holiday posts

Filed under: Fun

Happy Halloween! Help yourself to these moldy old posts

by Download Squad Staff Oct 31st 2009

	Halloween costumes from the Internet: happy Hallo-meme! Stepping away from the computer for a few hours to trick or treat or go to a costume party doesn't mean you have to leave the internet behind.		Six classic horror-iffic games for Halloween Turn out the lights and turn up the volume, it's time to scare yourself silly with some good, old Halloween-y games. Enjoy!
	Use your Mac to detect supernatural activity this Halloween! You knew your Mac could detect wireless networks and Bluetooth devices, but did you know it can also detect spirits? If you want to scan for supernatural activity, download an app called EMF6742,...	Also of interest: More Halloween Time Wasters Halloween Screensavers, the good, the bad, and the ugly Halloween goodies on the web, hold the candy corn

Tags: halloween, holiday, roundup

Filed under: Fugly Friday

Fugly Friday: Can better design help your cause?

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Mar 27th 2009

The thing about technology is that it isn't inherently good or bad, it's how we choose to use it that makes it so. This has been true since the first humans picked up a bone and fashioned a hammer. Some used it to build, and others to kill. So it is with the web -- except the killing part, maybe. We've seen some great stuff like Google's search engine, Delicious bookmarks and Pandora's music engine. But then there's the low barrier to making web pages, spawning the sort of nightmares you'll find at Alek's Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease.

Now look, I'm not trashing Alek's work with Christmas lights (personally I love web-controlled lights and the hobbyists who do these light shows are really dedicated) and I'm certainly not saying Celiac disease is a cause unworthy of attention. I only wish Alek hadn't chosen the following things for his site:

Autoplay MIDI music
Cutesy javascript cursor follow
Dense text everywhere
Wacky fonts from 1996

These are the web equivalents of polyester suits. Cute when worn as a joke, not so cute when used at a serious job interview. Same here: a redesign might bring more awareness to Celiac disease, a tough condition which requires a gluten-free diet.

Ultimately the question becomes one of content vs. presentation. Does poor presentation trump content, or does great content rise above bad presentation? I found a nice summary of this notion from 2006 at LukeW's site:

Many sites with a poor visual presentation remain popular on the merits of their content alone. But does their audience enjoy bumping through the site's awkward graphics and hard to read labels? No, but the personality of the content (it could be high quality, funny, worthwhile, and more) makes the rest bearable. Would their audience be happier if the personality of the presentation matched the personality of the content? Of course.

Perhaps a designer could donate some time to making Alek's site visibly more manageable? Alek's site is already pretty famous, so I can't help but think that a facelift would help his cause.

Tags: christmas, design, holiday, remote control lighting, RemoteControlLighting, x-10

Filed under: Fun, Kids, Google, Time-Wasters

NORAD tracks Santa and answers questions

by Christina Clark Dec 24th 2008

Maybe you've been using the NORAD Santa tracker every year for as long as you can remember, like me, or maybe you haven't heard of it before. It is a great way to have some fun on Christmas Eve and answer some of those questions about when Santa will be at your house.

The whole thing started in 1955 when Sears misprinted a phone number to call Santa and kids everywhere got connected to the Continental Defense Command hotline. Instead of being angry, CONAD workers gave kids updates of Santa's progress around the world and a tradition was born.

In the 50 years since then, a lot has changed. CONAD became the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD for starters. Since 1998 kids no longer needed to call Santa, they could simply get hourly updates on the internet. And this year, you can even hear about Santa's progress on Twitter!

Because NORAD has teamed up with Google you can see Santa flying over highly detailed Google maps. It is easy to pick out landmarks if Santa flies over an area you are familiar with. You can even see photos of places Santa has flown past with Panoramio photos linked to the map.

You can download a special KML that will let you track Santa in 3D this year and the site has lots off answers to questions kids might have. You can even check out the snack counter to see how many cookies Santa has had so far today!

Check out what we've written before about the Santa Tracker and find out how Google and NORAD teamed up to give us so many Santa tracking options. .

Tags: christmas, holiday, norad, santa, santa-tracker, time-waster

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Web services

Give the gift of music, e-books and more

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Nov 27th 2008

Wondering what to get your less-than-tech-savvy friends? On a tight budget and can't buy them a PS3 or even a single Blu-ray title? Worry slightly less courtesy this cheapskates' guide to gifting content from the internet. Not everything is budget-friendly, but almost everything on the list is a terrific value.

MUSIC

Lee wrote up a lovely list of 35 places to download free, legal MP3's back in August. If you're still intent on forking over cash for tunes (and I don't blame you), here are a few other ideas:

Rhapsody
Possibly one of the best music-subscription services on the planet. Featuring a gigantic catalog (over 4 million tracks) and awesome search, Rhapsody is a full-featured subscription service. You can also shop for MP3's. There is a free trial account which limits you to 25 tracks per month, but you'll probably want to gift Unlimited (all music, browser-based playback only, $12.99/mo.) or To Go (all music, including portable music players, $14.99/mo.).

