Add Enhanced Balloon Tooltips to Firefox
Mar/100
The default balloon tooltip in Firefox does well at times but then there are instances when a person finds that more information would be much better. The Tooltip Plus extension for Firefox will give your browser that nice extra information boost.
Before & After
For our example we have placed the “before & after shots” together for better comparison. First off we started with the How-To Geek logo.
Note: Does not display the original URL behind shortened URLs.
Next we moved on to a permanently linked article title.
The “Reviews Tab” in the How-To Geek website toolbar.
The article tags listing just beneath the HTG website toolbar.
And the link for subscribing to our RSS Feed. In each instance you could actually see the address behind the links.
The Tooltip Plus extension will also help out with images in webpages (including “Alt Text” if present). Notice that the link for the image is now available for you to view.
Options
The options are extremely simple to work with. Decide if you want a document icon to display, the size of the icon, and if you would like “Alt Text” for images to be displayed or not.
Conclusion
The Tooltip Plus extension does one thing and does it very well…it gives you that extra bit of information when you need it.
Links
Download the Tooltip Plus extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
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Add Enhanced Balloon Tooltips to Firefox
Listen to Over 100,000 Radio Stations in Windows Media Center
Mar/100
A cool feature in Windows 7 Media Center is the ability to listen to local FM radio. But what if you don’t have a tuner card that supports a connected radio antenna? The RadioTime plugin solves the problem by allowing access to thousands of online radio stations.
With the RadioTime plugin for Windows Media Center, you’ll have access to over 100,000 online radio stations from around the world. Their guide is broken down into different categories such as Talk Radio, Music Radio, Sports Radio and more. It’s completely free, but does require registration to save preset stations.
RadioTime
It works with Media Center in XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (which we’re demonstrating here). When installing it for Windows 7, make sure to click the Installer link below the “Get It Now – Free” button as the installer works best for the new OS.
Installation is extremely quick and easy…
Now when you open Windows 7 Media Center you’ll find it located in the Extras category from the main menu.
![sshot-2010-03-10-[23-49-17]](http://semibeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/a459ce99ff234917.png.png "sshot-2010-03-10-[23-49-17]")
After you launch it, you’re presented with the RadioTime guide where you can browse through the different categories of stations. Your shown various station suggestions each time you start it up.
The main categories are broken down further so you can find the right genre of the music your looking for.
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World Radio offers you stations from all over the world categorized into different regions.
RadioTime does support local stations via an FM tuner, but if you don’t have one, you can still access local stations provided they broadcast online. One thing about listening to your local stations online is the audio quality may not be as good as if you had a tuner connected.
It provides information on most of the online stations. For example here we look at Minnesota Public Radio info and you get a schedule of when certain programs are on.
Then get even more information about the topics on the shows.
To use the Presets option you’ll need to log into your RadioTime account, or if you don’t have one just click on the link to create a free one.
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Creating a free account is simple and basic on their site. You aren’t required to have an account to use the RadioTime plugin, it’s only if you want the additional benefits.
Conclusion
For this article we only tried it with Windows 7 Media Center, and sometimes the interface felt clunky when moving quickly through menus. Also, there isn’t a search feature from within Media Center, however, you can search stations from their site and add them to your presets.
Despite a few shortcomings, this is a very cool way to get access to thousands of online radio stations through Windows Media Center. If you’re looking for a way to access thousands of radio stations through WMC, you might want to give RadioTime a try.
Download RadioTime for Windows Media Center
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Listen to Over 100,000 Radio Stations in Windows Media Center
GDC Video Hands-on: Game Room (Xbox Live)
Mar/100
Check out our video preview above for a quick look at Game Room, which arrives on March 24.
GDC Video Hands-on: Game Room (Xbox Live) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GDC Video Hands-on: Game Room (Xbox Live)
Codemasters hits the track this September with F1 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 & PS3
Mar/100
Having dominated the rally track with DiRT and DiRT 2, and taken a lap around the street-racing arena with GRiD, Codemasters has announced it’s now tossing its hat into the Formula One ring with F1 2010. Yeah, we kind of expected some weird capitalization, too. It’ll run on Codemaster’s EGO Game Technology Platform engine, so at least we know it’ll have that in common with its predecessors.
