of the programs do not list their size. With GetFoldersize that will no longer be a problem, since it will scan your program files folder and let you know exactly what useless program is sucking the life from your hard drive.

GetFoldersize also allows you to scan remote machines on your network. This is pretty nifty for businesses that want to know where their hard drive resources are going.

It will also find the largest file on a drive. This allows you to quickly and easily tell which files are taking up your space the most. Simply click the icon labeled “123″ to see a list of all files sorted by size.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs7.png" alt="" width="398" height="55" />

When you find something that is taking up too much space which you don’t need any more, you can delete the file right there in the program. So there’s no need to open up Windows Explorer to get rid of the space eaters.

Conclusion

class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com">GetFoldersize is a pretty cool program that does what it sets out to do, and does it in a very easy fashion. It’s completely free, and worth checking out if you are looking to clean up your hard drives and get some better performance out of your machine.

Did you try GetFoldersize? What was taking up all of your space? Let us know in the comments.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/getfoldersize-calculates-hard-disk-usage-quickly-easily-windows/">GetFoldersize Calculates Hard Disk Usage Quickly & Easily [Windows] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs8.png" alt="" />Have you ever went to download something only to realize that your hard drive is almost full? Have you even wondered where all of your space is going? I know I have, and fortunately GetFoldersize is here to rectify the situation by calculating the exact amount of space every single folder on your computer is using.

This is great because you can decide what you really need and what you don’t. You can then realize that maybe you don’t need that 300GB folder of “adult entertainment” you have held onto for years.

It will take a little time and effort on your part, but thanks to GetFoldersize, it becomes a lot easier to find out what is taking up the largest amount of space on your drive. Once you free up the space with GetFoldersize, make sure to adopt some helpful class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-free-up-disk-space-netbook/">techniques to help conserve space and keep your hard drive running like a dream.

Installation

Head over to class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com/">GetFoldersize’s website, click download and choose one of the available servers to download from. They have a standard Windows edition, as well as a portable edition if you prefer to install the program to a thumb drive. They support every major version of Windows in both 32 and 64 bit.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs1.png" alt="" width="560" height="414" />

Once the file is downloaded, extract and run the .exe. Follow the installer instructions.

Using The Program

GetFoldersize has one main purpose, and that is to calculate the amount of space all the folders on your drive are taking up, and then break it down by percentage, so you can see exactly where your space is used. The program is very easy to use, so even a computer novice will be able to run it smoothly.

When the program first opens you are given all your drives and the available space on each. You get a percentage of how much space is free, and how much space is used.

You can either scan all your system drives, which will take a little time depending on how big they are and how much stuff you have on them, or you can choose one drive and run a scan on just that one. The buttons for scanning your drive are at the top of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs4.png" alt="" width="519" height="236" />

The results will show up on the left side of the screen. It will display all the folders on the drive, how much space each one is occupying and the overall percentage of the drive it is using. To navigate through the various folders on your drive simply click the plus and minus buttons next to a folder name to expand or contract that folder.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs5.png" alt="" width="500" height="137" />

Features

The most useful reason for running a scan like this is to find out which programs are really sucking down your space. When you go to the Add/Remove programs section on Windows, many of the programs do not list their size. With GetFoldersize that will no longer be a problem, since it will scan your program files folder and let you know exactly what useless program is sucking the life from your hard drive.

GetFoldersize also allows you to scan remote machines on your network. This is pretty nifty for businesses that want to know where their hard drive resources are going.

It will also find the largest file on a drive. This allows you to quickly and easily tell which files are taking up your space the most. Simply click the icon labeled “123″ to see a list of all files sorted by size.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs7.png" alt="" width="398" height="55" />

When you find something that is taking up too much space which you don’t need any more, you can delete the file right there in the program. So there’s no need to open up Windows Explorer to get rid of the space eaters.

Conclusion

class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com">GetFoldersize is a pretty cool program that does what it sets out to do, and does it in a very easy fashion. It’s completely free, and worth checking out if you are looking to clean up your hard drives and get some better performance out of your machine.

