Limewire is one of the oldest filesharing programs around, and it's by far the most popular. The Limewire development team continues to work hard on version 5, which promises to bring some very big changes to the application. After taking a look at Wired's write up of the Alpha version, I decided to download it and see what all the fuss was about.
Remember, the gallery images and download I'm linking to are pre-beta. If you're not an early adopter or interested in testing potentially buggy software, don't download this version.
You received this email because you are subscribed to the real_time feed for http://www.downloadsquad.com/rss.xml. To change your subscription settings, please log into RSSFWD.
As productivity thinker Merlin Mann recently wrote, getting better at photography can be a long-haul test of willpower and humility. It doesn't have to be expensive, though.
Whether you're rocking a digital single-lens reflex model or a reliable point-and-shoot, there are a lot of different shots and gear you can experiment with, and important lessons to learn, that cost less than $40, if anything. Read on for our roundup of ten cheap or free DIY projects and lessons for aspiring photographers. Photo by Marcin Wichary.
10. Use your scanner for closeup photos.
The blog we pulled this tip from has ceased to be, but the tip holds true—lots of item listing pictures on eBay and Craigslist, frankly, stink. If you've got a smallish object to be captured in straightforward style, and you've got a flatbed scanner clunking around, it's a lot more convenient than setting up a blank background, keeping shadows and glare off the angles, trying to get your digicam to focus closer-up, and so on. Just set, scan, and upload.
9. Make a remote camera trigger.
It can be really helpful to take pictures without having to be right up on your camera—especially if you're supposed to be part of the shot, or you can't get your own shadow out of the picture. There are plenty of remote triggers available for both higher-end DSLR models and standard consumer cameras, but our favorite versions are cheaper and have better range. One Instructables hacker showed us how to build a trigger out of a $3 hands-free phone kit, while those looking for a DIY project that mechanically presses the button for you can check out Wiley publishing's free PDF for true shoot-anywhere freedom.
8. Sling your camera with a fast-action R-Strap.
The commercial version of the R-Strap goes for about $44 and hooks into a DSLR's tripod socket, and lets your camera slide up and around your hip to your hands with little friction. As you might imagine, DIYers across the net latched onto this idea and found their own reasons to break out their creativity. Two differentprojects let you use your own favorite shoulder-slung strap, such as from a favorite bag or guitar, and neither requires more than a few dollars of gear or much tinkering. Check out the original creator's video demonstration for a look at how the R-Strap works.
7. Get a Gorillapod (or make it yourself).
If you're willing to lug around a full-sized tripod wherever you might possibly spot a really great picture that requires steady hands, go ahead and skip this item. For those of us like to roll a bit looser, the Gorillapod, a flexible, attach-anywhere tripod for consumer and DSLR digital cameras, makes for a addition to a glove compartment/back pocket/satchel. If the $20 price tag (or $40 for the DSLR) doesn't ring true, we've previously offered up at least two DIYversions that get the same basic job done.
6. Take underwater photos with a DIY enclosure.
If you've ever seen a nature special on deep-sea creatures, or shopped for custom enclosures for your camera, you can appreciate the cost and logistics of getting an underwater shot or video. For the simpler stuff you want to grab in the pool or the shallow end of the lake, though, you can certainly seal your camera without a federal research grant. We've highlighted DIY enclosures in three distinct flavors—the two-condom "Navy SEAL" wrap, recommended for your cheaper digicam; a leak-alerting plastic bag enclosure, and a military ammo box casing that's a bit more secure, but requires an auto-shooting still or video camera.
5. Take wider-angle shots by creating mini-panoramas.
Panoramas aren't just for gigantic, wall-sized Grand Canyon shots or cheesy "virtual" apartment tours. For those sporting a standard digital camera that doesn't have much scope to its shots, free software panorama tools can help you capture great vistas (the scenic kind, not the much-maligned-OS kind) and improve shots that might have some unfortunate objects or lighting problems. We previously detailed how to stitch photos into panormas with the free, open-source tool Hugin, which I prefer for its fine-grain controls. Windows users can also check out the much simpler AutoStitch.
4. Get started with time-lapse photography.
Photography site Photojojo has a tried and tested ultimate guide to time-lapse photography, and the results speak for themselves. The video below shows what you can do when you put a camera in the right place and have it go off at the right times, often without you having to do much than check the batteries once in awhile. And it's a great way to document the more active moments of your life, as Adam did by time-lapsing his birthday party.
3. Super-charge your Canon camera's firmware.
We've already extolled the virtues of the Canon Hacker's Development Kit a few times recently, and provided a tour of its features and installation, so we'll just point out here that, in addition to giving you way more control and information about your shots, and giving you the ability to automate time-lapse shooting and shoot in RAW files, the CHDK exists and runs only from your camera's memory card. In other words, you can mess with it all you want, and not worry about messing up your basic firmware. Truly a license to tweak your camera, and see how far your imagination can stretch.