This new title will release on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this September, the press release states. F1 2010 will be the official game of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, containing “all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the coming season.” There will be a career mode, along with championship, grand prix and time trial modes to keep you busy putting rubber to asphalt.
Look for F1 2010 this September on Games For Windows Live, Xbox 360 and PS3.
[Via Big Download]
Codemasters hits the track this September with F1 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 & PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Codemasters hits the track this September with F1 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 & PS3
Convert a DVD Movie Directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard 2.9
Mar/100
Are you looking for a way to backup your DVD movie collection to AVI?? Today we’ll show you how to rip a DVD movie directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard.
About FairUse Wizard
FairUse Wizard 2.9 uses the DivX, Xvid, or h.264 codec to convert DVD to an AVI file. It comes in both a free version and commercial version. The free, or “Light” version, can create files up 700MB while the commercial version can output a 1400MB file. This will allow you to back up your movies to CD, or even multiple movies on a single DVD.
FairUse Wizard states that it does not work on copy protected discs, but we’ve seen it work on all but some of the most recent copy protection. For this tutorial we’re using the free Light Edition to convert a DVD to AVI. They also offer a commercial version that you can get for $29.99 and it offers even more encoding possibilities for converting video to you portable digital devices.
Installation and Configuration
Download and install FairUse Wizard. (Download link below). Once the install is complete, open FairUse Wizard by going to Start > All Programs >? FairUse Wizard 2 >? FairUse Wizard 2.
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FairUse Wizard will open on the new project screen.
Select “Create a new project” and type a project name into the text box. This will be used as the file output name.? Ex: A project name of Simpsons Movie will give you an output file of Simpsons Movie.avi.
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Next, browse for a destination folder for the output file and temp files. Note that you will need a minimum of 6 GB of free disk space for the conversion process. Note: Much of that 6 GB will be used for temporary files that we will delete after the conversion process.
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Click on the Options button at the bottom.
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Under Preferences, choose your preferred video codec and file output size. XviD and x264 are installed by default. If you prefer to use DivX, you will have to install it separately. Also note the “Two pass” option. Checking the “Two pass” box will encode your video twice for higher quality, but will take more time. Un-checking the box will speed up the conversion process.
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Under Audio track, note that English subtitles are enabled by default, so to remove the subtitles, you will need to change the dropdown list so it shows only a dash (-). You can also select “Use TV Mode” if your primary playback will be on a 4:3 TV screen.
Click “Next.”
Full Auto Mode vs. Manual Mode
You should now be back to the initial screen. Next, we’ll need to determine whether or not we can use “Full Auto Mode” to convert the movie. The difference is that “Full Auto Mode” will automatically perform a few steps that you will otherwise have to do manually. If you choose the “Full Auto Mode” option, FairUse Wizard will look for the video on the DVD with the longest duration and assume it is the chain that it should convert to AVI. It’s possible, however, your disc may contain a few chains of similar size, such as a theatrical cut and director’s cut, and the longest chain may not be the one you wish to convert.
Make sure that “Full auto mode” is not checked yet, and click “Next.”
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FairUse Wizard will parse the IFO files and display all video chains longer than 60? seconds. In most cases, you will only find that the largest chain is the one closely matching the duration of the movie. In these instances, you can use “Full Auto Mode.”
If you find more than one chain that are close in duration to the length of the movie, consult the literature on the DVD case, or search online, to find the actual running time of the movie. If the proper file chain is not the longest chain, you won’t be able to use “Full Auto Mode.”
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Full Auto Mode
To use “Full Auto Mode,” simply click the “Back” button to return to the initial screen
Now, place a check in the “Full auto mode” check box. Click “Next.”
You will then be prompted to chose your DVD drive, then click “OK.”
FairUse Wizard will parse the IFO files…
… and then prompt you to Select your drive that contains the DVD one more time before beginning the conversion process. Click “OK.”
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Manual Mode
If you cannot (or don’t wish to) use Full Auto Mode, choose the appropriate video chain and click “Next.”
