Write or Die Makes Sure You Keep Churning Out Words [Writing]
Sometimes you need to stop yourself from over-thinking your long-term ideas, pondering a better topic or angle, and just throw down and write something. Write or Die, a clever webapp from Jeff Printy, gives you both a stripped-down web space to write your text in and a bit of negative reinforcement if you let your mind, or your fingers, wander too far from the task at hand. Set a word count and time you want to write for. Then, set how you want the app to "remind" you if you stop writing—"Gentle" pops up a text box, "Normal" plays a harsh sound file, and "Kamikaze" mode slowly deletes back from your stopping point until you get back to it. Can't tell if "Electric Shock" is a joke or a feature in development. A bonus feature of Write or Die is that once you close the writing window, it asks to copy all your text to your clipboard—a serious salvation if you're the type to accidentally close browser windows. No sign-up required.
AlwaysVPN Takes U.S.-Only Sites International [Featured Download]
Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): AlwaysVPN, a free virtual private networking service, is promoted as a safer way for anyone to browse the web or trading files over a public net connection. It works for that purpose, sure, but it also lets anyone on the disappointing side of a U.S.-only service like Hulu, Pandora, or Fancast get around that often arbitrary restriction. We've previously featured a similar service, Hotspot Shield, but AlwaysVPN has the edge in not installing any toolbars (although it does put ads across the top of your browser), working on all three major platforms, and, well, being a go-to VPN proxy if Hotspot is only trickling in. Installation and startup are a simple right-click affair in Windows, while OS X users will have to configure a third-party VPN client, and Linux users compile from source. AlwaysVPN is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems. International readers, what's your favorite work-around VPN or proxy solution for U.S.-only sites? Tell us in the comments.
Project Euler Exercises Your Mind with Mathematical Problems [Weekend Fun]
Exercise your mind with the challenging problem sets at Project Euler. Designed to provide a fun way to introduce new concepts , the frequently asked questions section of Project Euler has this to say about the nature of the project:
Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems.
The site is based around the concept of inductive learning, wherein as you solve the presented problems you gain mastery over concepts that can be used to solve other problems including ones you may have thought too difficult to solve. To help get you started the problems are ranked by the number of people who have solved them, the more difficult the problem the less people who have successfully solved it. Project Euler is a free educational resource. Thanks Jim! Photo by CarbonNYC.
TeamPlayer Enables Multiple Input Devices [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: TeamPlayer allows you to use multiple mice and keyboards on a Windows based system. Under normal circumstances you can plug multiple USB mice in, but moving the two simultaneously will result in Windows struggling to decide which input to use for the single cursor on the screen. TeamPlayer is designed for a group environment where multiple people will be interacting with the same computer. Each mouse is assigned a unique colored cursor to identify it. When testing on my system my primary PS/2 mouse was assigned red, and the secondary USB mouse was assigned blue. There are two small caveats with Teamplayer:
It appears to handle the problem of multiple mice by shifting the focus to the "real" windows cursor for actual actions. For example if you attempt to close two windows simultaneously with two mice you can see how TeamPlayer activates and inactivates the cursors as the command is executed. Under normal circumstances it shouldn't present much of an issue. The other issue that popped up: on my triple monitor setup TeamPlayer locked the cursors to the middle and right monitor, leaving the left one out in the cold. This should present even less of an issue, given that in most situations TeamPlayer will be used by multiple users it will be with a larger monitor or a projector. If you need to control multiple computers with a single mouse and keyboard as inputs, check out Adam's excellent Synergy tutorial. TeamPlayer is Windows only, free for non-commercial and personal use, commercial licenses start at $196 for three users. Thanks Jason!
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