2. Master your DSLR Camera with two tutorials.
It's easy to think that once you've dropped the plastic on a professional (or pro-am), exchangeable-lens digital camera, your shots will automatically be worthy of Flickr's front page. And to some extent, you do have a better sensor and glass pointed at your subjects—but there's a lot more to great photos than hardware. Learn to let go of "auto" mode and get schooled about lighting, flash use, and much more with photographer Scott D. Feldstein's two-part DSLR guide for Lifehacker readers. Part one takes you through the basics of flash use, ISO modes and white balance. Part two gets all photo lab on you, opening your eyes to shutter speeds, apertures, and explaning how all those settings fit together into great shots.
1. Make your own macro kit.
If you've ever felt your mouth water over super-closeup food shots, or your eyes pop open at ridiculously closeup shots of common surfaces, you need to get yourself into macro photography. Like most camera gear, a serious macro set isn't cheap to come by, but you can get started with some seriously cheap setups. One British DIYer came up with a Pringles can macro tube that's easy to fit into any DSLR (after washing out, of course). While it's not the most professional-looking attachment, you can paint it black or cover with cloth for the aesthete inside you. As for the stuff you're actually shooting, your spotty kitchen table won't do. Grab less than $10 worth of cardboard, paper, and other gear, take an hour, and set up a macro photo studio that makes your subjects really stand out.
What homespun gear or cheaper alternatives have you taken up in your own photography? What do you wish you could do for far less than the apparent sticker price? Share it all in the comments.
FlatPanelsDK, a Danish monitor company, has a set of free tools available on their site. Available both as portable downloads and web based tools you'll have your monitor tweaked in no time flat.
The online version of the test can run in full screen mode up to 1280x1024 resolution, for higher resolutions you should download the stand alone executable which can maximize to the full size of your monitor. The test allows you to examine the color ranges, gradients, trailing, and homogeneity of your monitor. Additionally there is a pixelmapping and text contrast tool. One thing to keep in mind to avoid a moment of enormous frustration: the tool bar auto-hides right from the start and the only way to coax it out is to put the mouse right up at the top of the test window, there are no keyboard shortcuts or indication that you need to hunt for a menu.
Complimenting the monitor calibration tool is an input lag test. Essentially a giant timer, you set your monitors in clone mode so every monitor is displaying the same thing. Start the timer and take a photo of your monitor spread— remember to turn your flash off— and then compare the numbers on each monitor. The difference in the values is the input lag between the displays. Both the screen test and the input lag test are available online in HTML or Flash and as a stand alone executable. For other screen calibration tools, check out Calibrize and Screen Check.
If you've already got a Facebook account, you can log into Lifehacker without setting up a whole 'nother username and password. We've hooked up Facebook Connect to make commenting here easier for newbs.
To log into Lifehacker using your Facebook account, click on any post to add a comment. Then, click on the Facebook Connect option and log in using your Facebook username and password. We'll automatically suck in your Facebook profile picture (and put a little blue "F" on it so others know you're from Facebook), and you can comment away on the post at hand.
Of course, we only like comments that are helpful, and informative. We hate comments that are useless ("First!"), self-promotional, or obnoxious. If we're not impressed with your contributions here, we can ban you from commenting. Here's more on how to (not) get banned from commenting. That all said—welcome, new Facebook users!
In case you were too busy actually getting things done this week instead of reading Lifehacker, have a recap of our most popular posts of the week.
Most Popular Desktops of 2008 "Over the past year, we've featured gobs of great desktops submitted by our readers to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell group on Flickr."
Top 10 Things You Forgot Gmail Can Do "When friends push friends onto Gmail, it usually involves talking up the seemingly limitless storage space, the fast-moving interface, or its inter-connectedness with other Google applications, like Calendar."
Five Best Media Center Applications "The past ten years have completely changed the way we listen to music, watch movies and television, and take photos, and one thing is abundantly clear: The future of your media lies undeniably in the digital realm."
The Savvy Shopper's Guide to This Year's Online Deal Finders "With all the belt-tightening going on in this economy, it's no surprise that coupon codes and deal finders—especially for online shoppers—are the hottest tools on the web right now."
Google Reader Absolutely Compact Gets More On-Screen "Firefox with Greasemonkey or Stylish: Google Reader's recent redesign did streamline its interface, but ever-resourceful reader Dustin wants to maximize the feed reading area even more with his new "Absolutely Compact" user style."
Battle of the Hardware-Boosting Hacks "When like-minded hackers come together to unleash the true power of seemingly simple gear, it's truly a beautiful thing. We've featured a good number of how-tos and hacks over the years that make expensive upgrades unnecessary and unleash seriously cool features in your gear, and 2008 was no exception."
The Most Popular Linux Posts of 2008 "Today we're looking back at the Linux-related posts that got the most attention in 2008, so read on to see what you might have missed, and what the open-source crowd is down with."
