The Apple iPad is one of the coolest devices that I have ever owned. From the look and feel, to the performance I love almost everything about it. I say “almost everything” because there is one annoying issue that I have. When I watch a movie on my iPad, the sound volume can be a little low, even when turned all the way up. This is due in part to the placement of the iPad’s one and only speaker. When you have the iPad in landscape mode, all of the sound is shooting out to the right or left instead of straight at you.

I noticed however that when I would hold the iPad certain ways I could here it better than others. This got me to thinking why this might be. Then a really simple idea came to me. Why not create something that would redirect the sound to the front of the iPad. That’s when the idea for the ibcAMP (iPad business card amp) came to me.

I tried several variations before I got it right. But the finished product works really well in my opinion.

Materials/Tools:
Scissors
Scotch tape
3 business cards (3.5″ x 2″)
iPad

Instructions:
1) Using the pattern below, cut the two sides of the amp out of 2 of the business cards.

2) Once you have the 2 sides cut out, lay out all 3 cards like this:

3) Next, tape the 3 cards together and curl the middle card up like this:

4) Then tape the 2 sides to the middle card like this:

5) Next, cut out the notches in the 2 sides of the amp:

6) Then slip the finished amp over the bottom of the iPad (over the speaker):

7) And attach to the back of the iPad with a piece of tape:

Sit back and enjoy!

Download instructions.

ibcAMP by Brandon Maddox is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

stay tuned…

|> brandon

If you try think of a company who is known for this level of performance the first one that comes to mind might not be Microsoft. But in spite of all of their mishaps (i.e. BSOD, ME, BOB) they did manage to get a few things right. The only Microsoft programs that are worth having, in my opinion, are paint, excel, and the original media player.

If you’ve been keeping up to date with Microsoft’s media player you are well aware that with each new release it becomes more bloated. Some time back I became frustrated with the amount of system resources that were being used to play a simple mp3 file. So I began to search for something that could replace Windows media player and give me the same, or better, functionality with a smaller resource use footprint. I found Media Player Classic, or more specifically the Klite codec pack which includes MPC.

I’ll not go into all of the details of what this little program can do (very long list) but let me just summarize its features by saying that it will play just about any audio or video format without hardly making a dent in your system memory. This is a very useful program that I would suggest everyone trying. You can find it here. Let me know what you think!

|> brandon

|> brandon

Download

|> brandon

em {tab}

Note: Don’t spell out tab, just hit the tab key after you type em.

Congratulations you’ve just set up your first Texter shortcut!

This is only a small part of what Texter will do, you can also setup scripts to enter multiple lines of data and much more.

Download here.

If you have any questions you can email me, or you can go to the author’s post about Texter and get some good info there.

|> brandon

There are basically two methods for accomplishing this task. The first one is to manually go in to the registry and clean out by hand. I don’t recommend doing this. If you’re not sure about what your doing you can really mess things up. The second method is to use a program to clean the registry for you. There are a ton of available programs that will clean the registry, some with better results than others. I have found that CCleaner does the best job, with the least amount of hassle.

CCleaner is very easy to use. All you do is open the program, click on a few buttons and your done. CCleaner will also clean out your temp files as well, which can also slow down your system over time. Once you open the program you will have several options to choose from on the left side: Cleaner, Issues, Tools, Options.

The Cleaner will clean out your temp files, just click on “Run Cleaner” in the bottom right corner. Issues will scan your registry, show you what it found, and then let you choose to clean it up. Click on “Scan for Issues” and then “Fix Selected Issues”. After you click on “Fix Selected Issues” the program will ask if you want to back anything up, there is no need to do this. I have been using this program for a long time now, and I’ve never had a problem.

I recommend cleaning out temp files and the registry at least once a month, more if you have time. By doing this, you will save yourself the frustration of working with a slow system. Download CCleaner here. The download link is at the top right of the page. Happy cleaning!

|> brandon

|> brandon

Download

Also, before I forget…the writer lists a few keyboard/mouse commands on his sire that are very helpful when using vjpeg. I have reposted them here:

Left click-drag: resize, move
Right click: close the active picture
double-click: go 1:1 or fit on screen, whichever is smaller
Escape: close the active picture
Ctrl-Alt-Q: close all pictures!

e: email the original file
E: email the bits on the screen (good if you open a big file and want to compress it.)
a: auto-levels
-> / r: rotate right
<- / R: rotate left

“Windows Media/Quicktime” commands:
ctrl-1 / alt-1: 50%
ctrl-2 / alt-2: 100%
ctrl-3 / alt-3: 200%
alt-enter: fullscreen (kinda)

“Photoshop” commands:
ctrl-alt-0: 100%
ctrl +: next bigger size
ctrl -: next smaller size

|> brandon

Download

|> brandon

Windows
Linux