FairUse Wizard will first go through the process of indexing the video.
Note: If you get a runtime error during this portion of the process, it likely means that FairUse Wizard cannot handle the copy protection, and thus cannot convert the DVD.
FairUse Wizard will automatically detect a cropping region. If necessary, you can edit the cropping region by adjusting the cropping region settings to the left. Click “Next.”
Next, click “Auto Detect” to choose the proper field combination.
Click “OK” on the pop up window that displays your Field Mode.
Then click “Next.”
This next screen is mainly comprised of settings from the Options screen. You can make changes at this point such as codec or output size. Click “Next” when ready.
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Video Conversion
Now the video conversion process will begin. This may take a few hours depending on your system’s hardware. Note: There is a check box to “Shutdown computer when done” if you choose to run the conversion overnight or before leaving for work.
The first phase will be video encoding…
Then the audio…
If you chose the “Two Pass” option, your video video will be encoded again on 2nd pass.
Then you’re finished.
Unfortunately, FairUse Wizard doesn’t clean up after itself very well. After the process is complete, you’ll want to browse to your output directory and delete all the temporary files as they take up a considerable amount of hard drive space.
Now you’re ready to enjoy your movie.
Conclusion
FairUse Wizard is a nice way to backup your DVD movies to good quality .avi files. You can store them on your hard drive, watch them on a media PC, or burn them to disc. Many DVD players even allow for playback of DivX or XviD encoded video from a CD or DVD. For those of you with children, you can burn that AVI file to CD for your kids, and keep your original DVDs stored safely out of harms way.
Download
Download FairUse Wizard 2.9 LE
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Convert a DVD Movie Directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard 2.9
Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (single player)
Mar/100
You know, it’s so rare that my job feels like work. I mean, I play and write about video games for a living — it’s not a terribly taxing gig. I mention this not to brag about how great my life is (Twitter’s the only appropriate place for that), but so you have some perspective when I tell you that almost every moment of Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s single-player campaign felt like real, actual work.
The campaign isn’t terrible, in fact, it’s largely competent. But because of a lack of inspiration and a pretty crummy checkpoint system, Bad Company 2’s single-player game is just plain not fun.
Continue reading Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (single player)
Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (single player) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Amazon’s galactic deal of the day: Mass Effect 2
Mar/100
BioWare’s space opera epic, Mass Effect 2, is Amazon’s “Deal of the Day.” The Xbox 360 version is currently $40, which is $10 cheaper than you’d pick it up at your local Quarian pawn shop. A PC copy is 40 percent off, with a $30 price tag.
At that price, one could pick up Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the regular retail price of the sequel. For those who like their sci-fi soapy and their shooters refined, this is a deal worth going through the Omega 4 Relay for — see, if you play the game, you’ll know what that means.
[Thanks, Russ P!]
Amazon’s galactic deal of the day: Mass Effect 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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"UFO" filmed over Rome by Russian tourist
Mar/100
A video of a bright orange UFO taken by a tourist in Rome has sparked a great deal of interest all over the web. The footage shows a bright orange lig…
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"UFO" filmed over Rome by Russian tourist
Zeno Clash trailer brings the co-op pain
Mar/100
So, if ganging up on helpless bad guys and pummeling them to death sounds like fun, you should probably keep an eye on Zeno Clash.
Zeno Clash trailer brings the co-op pain originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Zeno Clash trailer brings the co-op pain
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Disney: Split/Second coming to PC retail and digital distribution (plus: new GDC trailers!)
Mar/100
Earlier today, we noticed a report over on That Video Game Blog that stated Black Rock’s upcoming racer, Split/Second, would only be available on the PC as “a limited online release.” Turns out, that isn’t the case, as a Disney spokesperson has confirmed to Joystiq that the game will be available on the PC both via retail and digital distribution on May 18, alongside its console cousins.
When questioned about which digital distribution services the game would release on, Disney couldn’t say. So, as a peace offering, we were given a pair of new trailers: the first you can see above this chunk of text, while you’ll need to click past the break for the other. We know, we push you guys too hard!
Continue reading Disney: Split/Second coming to PC retail and digital distribution (plus: new GDC trailers!)
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