Lee Mathews
The Pas, MB, Canada - http://
Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers
Mozilla Jetpack contest winner harnesses GPU power to process data
Mozilla Labs has announced a winner of the Jetpack .5 contest. While Jetpack is known primarily as a framework for allowing coders with a web development background to put together add-on type enhancements for Firefox, the winner 's project wasn't your run-of-the-mill sidebar hack.
Alex Miltsev's submission was jetpack-to-CUDA, and it provides Jetpack developers with a simple way to offload intense processing tasks to GPUs. CUDA (demo video above) is NVidia's parallel computing architecture - and with CUDA-capable chips in more than 100 million PCs, Miltsev's handiwork could enable some seriously cool (and powerful) Jetpack add-ons to be developed.
The runners up (not to take anything away from them) were much more standard Jetpack offerings - a Google Translate extension, link shortener and sharer, and Twitter client.
Kudos to Miltssev for his creative entry! Here's hoping we see some truly awesome things in future versions of Firefox and Jetpack as a result.
Alex Miltsev's submission was jetpack-to-CUDA, and it provides Jetpack developers with a simple way to offload intense processing tasks to GPUs. CUDA (demo video above) is NVidia's parallel computing architecture - and with CUDA-capable chips in more than 100 million PCs, Miltsev's handiwork could enable some seriously cool (and powerful) Jetpack add-ons to be developed.
The runners up (not to take anything away from them) were much more standard Jetpack offerings - a Google Translate extension, link shortener and sharer, and Twitter client.
Kudos to Miltssev for his creative entry! Here's hoping we see some truly awesome things in future versions of Firefox and Jetpack as a result.
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters
Number Ninjas is an addictive, equation-solving Time Waster
by Lee Mathews Nov 6th 2009
Everybody loves a good Time Waster. Everybody loves ninjas. And everyone loves solving mathematical equations, right? Number Ninjas is all this goodness rolled up into one slick little Flash game!
You play the number one, armed with a ninja's favorite projectiles: throwing stars. And by "stars" I mean +, -, /, and *. To complete a level, you've got to defeat enemy numerals using the correct operator to satisfy the equation in the bottom right corner.
Sure, nailing this eight with a + would do the trick, but who knows what other numbers lurk around the next corner? Perhaps there's a two waiting to pounce? Who knows how many other nasties this guy brought to the fight. Getting the correct mix may take you a few tries on some levels, but I didn't find the process frustrating.
If you want a good way to keep your brain limber for a few minutes, Number Ninjas is a good way to do it.
You play the number one, armed with a ninja's favorite projectiles: throwing stars. And by "stars" I mean +, -, /, and *. To complete a level, you've got to defeat enemy numerals using the correct operator to satisfy the equation in the bottom right corner.
Sure, nailing this eight with a + would do the trick, but who knows what other numbers lurk around the next corner? Perhaps there's a two waiting to pounce? Who knows how many other nasties this guy brought to the fight. Getting the correct mix may take you a few tries on some levels, but I didn't find the process frustrating.
If you want a good way to keep your brain limber for a few minutes, Number Ninjas is a good way to do it.
[via JayIsGames]
Filed under: Hardware, Windows, Google, Browsers
Game on, Microsoft: Google Chrome shipping as default browser on some PCs
by Lee Mathews Nov 6th 2009
The EC might be content with Microsoft's browser ballot screen, but that's not stopping Google from getting OEMs to turn away from Internet Explorer on their own.
Google already has deals with several OEMs to include their software, of course. They've been shipping Google Desktop on OEM pcs for quite some time now, and their plans to drop Google Chrome on new users have come to fruition as well.
As you can see, I unboxed a new Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 7 yesterday. Nestled amongst the other desktop icons was the tri-color Chrome orb.
Not only was Chrome pre-pinned to the Windows 7 taskbar, but a quick look at the internet options on the laptop revealed sad news for Internet Explorer: it had been bumped from default web browsing duties.
If we weren't already in the middle of an all-out browser war, the introduction of Google Chrome as the preinstalled default on Windows PCs could well set things off.
Filed under: News, Google, VoIP
Google Voice getting ready to go global?
In the case of the latter, however, it looks as though there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Business Week recently got a peek at a letter Google submitted to the FCC with regards to the blocking of certain rural and "red light district" phone numbers.
While the original letter included "formatting errors" and has since been replaced with a heavily redacted public version, BW's Arik Hesseldahl reports finding good news for those of you outside the US waiting for Google Voice.
Hesseldahl states that the letter reveals Google has working agreements with several "international service providers for inputs to Google Voice." At least the groundwork is in place, but there's no telling how long we'll have to wait. The letter goes on to say none of those services have launched as of yet.
So, how about it, Google? When does the rest world get to take Voice for a spin?
Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Open Source
Pick up where you left off before a reboot with Cache My Work
by Lee Mathews Nov 6th 2009
Cache My Work was created to tackle the task of restoring your windows following a restart. Launch the app and a list of your cacheable programs is displayed - you also have the option of re-opening all your open Explorer windows. Check off what you want restored, click save, and reboot.
Once Windows is up and running again, Cache My Work's preparations make your programs reappear. It's a simple but effective little app - all it really does is zap a few lines into your registry under the Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce key.
You'll still need to re-open your files -- except, of course, in apps like Firefox where you have the option to restore your previous session automatically.
While the project hasn't seen an update in just over a year, it still works nicely - even on WIndows 7 (both 32 and 64-bit builds).
Embed a (very) basic Twitter client in Google Chrome with the ChromedBird extension
Hot on the heels of my roundup of 15+ great extensions for Google Chrome, I've already found some more that deserve to be mentioned. First on the list: ChromedBird. You probably guessed from the name, but yes, it's a minimal Twitter client which you can access from Chrome's main toolbar. It hides inside a little birdie button until you want to check your stream or post an update. ChromedBird ...7 Taskbar Tweaker gives you more control over the Windows 7 superbar
by Lee Mathews Nov 5th 2009 {6 comments}
The Windows 7 superbar sports some very cool improvements over the old Windows taskbar. But suppose you want to customize your taskbar a bit. Say, for example, you find the close buttons just a bit too small to be practical. What then? Why not set your middle mouse button to close using 7 Taskbar Tweaker? By default, middle-clicking a superbar icon in Windows 7 opens a new instance of that ...Google's new Dashboard sure would tie in nicely to Android, Chrome OS
by Lee Mathews
Nov 5th 2009 {3 comments}
When a few blog sites yesterday happened upon Google's YouTube video of the new Dashboard, they moved quickly to pull it down. Though the original video is still MIA, Google made an official announcement of the new feature on their own blog last night and the video above is now ready for public consumption.
While Dashboard is now live -- you can check yours out at ...Customizing Chromium with Userscripts gets way easier in nightly build
You won't notice this change in Google Chrome just yet, even if you're running the developer channel. But if you happen to be one of the intrepid souls who routinely download and roll the dice on Chromium nightly builds, you've now got a much easier way to install Userscripts.
In past releases, you had to manually save Userscripts into your Chromium (or Chrome) Userdata\Default folder. Not any ...VHD Attach enables right-click mounting and dismounting of VHD files in Windows 7
by Lee Mathews Nov 3rd 2009 {4 comments}
One of Windows 7's slick new features is its handling of VHD (virtual hard disk) files. You can use them for a number of handy functions - from discreetly archiving files and folders to booting a full-fledged Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 install via your Windows 7 boot.ini.
But VHDs aren't as easy to work with out-of-the-box as they could be. To mount and unmount, you've got to ...
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