Gmail Labs' New Task Manager Can Add Email to Your To-Do List "For years now, the gaping hole in Google's online suite of applications has been a to-do list manager, but not anymore: today Gmail Labs adds a lightweight Tasks module to your email account."
How to Raise Your Rent One Glass at a Time "Back in the bust years I found that spreading goodwill and getting people together was the perfect emollient to era's hard times. I'm talking about throwing a "Rent Party.""
Time to take out your camera: tonight's full moon in the Northern Hemisphere will be the biggest it's been in 15 years.
Between dodging werewolves and surfing big tides, if you're under a clear sky tonight you may be able to snag some good pictures. Here are a few guides to shooting the moon that might help:
Next time you receive a PDF file attachment in Gmail, hit the View link next to it. Instead of the hardly-ever-looked-good HTML view, you'll get Google Docs' full-on PDF viewer right in your browser, with thumbnails for navigating the PDF's multiple page the way your desktop PDF viewer works. Here's what it looks like:
YouTube revives its video-clip-to-holiday-e-card service today. Pick any video—or record your own—and add a background and message and email it to 25 of your close friends at this YouTube page (sign-in required).
You received this email because you are subscribed to the real_time feed for http://feeds.gawker.com/lifehacker/full. To change your subscription settings, please log into RSSFWD.
As productivity thinker Merlin Mann 
The blog we pulled this tip from has ceased to be, but the tip holds true—lots of item listing pictures on eBay and Craigslist, frankly, stink. If you've got a smallish object to be captured in straightforward style, and you've got a flatbed scanner clunking around, it's a lot more convenient than setting up a blank background, keeping shadows and glare off the angles, trying to get your digicam to focus closer-up, and so on. Just set, scan, and upload.
It can be really helpful to take pictures without having to be right up on your camera—especially if you're supposed to be part of the shot, or you can't get your own shadow out of the picture. There are plenty of remote triggers available for both higher-end DSLR models and standard consumer cameras, but our favorite versions are cheaper and have better range. One Instructables hacker showed us how to 
The commercial version of the 
If you're willing to lug around a full-sized tripod wherever you might possibly spot a really great picture that requires steady hands, go ahead and skip this item. For those of us like to roll a bit looser, the 
If you've ever seen a nature special on deep-sea creatures, or shopped for custom enclosures for your camera, you can appreciate the cost and logistics of getting an underwater shot or video. For the simpler stuff you want to grab in the pool or the shallow end of the lake, though, you can certainly seal your camera without a federal research grant. We've highlighted DIY enclosures in three distinct flavors—the two-condom "Navy SEAL" wrap, recommended for your cheaper digicam; a 
Panoramas aren't just for gigantic, wall-sized Grand Canyon shots or cheesy "virtual" apartment tours. For those sporting a standard digital camera that doesn't have much scope to its shots, free software panorama tools can help you capture great vistas (the scenic kind, not the much-maligned-OS kind) and improve shots that might have some unfortunate objects or lighting problems. We previously detailed how to 
We've already extolled the virtues of the 
It's easy to think that once you've dropped the plastic on a professional (or pro-am), exchangeable-lens digital camera, your shots will automatically be worthy of Flickr's front page. And to some extent, you do have a better sensor and glass pointed at your subjects—but there's a lot more to great photos than hardware. Learn to let go of "auto" mode and get schooled about lighting, flash use, and much more with photographer Scott D. Feldstein's two-part DSLR guide for Lifehacker readers. 
If you've ever felt your mouth water over super-closeup food shots, or your eyes pop open at ridiculously closeup shots of common surfaces, you need to get yourself into macro photography. Like most camera gear, a serious macro set isn't cheap to come by, but you can get started with some seriously cheap setups. One British DIYer came up with a 
Fast Company publishes the 
The online version of the test can run in full screen mode up to 1280x1024 resolution, for higher resolutions you should download the stand alone executable which can maximize to the full size of your monitor. The test allows you to examine the color ranges, gradients, trailing, and homogeneity of your monitor. Additionally there is a pixelmapping and text contrast tool. One thing to keep in mind to avoid a moment of enormous frustration: the tool bar auto-hides right from the start and the only way to coax it out is to put the mouse right up at the top of the test window, there are no keyboard shortcuts or indication that you need to hunt for a menu.
Complimenting the monitor calibration tool is an input lag test. Essentially a giant timer, you set your monitors in clone mode so every monitor is displaying the same thing. Start the timer and take a photo of your monitor spread— remember to turn your flash off— and then compare the numbers on each monitor. The difference in the values is the input lag between the displays. Both the screen test and the input lag test are available online in HTML or Flash and as a stand alone executable. For other screen calibration tools, check out 
If you've already got a Facebook account, you can log into Lifehacker without setting up a whole 'nother username and password. We've hooked up Facebook Connect to make commenting here easier for newbs.
Time to take out your camera: tonight's full moon in the Northern Hemisphere will be the biggest it's been in 15 years.
