Skype is a wonderful tool. Using your already active Internet connection, Skype allows you to call any other Skype member, free of charge. You can also make extremely cheap long distance and international calls if you’re so inclined, and all calls received through Skype are free.
Because it’s such a low cost alternative to the standard phone, many people want to bring Skype with them as they travel, so that they can call around without emptying their pockets first.
Sadly, Skype has yet to release an official version that works on a USB drive. Thus, the only way to use Skype when you’re on someone else’s ‘puter is to either install Skype there, or use their copy of Skype and leave your digital fingerprints all over it (a no no for privacy people).
Less sadly is the fact that with a few simple hacks, you can create your very own fully functioning ‘Skype Portable’. Unfortunately, it’s a Windows only affair, though I’d imagine the process isn’t much different for us Mac guys (and I’d also imagine that for us Mac guys, Skype is portable ready right out of the box).
First of all, make a folder for your portable application. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s call it “Skype Portable”. Next, go into the installed Skype folder on your computer (download the program first if you haven’t already got it). Find the file “skype.exe” and copy it (right-click on the file and choose “copy”). Then place the copied file inside your Skype Portable folder by right-clicking inside the folder and choose “insert”.
Next, inside the Skype Portable folder, make another new folder and name it “data”. Inside the data folder, open a new file with Microsoft Notepad. Name the file “skype.bat” and inside this notepad file, place the following line: skype.exe /datapath:”Data” /removable . Save and close.
Move the entire Skype Portable file over to your USB flash drive. Congratulations, you now have a working portable version of Skype which can be run from a USB drive.
As the line between the sexes blurs, there are more and more guys who insist on testing out the other team’s waters. However, according to Double Viking, there are (at least) ten things that men should have never stolen from women, because they just look a lot better on the female species.
Here’s why: No guy wants to stare at another half naked guy to see how the boxer shorts that he’s about to buy make that guy look, so why not just give them something a little more eye-catching to look at while they make their decision.
JBS Underwear agrees, and decided to use underwearless women in the advertisements for their new men’s line.
Pillage The Village is an awesome new Flash game from XGen Studios.
Called ‘A Prequel to Defend Your Castle’, it features “ragdoll physics, gesture recognition, and visceral, satisfying gameplay”.
What makes this game so unique is the fact that you can go about your pillaging plans in two ways. Either you can take a moral stand and fight for the pacifist way, or you can indulge in your deep desires and walk the path of the antagonist. Both paths include a plethora of useful spells, upgrades and abilities, so use each one once and see which side fits you best.
With a simple control scheme, a great story line, amazing animation, and the ability to win as either good or evil, this is a great way to fill your three day weekend, so get that mouse out and start pillaging.
The final cut of the Gmail: Behind the Scenes video is here, and with 1,100 clips to choose from, they were able to pick the cream of the crop for this 2:19 montage of envelopes going from left to right.
Also, this gives me a chance to try out the cool new Google Maps embed feature, so take a look at the map below for a detailed look at where each clip came from.
Tripwire is an interesting solution to the problem of too much noise coming from your local airport.
Designed by the MIT Media Lab, these coconuts were hung from trees around the San Jose International Airport, and then any time one detected noise above the allowed level, it made a call to the complaint hotline and left a pre-recorded complaint. They even stored the data for later analysis.
For the latest addition to their 2007 Artist Series of Mimobots, Mimoco went to the Spear Collective for ideas, and the Spear Collective came back with this King and Queen design from Undoboy.
Featuring a very unique playing card inspired design, and tons of exclusive content, including wallpapers, icons, avatars, animations, and screensavers, this limited edition storage toy won’t last long; so pick up one of the 2,000 today, because once they’re gone, they’re gone (to eBay).
The Shawnimals Empire continues to grow, and with the release of Ninjatown 2.0, an online community that is populated by the famous plush characters from the Wee Ninjas series, there’s no telling when it might stop.
Filled with bios, icons, wallpapers, games and more, this upgrade to the original Ninjatown is a wonderful improvement for the wee guys, and should give them plenty of room to grow. This, along with the Ninjatown DS game that is coming out, and a Wii Ninjas game that is supposedly in the works, means that you’ll soon be able to get your stuffed ninja fix everywhere you go.
Here’s an interesting idea: As more and more websites become iPhone compatible, the ability to load a site in Firefox’s sidebar becomes more and more useful.
With this simple trick, you can pull contact info from Facebook, or see what the latest Digg story is, all without even leaving the page you’re on.
Here’s how:
Bookmark your favorite URL
After you have saved the bookmark, Go to the Bookmarks Menu and right-click your newly created bookmark. Choose the Properties option.
Check the box that says ‘Load this bookmark in the sidebar’.
The next time you open that bookmark, it will popup in the sidebar!
Here’s an interesting idea: As more and more websites become iPhone compatible, the ability to load a site in Firefox’s sidebar becomes more and more useful.