Other subscription contenders: eMusic and Lala
Streaming awesomeness: AOL Radio and Pandora
Downloadable win: Amazon music, offering songs and albums cheaper than iTunes and higher-quality tracks free of DRM restrictions.

Tags: ebook, hgg, holiday, holiday gift guide, HolidayGiftGuide, music, video

Filed under: Business, Internet, Productivity, Web services

Managing staff holidays online with WhosOff

by Chris Gilmer Jun 29th 2007

WhosOff takes some of the stress and mess that can occur when managing staff holidays. It's a free service that is pretty easy to set up, unless you have a few hundred employees to manage.

When staff names are entered into the online system together with their vacation entitlements, its WhosOff turn to work. Managers and staff are sent notifications by email when employees request leave dates, Managers then jump into the system and can either approve or decline the requests.

WhosOff can also track sickness, national holidays, and does use SSL to ensure the security of the website.

Gallery: whosoff

Tags: away, holiday, management, sick, ssl, staff, whosoff

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Google

Fun Holiday Gadgets from Google - Today's Time Waster

by Chris Gilmer Dec 21st 2006

Are you right into the Holiday Spirit? Decorating everything in sight and singing good old fashioned Christmas songs? Or even if you have had it with all the crazy shoppers this time of the year, Google can brighten your season. If you do celebrate, Google wants to help you get into the festive mood with a list of holiday gadgets aimed at the holiday season. How would you like to decorate your Google Desktop with your very own Christmas tree, one that you can actually decorate yourself? Maybe you need a reminder to how many days are left in the year? Try out a Countdown to New Year's calendar. Or maybe you would like a pretty little clock with Santa in the middle that plays a Christmas Carol every hour? You can get them all care of Google's Desktop Gadgets.

Tags: christmas, desktop, gadgets, google, holiday

Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet, Windows, Web services, Mozilla

Tinseltown theme for Firefox

by Ryan Carter Dec 20th 2006

I went out looking for a nice, not too dumb holiday theme for my Firefox, call me old-fashioned, call me sentimental, but hey, I like a nice looking theme to go with the holiday cheer. Most normal people look for gifts, I look for themes for Firefox. Don't dis it, you know you do too. The Tinseltown Firefox theme is a great one, featuring light bulbs for back and forward, Rudolph as the refresh button (I don't know why the thought or smell of a reindeer makes you think of refreshing a page, but...) Santa's hat for stop, a gingerbread house for home (makes sense), a present box's top to add a new tab, history is a stocking, and downloads is a gingerbread man. The scrollbars are a nice shade of candy cane, and the background consists of a snowy blue and white scene. All in all, the theme is nice but not too outlandish. Check it out, then let me know what your favorite is here. I am still on the lookout for a few good themes of the holiday persuasion. What do you suggest?

Tags: browser, firefox, holiday, skin, theme, tinseltown

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Kids, Text, News, Windows, Web services, Microsoft, Freeware, Social Software

Chat with Santa Live!

by Ryan Carter Dec 20th 2006

So, you have a hard time convincing the kids that Santa is real? Windows Live Messenger has set up a way for your kids (with your help of course) to chat with "Santa" on Windows Live Messenger (you'll need to download the latest, but there is a link on the page). All you have to do is add Santa's messenger ID (northpole at live dot com) to your WLM contact list and then you can send messages to him and get a reply back. I suppose that this whole thing started because Santa had to become more tech savvy with the times, to be sure he could hack it when it comes to all the new-fangled gadgets the kiddies want these days. I did hear a rumor that Santa and Bill Gates go way back, which is how Santa easily got a spot in Microsoft's offering of holiday cheer, but it is largely unsubstantiated at this point. Heck, simply tell your kids that Santa knows Bill Gates (feel free to link to this post),I'll bet that will make them believe in him for sure. It just makes sense. There you go, a holiday KidHack for you.

Tags: chat, fun, holiday, kids, live, messenger, online, santa, windows

Filed under: Fun, Windows, Freeware

12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 11: Windows

by Jay Savage Dec 18th 2006

Today's holiday downloads is Free New Year ScreenSaver from Download for Free. It's not the world's most sophisticated saver, but it has falling snow, and anyone who's been following this feature knows I'm a sucker for that. And it plays the Twelve Days of Christmas, which just seems appropriate.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for Windows:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10

Tags: christmas, free, holiday, screensaver, snow, windows

Filed under: Fun, Photo, Web services, Yahoo!, Commercial, Freeware

Holiday gifts from Flickr

by Jordan Running Dec 13th 2006

Flickr is making our holidays a little cheerier with some bonuses for Pro and Free members alike. The biggest bonus is for Pro users, of course: Beginning this month all Pro account will have totally unlimited storage and bandwidth. While probably only a fraction of Pro users were bumping up against the old 2GB-per-month upload limit, who can argue with unlimited? Free users have cause to celebrate, too: The per-month upload limit for free accounts has been bumped up to 100MB, a 500% increase over the previous 20MB limit. A Pro account still costs $24.95 per year, and a free account clearly still costs nada. For those "Giving the Gift of Flickr," Flickr also has a new system that lets you buy a Pro account activation code that will work for both existing Flickr users and those just signing up, and they also have a cute little card you can print out to stuff in that special someone's stocking.