Did you try GetFoldersize? What was taking up all of your space? Let us know in the comments.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/getfoldersize-calculates-hard-disk-usage-quickly-easily-windows/">GetFoldersize Calculates Hard Disk Usage Quickly & Easily [Windows] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs8.png" alt="" />Have you ever went to download something only to realize that your hard drive is almost full? Have you even wondered where all of your space is going? I know I have, and fortunately GetFoldersize is here to rectify the situation by calculating the exact amount of space every single folder on your computer is using.

This is great because you can decide what you really need and what you don’t. You can then realize that maybe you don’t need that 300GB folder of “adult entertainment” you have held onto for years.

It will take a little time and effort on your part, but thanks to GetFoldersize, it becomes a lot easier to find out what is taking up the largest amount of space on your drive. Once you free up the space with GetFoldersize, make sure to adopt some helpful class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-free-up-disk-space-netbook/">techniques to help conserve space and keep your hard drive running like a dream.

Installation

Head over to class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com/">GetFoldersize’s website, click download and choose one of the available servers to download from. They have a standard Windows edition, as well as a portable edition if you prefer to install the program to a thumb drive. They support every major version of Windows in both 32 and 64 bit.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs1.png" alt="" width="560" height="414" />

Once the file is downloaded, extract and run the .exe. Follow the installer instructions.

Using The Program

GetFoldersize has one main purpose, and that is to calculate the amount of space all the folders on your drive are taking up, and then break it down by percentage, so you can see exactly where your space is used. The program is very easy to use, so even a computer novice will be able to run it smoothly.

When the program first opens you are given all your drives and the available space on each. You get a percentage of how much space is free, and how much space is used.

You can either scan all your system drives, which will take a little time depending on how big they are and how much stuff you have on them, or you can choose one drive and run a scan on just that one. The buttons for scanning your drive are at the top of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs4.png" alt="" width="519" height="236" />

The results will show up on the left side of the screen. It will display all the folders on the drive, how much space each one is occupying and the overall percentage of the drive it is using. To navigate through the various folders on your drive simply click the plus and minus buttons next to a folder name to expand or contract that folder.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs5.png" alt="" width="500" height="137" />

Features

The most useful reason for running a scan like this is to find out which programs are really sucking down your space. When you go to the Add/Remove programs section on Windows, many of the programs do not list their size. With GetFoldersize that will no longer be a problem, since it will scan your program files folder and let you know exactly what useless program is sucking the life from your hard drive.

GetFoldersize also allows you to scan remote machines on your network. This is pretty nifty for businesses that want to know where their hard drive resources are going.

It will also find the largest file on a drive. This allows you to quickly and easily tell which files are taking up your space the most. Simply click the icon labeled “123″ to see a list of all files sorted by size.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gfs7.png" alt="" width="398" height="55" />

When you find something that is taking up too much space which you don’t need any more, you can delete the file right there in the program. So there’s no need to open up Windows Explorer to get rid of the space eaters.

Conclusion

class="vt-p" href="http://www.getfoldersize.com">GetFoldersize is a pretty cool program that does what it sets out to do, and does it in a very easy fashion. It’s completely free, and worth checking out if you are looking to clean up your hard drives and get some better performance out of your machine.

Did you try GetFoldersize? What was taking up all of your space? Let us know in the comments.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/getfoldersize-calculates-hard-disk-usage-quickly-easily-windows/">GetFoldersize Calculates Hard Disk Usage Quickly & Easily [Windows] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_intro.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" />The web as we know it is evolving faster than ever before. As of late, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/html5/">HTML5 is coming into the scene, providing the capability of developing highly interactive web apps without the need for the proprietary class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/flash/">Flash. Instead, all a user needs is a supported, modern web browser, and they’ll be able to enjoy the best of what the web has to offer.

