Google Buzz Tips and Tricks

Google Buzz Tips and Tricks: "

Reactions to Google’s new social networking tool, Buzz, appear to be divided between those who think it will topple Facebook and those who have already discounted it.

If you still haven’t made up your mind yet about Buzz, here are some useful tips for customizing and automating the service so that it can work with your other social networks. We’ll also look at some ways to share messages and links via Buzz with specific groups, which could make it a useful tool for the workplace.

The Importance of Your Google Profile

Even though Google Buzz works inside your Gmail account, your Google Profile also plays a role in managing the information you share on Buzz. What’s that? You didn’t know you had a Google Profile? Well, if you use any kind of Google account then chances are that you already have one.

To see if you do and what it looks like, go to the Google Profile page and click the “View Profile” button to log in. If you already have a profile, then you can customize it via the “Edit Profile” option. You can add many of your other social networks and RSS feeds. Notice the “Buzz” tab. Also, you can actually edit the URL for your Google Profile and create a vanity URL; mine is http://www.google.com/profiles/ThePaisano. Just bear in mind that you can only do this one time. Simon provided some more information on Google Profile here.

Sharing Stuff with Google Reader

If you use Google Reader then whatever you share there shows up in your Google Buzz stream. It’s all done via the  ”Shared items” feature. Look for it under “Your stuff” in Google Reader.

You can share anything you’re viewing in Google Reader by clicking the “Share” button at the bottom of every post you’re reading. (Click “Unshare” to stop sharing it)

You can set privacy controls and only allow specified groups of people to view the items you share. This could be important for those of you that are using Buzz for work.

1. Go to Google Reader


2. Click on “Shared items”


3. Click on “Sharing Settings”


4. Change the setting for “Your shared items can be viewed by” to: “Protected (Shared with Selected Groups)”

You can manage your groups via Gmail’s Contacts. Note that selecting the “Public” option means just that: Everyone is be able to see everything you share via Google Reader and Buzz.

Buzz Browser Add-ons and Extensions

You can access Buzz via some new browser add-ons and extensions:

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Buzz It! is a Firefox add-on that allows you to share anything you’re viewing by adding a button to your Firefox toolbar that launches the Google Reader sharing window. The install process is a little convoluted, and I don’t like the way it opens new tabs instead of using pop-up windows.

The Chrome Buzz extension for Chrome is good if you just want to view what’s happening in your Buzz stream. It does not provide any ways to share items or even post messages there.

By far, my favorite way to share items on Buzz is through Google Reader’s Shared Items “Note in  Reader” bookmarklet. To set it up, just go to Google Reader, click on “Shared Items” and drag the “Note in Reader” button (located on the far right-hand side) to your browser’s bookmarks toolbar. I’ve tested this in Firefox and Chrome and it works really well.

Whenever you’re reading something online and want to share it, just click the “Note in Reader” button. A window pops up with all of the details filled out; you can also add a note. Make sure the “Add to shared items” checkbox is selected, hit “Post Item” and the page is shared via your Buzz account.

Connecting Buzz to Twitter via Google Reader Shared Items

If you’re sharing links via Buzz you’ll probably want to share them with your Twitter followers, too. You can do that in a few different ways.

Twitterfeed lets send anything you share on Google Reader to your Twitter account. Just go to your Google Reader Shared Items page, copy the Atom feed and paste it into Twitterfeed. Then just authorize your Twitter account to sync them up.

Facebook’s FriendFeed can also connect Google Reader to Twitter very easily. Just click “add/edit” on your Friendfeed profile and look for the Google Reader service under “News.”

Reader2Twitter is my favorite method of synchronizing Google Reader/Buzz with Twitter because it uses the pubsubhubbub protocol to perform real-time sync. A new version has already been released that works specifically with Google Buzz. Just sign in here with your Twitter account via Oauth. You can even add your bit.ly account so you can shorten URLs and track analytics. All in all, it’s a simple but powerful little tool.

Share your favorite Buzz tips below.

"

Five Best DVD-Ripping Tools [Hive Five]

Five Best DVD-Ripping Tools [Hive Five]: "

You pay good money for your DVDs, but they're hardly the only format you need these days. These five ripping tools ensure you can back them up, keep them on your media server, and load them on your favorite portable player.

Photo by jonasj.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite DVD-ripping tool. We tallied up the votes, and now we're back to highlight the five most popular tools used by Lifehacker readers to rip, backup, and encode their DVD collections.

DVD Shrink (Windows, Free)

DVD Shrink is a free and capable ripping tool that excels at, as the name would imply, shrinking DVDs. DVDs come in two common formats: DVD-5 (4.7GB) and DVD-9 (8.5GB); the Reauthor mode in DVD Shrink helps you to ditch disc extras and strip most larger DVDs down to fit into a standard (and less expensive) DVD-5 disc. DVD Shrink does a good job handling many protection schemes, but hasn't been updated to remove some of the newest schemes.

DVD Fab (Windows, $50)

DVD Fab is a commercial DVD ripper that supports the removal of all current DVD copy protections. In addition to being current on protection schemes, it boasts a large array of options for stripping and repacking your DVDs once the copy protection is removed. You can rip the entire disc, rip only the main movie, or split it into pieces—among other options. Like DVD Shrink, DVD Fab also supports compressing DVD-9 discs to fit on DVD-5 discs.