But wait, there's more! The Flickr crew have blessed us with a cute holiday easter egg: If you add a note to one of your photos with the text "ho ho ho hat" or "ho ho ho beard," Flickr will add a cute santa hat or beard to the photo wherever you put the note. You can see it in action on the dashing Merlin Mann. Lovely!

[Via eclecticism and Waxy.org]

Tags: bandwidth, flickr, ho ho ho hat, HoHoHoHat, holiday, photo, photography, pro, upload

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Winterbells - Today's Time Waster

by Jordan Running Dec 11th 2006

Today's Time Waster has a lot going for it: Simple controls, cute bunny character, soothing music, addicting gameplay, and a pretty, wintry theme. Oh, and it's by Orisinal. The goal in Winterbells to get your little white bunny to jump as high as possible. After your initial jump, you control the bunny exclusively by moving the mouse. Each time he lands on a bell, he jumps higher and your score increases. If he lands on a bird, your score is doubled. The higher he gets, the more points each jump is worth. While this sounds pretty simplistic, it gets surprisingly challenging (and anxiety-inducing) as the stakes increase and the bells get smaller, and one missed bell can send your bunny plummeting (gently) to the ground. So hop on over (sorry, couldn't resist), and after you've got the hang of it, post your high scores in the comments. I'm up to ~~244.410~~ 1,523,110.

Tags: flash, free, fun, game, holiday, orisinal, timewaster, winterbells

Filed under: Internet, News, Windows, Macintosh, Blogging, Windows Mobile, Web services, Shareware

NewsGator announces end-of-year sale

by David Chartier Dec 11th 2006

NewsGator, the cross-platform gurus of all things RSS and blogging, is feeling a bit festive this holiday season, as they have announced an end-of-year sale on all their products. This forum post has the short 'n sweet details: through the end of December, using coupon code NGHoliday at checkout will score you $10 off any of their products. As most of them are sitting around the $30 price point, this could also loosely be considered a 30% off sale - not a bad deal if you ask me.

Tags: blogging, coupon, festive, holiday, newsgator, rss, sale

Filed under: Fun

12 Days of holiday downloads, Day 4: Mac

by Jay Savage Dec 6th 2006

Today's download is a countdown, um, tree called, amazingly enough, Christmas Countdown. Not much to say here, but at least you'll know how many days you have left to do that shopping. Or how many days you have before the holiday, if you get one. You'd be surprised how many people have been saved from strangling their bosses by just telling themselves "10 more days; i can keep my temper for 10 more days..." This little widget is here to help.

Previous 12 Days of holiday downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Tags: christmas, countdown, dashboard, free, freeware, holiday, mac, os x, OsX, widget

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware

Gift Wrapped - Today's Holiday Time Waster

by Jordan Running Dec 5th 2006

Ooh, a holiday-themed Time Waster that doesn't suck! Gift Wrapped is a great Flash hair-puller from Nitrome. The premise is thin and actually doesn't sound that promising--you have to find your gifts among the pile of wrapped presents by shape alone, based on the picture shown in the box at the top. At the beginning the game is really easy and I was prepared for a letdown. However, it gets harder fast, as first it starts changing the orientation of the wrapped presents and then adding more similar-shaped gifts to the pile and using more of the same giftwrap patterns, all of which make it harder to find the gift you're looking for. You start out the game with 30 seconds on the clock, which steadily ticks down, and bonus time gets added for each gift you pick correctly, and when your time really starts running out is when the hair-pulling begins. Like I said, I wasn't expecting much, but Gift Wrapped turns out to be a pretty fun, addictive little game. Post your high scores in the comments--I'm only up to 470.

[Via Jay is Games]

Tags: christmas, flash, free, fun, game, gift warpped, GiftWarpped, holiday, nitrome, timewaster

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Kids, Utilities, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Readers SOUND OFF: Your Favorite Holiday Screensaver

by Ryan Carter Dec 3rd 2006

All the innovations on the web and the advances in technology, and we still can't come up with non-crappy screensavers easily. Most sites you visit are filled with less-than-par graphics and dumb trial/spam/ad/crapware. This is where you come in. For those who don't know where to go, or what screensavers are decent, with no crapware installation or computer hijacking software tagging along, tell us all what your favorite holiday screensaver is and where you can go to get it. Give us some features, the install/uninstall process, and what your over-all feeling of the saver is. Why? Mostly because inquiring minds want to know, and duh, our readers are the experts on such matters. You can put up to 3 links in the comments if you feel so inclined. Let it snow (on your monitor)! What is your favorite screensaver or site to get screensavers for the holidays?

Tags: chanukah, christmas, fun, holiday, kwanzaa, screensaver, utilities

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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