However, creating such interactive content is never as easy as pie, and that rule doesn’t exclude class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html-5">HTML5‘s main element that does all the work: canvas. If you’ve been following what the latest browsers have to offer, some of them may include a GPU-accelerated experience that makes the canvas element run a lot better. There are frameworks available that try to make the canvas element a little bit easier to develop for, notably class="vt-p" href="http://jquery.com/">jQuery. But even then, jQuery makes you type quite a bit. Web developers, here’s something better for you.

About jCanvas

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_simpler.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" width="580" height="245" />

class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/index.html">jCanvas is a little jQuery plugin written entirely in JavaScript that makes working with jQuery, and thereby HTML5′s canvas element, a lot easier. Web developers will get a lot of benefit out of using jCanvas. By using jCanvas, you get to work with much simpler code, in which the plugin will do the work and translate it into the relevant code for jQuery to run.

Examples of Use

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_ellipses.jpg?54167" alt="html canvas html" width="580" height="375" />

jCanvas can draw a large number of objects. For example, here we can see an ellipse that is filled in with a gradient. There are plenty of parameters that you can set and still keep the amount of actual code as small as possible. In this example, the gradient parameters were set first (distances, colors, etc.), followed by the drawing of the ellipse itself. For programmers, this should be a very eye-appealing way to write code with no over-the-top syntax.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_pixels.jpg?54167" alt="html canvas html" width="580" height="375" />

In this example, a regular jpg image is being halfway inverted. The first function (or set of instructions) sets how the inversion takes place, while the second function draws the image and loads the inversion function onto it. When the code runs, you get a halfway-inverted image.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_shapes.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" width="580" height="379" />

In our final example, different shapes are drawn by means of different functions provided by jCanvas. The green, unfilled rectangle was drawn by a simple function dedicated to rectangles. As always, you can customize your rectangle, even with parameters for the stroke width and corner radius (the amount that the corners should be rounded). The pentagon is drawn by a more generic function that applies to all regular polygons. You can also apply all the same parameters as with the other functions.

The difference is important because you can draw a square with both the rectangle and polygon functions, but you can only draw rectangles with the rectangle function. (Squares are rectangles, but rectangles aren’t always squares!)

Other Information & Support

There’s a lot more you can do with each function, plus there are many more functions that you can use! You can download jCanvas by going class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/download.html">here. If you need any help, the full, well-written class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/docs.html#syntax">Documentation page should clarify most if not all questions. If that still doesn’t work, you can contact the developer of jCanvas by checking out his information class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/support.html">here. If you wish to try out jCanvas before playing around with it on your own site, the developer has set up a very cool-looking class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/sandbox.html#%24%28%22canvas.test%22%29%0A.drawArc%28{%0A%20%20fillStyle%3A%20%27%2389a%27%2C%0A%20%20x%3A%20100%2C%20y%3A%20100%2C%0A%20%20radius%3A%2050%0A}%29%0A">Sandbox page where you can enter code and watch the magic happen.

Finally, if you would like to help contribute to the open source jCanvas project, you are more than welcome to do just that by going class="vt-p" href="https://github.com/caleb531/jcanvas">here. jCanvas is always being improved by the developer, and new releases are made available every few weeks.

Conclusion

jCanvas is a great web tool to use to make your programming experience much simpler, especially if you are a heavy user of the canvas element. Again, some of the highlight features are:

• Draw shapes, paths, images, and text.
• Style these using colors, gradients, patterns, and shadows.
• Manipulate the canvas (rotate, scale, etc).
• A huge range of options to suit your needs.

Internet users will thank you as well for using jCanvas, because you’ll have more time to completely develop your web app and make sure that it has all the functionality you want it to have while enjoying great performance.

Are you a web developer who is involved in HTML5? Do you think jCanvas will help you with your development? What features would you like to see in jCanvas? (please check the documentation first for what’s already implemented!).

Image Credit: class="vt-p" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinsomnia/513636061/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Just Insomnia />
/> Hey Facebookers, make sure to join href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof" target="_blank">MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already!

