Simon Bourne

Articles and Opinions

Presented are my various opinions and worthy notes of interest; from academic projects, product reviews and fun things.

Academic

Final Year Project

My MEng. Systems Engineering - Final year project

AUV Student Project

An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle as a Student Project

Fun Stuff

Jokes

Jokes for the bar

Joke Headlines

True Tabloid Headlines

Riddles

Things to test your mind

Fictional Books

State of Fear

Michael Crichton

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown

PC Games

Battlefield 2

First Person Shooter

Civilization IV

Turned based Strategy

Heroes V

Turned based Strategy

Recommendations

Windows Applications

Essential utilities for your PC.

Life Tips

Lifehacker

CrazyLittleFingers Rewards Your Toddler's Curiosity [Featured Windows Download]  - CrazyLittleFingers is a keyboard locking application. Unlike some of the previous keyboard lockers we've covered, CrazyLittleFingers corresponds the keystroke to a picture and sound related to the... Exhaustive List of Free Microsoft Downloads [Windows]  - Tech evangelist and Microsoft consultant Blake Handler hosts an impressively completist list of free Windows programs offered by Microsoft, dug from the trenches of Del.icio.us tags. It's a handy... iTunes to Drop Most Copy Protection, Vary Prices [ITunes Music Store]  - The good news: CNET has sources saying the three largest music labels will allow Apple to offer music downloads free of copy-protection. And the bad news might not be that bad. In exchange for the... Install-It Creates Auto-Starting Installer CDs for Any Applications [Featured Windows Download]  - Windows only: Free app Install-It puts a small auto-starting application on any removable drive that makes installing applications a double-click affair. After downloading the Install-It package,... Why Your Self-Handicapping Excuses Don't Work (And How to Fix Them) [Performance]  - The New York Times takes a revealing look at self-handicapping excuses—like "I barely slept the night before the test"—and why we create them, as well as the extremely unlikely chance... Flickr Gallery Plus Tweaks Flickr for Better Galleries [Featured Download]  - Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The Flickr Gallery Plus Firefox extension or Greasemonkey script make browsing galleries faster and easier in Flickr. Once installed and set up, Flickr Gallery Plus... Picasa for Mac Beta Released, First Look [Featured Mac Download]  - Google has officially released their popular photo management application Picasa for Macs, after years of offering Picasa as a free Windows download. It's an exciting announcement for anyone who's... Ask MetaFilter Roundup [Hive Mind]  - Are there any free services where I can store my passwords online? Is this a good idea?Any suggestions for a cheaper alternative to my current internet provider?Is there a program that will display... Craigsphone Brings a Better Craigslist to Your iPhone [Featured IPhone Download]  - iPhone/iPod touch only: Free application Craigsphone puts the popular online classifieds site Craigslist on your iPhone, complete with click-to-call, history, and mobile posting. At first blush it... Tabhunter Adds Faster Tab Switching to Firefox [Featured Firefox Extension]  - Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The Tabhunter Firefox extension adds quick keyboard-based tab switching to Firefox—sort of like Launchy for Firefox tabs. Just invoke Tabhunter, start typing,... Coke Can Clean Your Toilet in a Pinch [Clever Uses]  - When your toilet's got rings and lime scale stains and you've got no cleaning gear on hand, grab a can of Coke out of the fridge. According to wikiHow, you can pour Coke into a dirty toilet and the... Disable Startup Stops Unwanted Apps from Creating Startup Entries [Featured Windows Download]  - Windows only: Free application Disable Startup keeps just any old app from adding itself to your list of startup applications, keeping your boot time snappy and RAM happy. At its core, Disable... Download and Print the 2009 Compact Calendar [Printables]  - So you're back at work after the holidays and planning out your big projects of the year—time to print out Dave Seah's excellent compact calendar for 2009. This good-looking and useful... "Downloading Is Wrong" Trojan Blocks Access to BitTorrent Sites [BitTorrent]  - BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak reports on a new piece of malware with a strange bent: If it infects your computer, this trojan will prevent you from accessing popular BitTorrent sites The Pirate Bay... Changing of the Guard [Announcements]  - It's a new year and we've got some new changes happening around here: Mr. Adam Pash will take over as lead editor of Lifehacker on January 16th. After a wild and woolly four years at the helm, I'm... Soonr Syncs Files from Desktops to iPhones [Featured IPhone Download]  - iPhone/iPod touch only: Free online sharing service Soonr has launched an iPhone/desktop app combo that gives you 500MB of space to keep your Windows or Mac documents synced to your device. After... AntennaWeb Finds the Best Outdoor Antenna for Your House [TV]  - If the upcoming switch to HD digital broadcasting has you considering dropping cable for the free stuff, the AntennaWeb site can help find the receiver that will net the most channels at your... Porta'Menu Launches Programs from your USB Drive [Featured Windows Download]  - Windows only: Porta'Menu is a tiny (175k!) application launcher for your portable drives. It is extremely spartan, but effective. Add your applications, it remember the relative path and from there... Open Office Documents from Gmail Without