Handbrake (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)

Handbrake is a DVD-ripping tool with a strong emphasis on not just ripping media but recoding it for playback on computers, portable devices, and other non-disc based systems. Handbrake can help you convert DVDs and other MPEG-based video into MP4 and MKV files. You can tweak settings like video frame rate and audio codec playback to your heart's content with Handbrake, and even batch encode all your media at one time to make filling up your iPod or other device relatively painless. The one major shortcoming of Handbrake is that it doesn't have any copy protection removal tools built in, which means you may occasionally need to use a 3rd-party stripping tool to prepare your DVD for conversion.

AnyDVD (Windows, $60 per year)

AnyDVD is another commercial entry in this week's Hive Five. It's not cheap, with a one year license running $60—although the multi-year discounts quickly stack up—but it can boast that it stays on top of current protection and encryption schemes to make sure you're never locked out of your own discs. In addition to stripping protections from the disc, it also has the ability to control DVD playback speed so that DVDs played on media center computers will play slower and quieter, and it allows you to remove things like forced subtitles, warning screens, and disc material you don't want.

DVD Decrypter (Windows, Free)

Although DVD Decrypter hasn't been updated since 2005, it still works on a significant number of DVDs and has a strong following resulting from both its original user base and new users who find it cuts through the copy protection on their current DVDs protected with CSS, Macrovision content protection, region codes, and other hindrances.

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Now that you've had a chance to look over the five most popular DVD-ripping tools as nominated by Lifehacker readers, it's time to cast your vote for the tool you like best:

Which DVD-Ripping Tool Is Best?(trends)

Have a favorite that wasn't featured or a tip for ripping DVDs? Let's hear about it in the comments. If you have an idea for a future Hive Five send us an email at tips @ lifehacker.com with 'Hive Five' in the subject line.

Amazing sci-fi short film done for $300

Amazing sci-fi short film done for $300: "

This special F/X-laden five-minute robot invasion flick is about giant robots 'coming to destroy my small city. I think maybe it's an attempt to make the city look bigger and more important... :-),' says the director, Fede Alvarez. About the production, Fede says:

It took US$300 to shoot the live action, and then maybe a year to complete the 90 vfx shots (during very interrupted periods...) I used Premiere, After, Photoshop, 3dMax, Boujou, Glu3d, and FumeFx. The modeling, mapping and rigging of the Robots, fighters and planes was made by Mauro Rondan.

[via Kent Barnes' Twitter feed]

The Deadliest place on Earth

The Deadliest place on Earth: "

“It’s 50oC and has a humidity of 100%, less than a hundred people have been inside and it’s so deadly that even with respirators and suits of ice you can only survive for 20 minutes before your body starts to fail. It’s the nearest thing to visiting another planet – it’s going deep inside our own.

For ‘How Earth made us’ I have been lucky enough to film everywhere from tiny Pacific islands to the centre of the Sahara desert, yet nowhere could prepare me for filming in The Giant Crystal Cave – Cueva de los Cristales of Mexico.”

Read the full story at The Iron Ammonite

"

Tetra the micromouse needs no cheese, completes maze in under five seconds (video)

Tetra the micromouse needs no cheese, completes maze in under five seconds (video): "

Lab rats beware -- there's a new turbo-charged robotic cousin of yours on the block. This little autonomous fellow, Tetra, has just wowed micromouse hobbyists with a 4.766-second finish time in a maze (which had to be mapped by the micromouse first) in a recent demonstration, beating the previous All Japan Micromouse contest record by a big margin of 1.6 seconds. Sadly, Tetra wasn't the winner of this year's contest as it failed to complete the final Expert Class event -- probably something to do with the lighting conditions which affected its tracking. We can still admire Tetra's awesomeness in the video after the break though, followed by some thoughts from a few micromouse experts.

Continue reading Tetra the micromouse needs no cheese, completes maze in under five seconds (video)

Tetra the micromouse needs no cheese, completes maze in under five seconds (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  Robots Dreams  | Email this | Comments"

Gizmodo's Essential Android Apps 2009 [Android Apps]

Gizmodo's Essential Android Apps 2009 [Android Apps]: "

In a year, Android's gone from shaky upstart to mobile juggernaut. And nowhere is that more apparent than the apps—the Marketplace is positively bursting, with over 14,000 apps. Here are the ones you need, the essentials.

If you want them all on one page, click here.

Surveying the landscape, a few disconcerting trends do emerge. One, Android apps with an iPhone counterpart tend to be the lesser version. Two, fragmentation is already popping up with some apps only available on Android 1.6 and up—leaving out phones like HTC's Hero—or conversely, not yet fully optimized for Android 2.0 or the Droid's higher res screen. Finally, the best software developer for Android is still, far and away, Google—no other developer is even close. We wonder how all of that's gonna change over the next year, which can only be huger for Android.

If we've missed anything or you've got a superior alternative, let us know in the comments, since you vastly outnumber us. By 'us' I mean me.

Sharks with people teeth.

Sharks with people teeth.: "

Sharks with people teeth.

"