/>

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickly-easily-manipulate-html5s-canvas-element-jcanvas/">Quickly & Easily Manipulate HTML5′s Canvas Element With jCanvas is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html/" title="html" rel="tag">html, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html-5/" title="html 5" rel="tag">html 5, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/javascript/" title="javascript" rel="tag">javascript, 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, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/webmaster-tools/" title="webmaster tools" rel="tag">webmaster tools />

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_intro.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" />The web as we know it is evolving faster than ever before. As of late, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/html5/">HTML5 is coming into the scene, providing the capability of developing highly interactive web apps without the need for the proprietary class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/flash/">Flash. Instead, all a user needs is a supported, modern web browser, and they’ll be able to enjoy the best of what the web has to offer.

However, creating such interactive content is never as easy as pie, and that rule doesn’t exclude class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html-5">HTML5‘s main element that does all the work: canvas. If you’ve been following what the latest browsers have to offer, some of them may include a GPU-accelerated experience that makes the canvas element run a lot better. There are frameworks available that try to make the canvas element a little bit easier to develop for, notably class="vt-p" href="http://jquery.com/">jQuery. But even then, jQuery makes you type quite a bit. Web developers, here’s something better for you.

About jCanvas

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_simpler.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" width="580" height="245" />

class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/index.html">jCanvas is a little jQuery plugin written entirely in JavaScript that makes working with jQuery, and thereby HTML5′s canvas element, a lot easier. Web developers will get a lot of benefit out of using jCanvas. By using jCanvas, you get to work with much simpler code, in which the plugin will do the work and translate it into the relevant code for jQuery to run.

Examples of Use

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_ellipses.jpg?54167" alt="html canvas html" width="580" height="375" />

jCanvas can draw a large number of objects. For example, here we can see an ellipse that is filled in with a gradient. There are plenty of parameters that you can set and still keep the amount of actual code as small as possible. In this example, the gradient parameters were set first (distances, colors, etc.), followed by the drawing of the ellipse itself. For programmers, this should be a very eye-appealing way to write code with no over-the-top syntax.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_pixels.jpg?54167" alt="html canvas html" width="580" height="375" />

In this example, a regular jpg image is being halfway inverted. The first function (or set of instructions) sets how the inversion takes place, while the second function draws the image and loads the inversion function onto it. When the code runs, you get a halfway-inverted image.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_shapes.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" width="580" height="379" />

In our final example, different shapes are drawn by means of different functions provided by jCanvas. The green, unfilled rectangle was drawn by a simple function dedicated to rectangles. As always, you can customize your rectangle, even with parameters for the stroke width and corner radius (the amount that the corners should be rounded). The pentagon is drawn by a more generic function that applies to all regular polygons. You can also apply all the same parameters as with the other functions.

The difference is important because you can draw a square with both the rectangle and polygon functions, but you can only draw rectangles with the rectangle function. (Squares are rectangles, but rectangles aren’t always squares!)

Other Information & Support

There’s a lot more you can do with each function, plus there are many more functions that you can use! You can download jCanvas by going class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/download.html">here. If you need any help, the full, well-written class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/docs.html#syntax">Documentation page should clarify most if not all questions. If that still doesn’t work, you can contact the developer of jCanvas by checking out his information class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/support.html">here. If you wish to try out jCanvas before playing around with it on your own site, the developer has set up a very cool-looking class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/sandbox.html#%24%28%22canvas.test%22%29%0A.drawArc%28{%0A%20%20fillStyle%3A%20%27%2389a%27%2C%0A%20%20x%3A%20100%2C%20y%3A%20100%2C%0A%20%20radius%3A%2050%0A}%29%0A">Sandbox page where you can enter code and watch the magic happen.

Finally, if you would like to help contribute to the open source jCanvas project, you are more than welcome to do just that by going class="vt-p" href="https://github.com/caleb531/jcanvas">here. jCanvas is always being improved by the developer, and new releases are made available every few weeks.

