One of my smallest apps that's also one of my favorites is Caffeine.


Caffeine lives in your menubar and by enabling it you prevent your mac from going to sleep. This is really useful when watching YouTube videos so you don't have to jostle your mouse every minute or so.

Has anyone found a better way to watch internet video without your Mac going to sleep? Leave your methods in the comments below.

Occasionally, I'll need something quick from a website that requires a login or insists on sending my data in the form of an email. I find it annoying to go through the process of registering my name, email, and address unless I know I'm going to use the service more than once. In the past, I used to just toss these sites the email address to a dummy Gmail account so that my real account doesn't get filled up with unwanted newsletters and spam. However, logging in and out of multiple accounts is a big pain; especially when that confirmation email doesn't come right away. There has to be a better way. Guess what? There is!

1. BugMeNot


Bugmenot is simple. You enter the URL for the website you want temporary access to and Bugmenot returns a list of user-submitted user names and passwords. Each login has a percentage next to it that shows the probability of its success so you can easily see which logins have been shut down by the administrator. Even better, BugMeNot has a Firefox add-on that makes the process that much more seamless.

2. Anonymous Email Boxes


This service allows you to make a temporary address @makemetheking.com and check it instantly with no password or login. That's it! Just give the annoying website your dummy address and wait for the email to show up. Nice!

Perusing the front page of the New York Times website for news is so 2008. Instead, check out the prototype New York Times Article Skimmer.


This web app lets you easily browse the sections, blogs, and topics of the newspaper using your keyboard or mouse. You can alter the way that headlines are presented by selecting the different schemes in the settings. The interface is slick and the overall experience is effortless.

All things considered, this is an intriguing experiment by the Times. It will be interesting to see if this method of delivering digital content sticks as the industry struggles to reinvent itself. What do you think? Does this kind of interface represent the future of news websites? Leave your comments below.

The icons for the Mac version of MS Office Suite are really dull. Aakash Soneri has a great set of replacement icons that capture the feel of the OS X dock much better.


Ahhhh... Isn't that refreshing?

Have you found any 3rd party icons for your favorite applications that look better than the originals? Post your best finds in the comments below.

This next one goes out to all my MA/PhD students in the house. Papers pretty much amazing. It's your one-stop-shop for downloading and organizing PDF academic papers. If you are familiar with the iTunes interface (and who isn't?), Papers will feel very natural to you.


Papers gives you the ability to group your articles into different "collections," which are essentially the same as playlists in iTunes. I find it very useful to set up collections for each class and sub-collections for each week of assigned reading. It almost makes 30 hours of journal reading per week fun!

Papers is free for 30 days and $25 with a student rebate.

Okay, I admit it, I have a problem. Whenever I'm working on an important paper, I feel compelled to check up on my library of internet distractions about once every two sentences.

Clearly, I need help.

Well, luckily help has arrived in the form of the free OS X app SelfControl. The app works by allowing you to block the websites that distract you the most for an amount of time you specify. The block won't even break if you reboot your machine. (I've *ahem* tested this feature.)


What I like most about this app over other programs like Freedom, is that it allows you to block specific websites like Facebook, Twitter, and ESPN instead of just blocking the internet outright. That way, I can still look something up on Wikipedia or use my AirTunes speakers.

Unfortunately, the icon is a little ugly, but you can do as I've done and replace it with a Jolly Roger flag from this PixelPress Icons set.

Does using SelfControl mean that you have self control? Probably the opposite, but it's a good way to keep yourself focused on your tasks.

(via Lifehacker)

Ever have a song in your music library that was better than "good" but not quite "great?" Now you can tweak your iTunes to give it the 3½ star rating that it deserves.

It's easy!

Step 1. Quit iTunes.
Step 2. Open up Terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal).
Step 3. Paste the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

Step 4. Hit enter.
Step 5. Open up iTunes and you now have the ability to drag the rating to the spaces in between the normal stars.

I haven't tried this on a PC, but it's apparently possible there as well. Follow the source link below for a guide and leave your comments below if you get it to work.

(via Instructables)