Google Docs [Gmail Tip]  - A simple URL edit can open attached Office docs from Gmail in a sleek viewer, rather than the sometimes funky HTML option. The Google Operating System blog points out that Google's... Super Ubuntu Rolls Multimedia and Helpful Extras into Ubuntu [Featured Download]  - Most anyone using Ubuntu Linux has to install Adobe Flash, Java, DVD playback, and other plug-ins to actually enjoy it. Super Ubuntu packs all that essential in from the get-go. It's basically just... AeroPeek Puts Windows 7's Desktop Showing into XP/Vista [Featured Windows Download]  - Windows only: A small background app can give XP and Vista users part of the functionality of "Aero Peek," a smart way of previewing windows and showing the desktop in Windows 7. Unfortunately, that... Check if Your Carrier Will Support an Unlocked iPhone 3G [IPhone]  - Wondering if your cell carrier can support your jailbroken iPhone 3G after unlocking it? PC World rounds up a great collection of unlocking tips, and points to a extensive list of carrier results. Take Accurate Photos with the White Balance Lens Cap [Stuff We Like]  - The White Balance Lens Cap is a replacement for your standard plastic lens cap with the added benefit of helping you easily set a custom white balance. The center of the cap has a white plastic... VortexBox Turns Your Old Computer into a Music Server [Media Server]  - VortexBox is an open-source CD ripping and media server solution. Based on Fedora 10, VortexBox is capable of streaming in multiple formats allowing you to hear your music on your other computers,... MyOpenBar Finds You Free Drinks [Free]  - MyOpenBar is a web site that catalogs where you can drink for free in major cities across the United States. Drink on the alcohol companies dime! Alcohol companies and bars list promotions on... WindowsPager Manages Multiple Virtual Desktops [Windows Featured Download]  - Windows only: WindowsPager is a free and light-weight application for managing virtual desktops. The application is just over 300k and uses around 5MB of system memory. Windows Pager requires no... Ask the Commenters Roundup [Hive Mind]  - What are some good high-end headphones for a cheapskate?Any tips for dual booting Windows 7 and Windows Vista?I have a Windows 98 CD and a Windows XP Upgrade Disc, can I use them to install XP on a... Productivity Meter Tracks Your Computer Usage [Featured Windows Download]  - Windows only: Productivity Meter is a time tracking tool from Fruitful Time, makers of the task manager we reviewed earlier this year. Once installed the software sits in the background and keeps... Kallow Helps Your Non-Geek Relatives Select Electronics [Shopping]  - Kallow is a web-based consumer suggestion service. Think of Kallow as a simplified Consumer Reports. They take enormous tasks like shopping for a new HDTV and reduce it down to the best value. From... Make Magazine Debuts Their Own TV Show [Television]  - If you're a fan of Make magazine and their DIY-ethos, you won't want to miss the premiere of Make Television. Available both online in HD and on a large number of public stations across America. ... JPG Magazine Archives Available for Free [Photography]  - JPG Magazine, suffering in the current economic state, is boarding up the doors January 5th. Until then, they have all their back issues available for free. The quality of the publication is... YackTrack Keeps an Eye on Comments [Tracking]  - YackTrack is a comment tracking service. If you've ever wondered who is talking about a blog post or news article you can enter the URL and see who is talking about it and where. YackTrack... Make Your Own SAD Light Box [DIY]  - Boris wanted to build a light box for his sister, who suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder, a disorder brought on by lack of exposure to bright light in darker winter climates. My sister... Create Custom Planner Templates with Dynamic Templates [Templates]  - If you're a big fan of the templates at D*I*Y Planner, and we certainly are, you'll be thrilled to know they have released a cross-platform program for generating your own templates. The... Hard Lessons in the Importance of Backups: JournalSpace Wiped Out [Backup]  - Blogging service JournalSpace has been completely wiped out after the drives that housed their entire database were overwritten. The problem was that their backups weren't actually backups at all.... Learn about Different Screw Types [Tools]  - There is an entire world beyond slotted and Phillips head screws. Learn your screw types and a whole lot more about the history of screws. For each screw drive type, from ancient Slot through to... Increase Productivity with the 3 Open Project Method [Time Management]  - Glen over at the self improvement blog LifeDev has an interesting way of dealing with distraction and remaining productive. He works through projects in parallel, so that when he's distracted it's by... DivFix++ Repairs Your AVI Files [Featured Download]  - DivFix++ is a cross-platform .AVI repair program that rebuilds the index file within the .AVI container to restore your movie to a functional state. DivFix++ can be downloaded pre-compiled for... In Defense of Buying Books [Books]  - We're big fans of public libraries here at Lifehacker and frequently share tips on how to get cheap books. Ann Zurkle logs the argument at financial blog Get Rich Slowly that buying books is OK. ... Build a Hackintosh for under $240 [Hackintosh]  - Industrious tinkers at eclectic technology blog UselessNinjas have put together a guide to building a sub-$240 computer to run Mac OS X. Last year Adam showed you how to build your own Hackintosh,...

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