Conclusion

jCanvas is a great web tool to use to make your programming experience much simpler, especially if you are a heavy user of the canvas element. Again, some of the highlight features are:

• Draw shapes, paths, images, and text.
• Style these using colors, gradients, patterns, and shadows.
• Manipulate the canvas (rotate, scale, etc).
• A huge range of options to suit your needs.

Internet users will thank you as well for using jCanvas, because you’ll have more time to completely develop your web app and make sure that it has all the functionality you want it to have while enjoying great performance.

Are you a web developer who is involved in HTML5? Do you think jCanvas will help you with your development? What features would you like to see in jCanvas? (please check the documentation first for what’s already implemented!).

Image Credit: class="vt-p" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinsomnia/513636061/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Just Insomnia />
/> Hey Facebookers, make sure to join href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof" target="_blank">MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 105,000 fans already!

/>

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickly-easily-manipulate-html5s-canvas-element-jcanvas/">Quickly & Easily Manipulate HTML5′s Canvas Element With jCanvas is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html/" title="html" rel="tag">html, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html-5/" title="html 5" rel="tag">html 5, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/javascript/" title="javascript" rel="tag">javascript, 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, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/webmaster-tools/" title="webmaster tools" rel="tag">webmaster tools />

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_intro.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" />The web as we know it is evolving faster than ever before. As of late, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/html5/">HTML5 is coming into the scene, providing the capability of developing highly interactive web apps without the need for the proprietary class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/flash/">Flash. Instead, all a user needs is a supported, modern web browser, and they’ll be able to enjoy the best of what the web has to offer.

However, creating such interactive content is never as easy as pie, and that rule doesn’t exclude class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html-5">HTML5‘s main element that does all the work: canvas. If you’ve been following what the latest browsers have to offer, some of them may include a GPU-accelerated experience that makes the canvas element run a lot better. There are frameworks available that try to make the canvas element a little bit easier to develop for, notably class="vt-p" href="http://jquery.com/">jQuery. But even then, jQuery makes you type quite a bit. Web developers, here’s something better for you.

About jCanvas

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_simpler.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" width="580" height="245" />

class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/index.html">jCanvas is a little jQuery plugin written entirely in JavaScript that makes working with jQuery, and thereby HTML5′s canvas element, a lot easier. Web developers will get a lot of benefit out of using jCanvas. By using jCanvas, you get to work with much simpler code, in which the plugin will do the work and translate it into the relevant code for jQuery to run.

Examples of Use

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_ellipses.jpg?54167" alt="html canvas html" width="580" height="375" />

jCanvas can draw a large number of objects. For example, here we can see an ellipse that is filled in with a gradient. There are plenty of parameters that you can set and still keep the amount of actual code as small as possible. In this example, the gradient parameters were set first (distances, colors, etc.), followed by the drawing of the ellipse itself. For programmers, this should be a very eye-appealing way to write code with no over-the-top syntax.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_pixels.jpg?54167" alt="html canvas html" width="580" height="375" />

In this example, a regular jpg image is being halfway inverted. The first function (or set of instructions) sets how the inversion takes place, while the second function draws the image and loads the inversion function onto it. When the code runs, you get a halfway-inverted image.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/jcanvas_shapes.jpg?54167" alt="html 5 canvas tag" width="580" height="379" />

In our final example, different shapes are drawn by means of different functions provided by jCanvas. The green, unfilled rectangle was drawn by a simple function dedicated to rectangles. As always, you can customize your rectangle, even with parameters for the stroke width and corner radius (the amount that the corners should be rounded). The pentagon is drawn by a more generic function that applies to all regular polygons. You can also apply all the same parameters as with the other functions.

The difference is important because you can draw a square with both the rectangle and polygon functions, but you can only draw rectangles with the rectangle function. (Squares are rectangles, but rectangles aren’t always squares!)

Other Information & Support

There’s a lot more you can do with each function, plus there are many more functions that you can use! You can download jCanvas by going class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/download.html">here. If you need any help, the full, well-written class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/docs.html#syntax">Documentation page should clarify most if not all questions. If that still doesn’t work, you can contact the developer of jCanvas by checking out his information class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/support.html">here. If you wish to try out jCanvas before playing around with it on your own site, the developer has set up a very cool-looking class="vt-p" href="http://calebevans.me/projects/jcanvas/sandbox.html#%24%28%22canvas.test%22%29%0A.drawArc%28{%0A%20%20fillStyle%3A%20%27%2389a%27%2C%0A%20%20x%3A%20100%2C%20y%3A%20100%2C%0A%20%20radius%3A%2050%0A}%29%0A">Sandbox page where you can enter code and watch the magic happen.

Finally, if you would like to help contribute to the open source jCanvas project, you are more than welcome to do just that by going class="vt-p" href="https://github.com/caleb531/jcanvas">here. jCanvas is always being improved by the developer, and new releases are made available every few weeks.

Conclusion

jCanvas is a great web tool to use to make your programming experience much simpler, especially if you are a heavy user of the canvas element. Again, some of the highlight features are:

• Draw shapes, paths, images, and text.
• Style these using colors, gradients, patterns, and shadows.
• Manipulate the canvas (rotate, scale, etc).
• A huge range of options to suit your needs.

Internet users will thank you as well for using jCanvas, because you’ll have more time to completely develop your web app and make sure that it has all the functionality you want it to have while enjoying great performance.

Are you a web developer who is involved in HTML5? Do you think jCanvas will help you with your development? What features would you like to see in jCanvas? (please check the documentation first for what’s already implemented!).

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/intro11.png" alt="learn computer programming"/>For a lot of students, summer vacation has arrived and it’s an ideal time to stretch out and relax, or alternatively, catch up in your favorite hobbies and perfect your skills. With the advent and growth of YouTube and plenty of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-12-sites-watch-videos-youtube/">other high-quality video-sharing websites and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/teaching-fun-efficient-proprofs-educational-toolset/">tools like flashcard software, learning new things visually by yourself has never been easier. Even though YouTube is used regularly to share href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/my-top-ten-favourite-funniest-youtube-videos/">comedic href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-funny-youtube-video-channels-worth-keeping/">clips, it’s without a doubt, a rich pool of educational videos . You’ve seen many articles on our site listing some href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-amazing-youtube-channels-subscribe/">amazing YouTube channels to become more educated in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/educational-youtube-channels/">a variety of general topics, to href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-10-youtube-dance-lessons-learn-cool-dance-moves/">learn cool dance moves, even some channels for non-native speakers to href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/youtube-channels-learn-speak-english/">learn and perfect their English, and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-youtube-channels-linux-enthusiasts-follow/">dedicated channels for Linux enthusiasts that learn about Linux news and issues.

Since it never hurts to learn something new, especially a skill set like computer programming in different languages, we will go over some of the best channels that will introduce you to the world of programming. Let’s look at which channels made the cut.

href="http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston">thenewboston

href="http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston">thenewboston is a truly great channel with an immense collection of programming tutorials. The href="http://www.thenewboston.com/">official website contains a list of all the tutorials made so far, which are well into the thousands (about 1500 videos as of this writing). Not only does it have tutorials for various programming languages, but it also has videos on href="http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston#grid/user/C315B2A086BA6AAF">building computers, tutorials for software like Dreamweaver and After Effects, as well as 3D-modeling software. The website now also has plans to present tutorials for a variety of other topics, like Math and Biology. Since all these tutorials are free, thenewboston is probably the greatest source of video tutorials for people interested in beginning programming languages. Bucky, the instructor behind most of the videos, explains concepts like a peer, so his tutorials are definitely very easy to follow and catch up to.

To jump into thenewboston’s tutorials for different computer programming languages, check out:

• href="http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston#grid/user/FE2CE09D83EE3E28">Playlist For Java Tutorials (87 videos) & href="http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston#grid/user/27BCE863B6A864E3">Playlist For Intermediate Java Tutorials (27 videos)

So you can get a taste of thenewboston’s teaching style, here’s a video from this Java series where Bucky explains href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_(computer_science)">polymorphism: