"A completely free imaging workhorse"

Looking for a good way to manage your photo collection? Well look no further, for the FastStone Image Viewer is awaiting you.

Here is what the gurus at CNET had to say about it:

For a free program, this multipurpose image tool strikes us as a good find. Although the main window looks too cluttered at first glance, it's intuitive enough after you get your bearings. FastStone Image Viewer for Windows boasts a nice design already, but you can customize it to your liking with several skins. Clicking a thumbnail puts a larger view of the shot in the lower-left pane, and you zoom in simply by dragging the mouse around. Though its image-editing tools can't compete with those offered by a full-featured suite, there's still enough here to make a decent amount of tweaks to your shots. You can resize, crop, remove red-eye, and adjust color, brightness, and contrast. You'll also find a few simple effects and filters, including Lens, Waves, and Morphs. FastStone Image Viewer for Windows can batch-convert files into a number of popular image formats including GIF, BMP, PSD, and PNG, and the slide-show creator allows you to apply transitions, specify the interval between images, and add your own MP3s as a soundtrack. We can recommend this program to everyone but professional designers.

With a five-star rating from CNET, nearly two million downloads, and sizing in at only 3.27 MB, the FastStone Image Viewer appears to be a winner.

FastStone Image Viewer

Super Bowl Commercials

Ahhh, a fresh batch of Super Bowl ads. Consumers love them. So much that some people tune in to the game just to see the new commercials. In case you missed them or you're just dying to see your favorite one again, the good people at YouTube put together a nice collection for you.

Dubbed "Super Vote", YouTube has compiled 49 Super Bowl ads for your viewing pleasure. You can also rank them in an order of your choice and submit them to the master list which is updated every hour. After a day of tallying votes, YouTube will then crown a winner that will be featured on their homepage tomorrow. At 30 seconds per commercial, you'll manage to kill roughly 25 minutes if you watch them all. If you decide to vote, tack on an extra 10 minutes or so and now you've wasted 35 minutes of your life that you can never have back! But hey, it's the Super Bowl right?

SuperVote

Are you ready for Vista?

So Windows Vista just came out. Think you're ready for it? Might want to run this free upgrade advisor from CNET to make sure your PC can handle it.

It will ask for your permission to run a small download. Tell it yes and you should be good to go. It takes about 5 minutes to complete the analysis, after which you'll see a list of components it checked and how you graded. Personally, my 2-year-old PC failed on 5 out of the 9 component checks. Yeah, major bummer huh? I say yes and no. First off, as we've all come to know the Microsoft monopoly, Vista is going to have more bugs than an overly sentimental entomologist. I'm perfectly fine letting everyone else iron out all of the bugs for me. Secondly, Vista hasn't been getting all that great of reviews. Sure it's shiny and pretty to look at, but is shiny really worth upgrading half the components in your PC? For the same price you could invest in a new 20" widescreen LCD monitor and everything will look shinier!

So if you're considering an upgrade to Vista, run the analysis to make sure your PC is capable. Unless it's fairly new or you bought a high end computer to begin with, be prepared to do a little upgrading.

Upgrade Advisor

Phishing overtakes viruses and Trojans

CNET reports that phishing attacks are becoming the scam of choice for online thieves. The criminals are getting more sophisticated with their attempts by creating a more personalized look to the emails.

"Phishing e-mails are also becoming more personalized, according to Sunner, making such confidence tricks more believable. This includes phishers sending links to people for spoof sites of banks that the intended victims actually use, as opposed to randomly hitting a section of the population."

So be on your toes and keep your eyes peeled for suspect emails. If you receive an email that appears to be from your bank or any other online accounts you may have requesting your login details, chances are it's probably a phishing attempt. If you really aren't sure if it's legit or not, just call that particular service and ask them to verify it.

The picture above is an example of a phishing scam. To see a larger version, click the picture or follow the link below.

Phishing Example
CNET Article

Keep your diet in check with CalorieKing

Trying to eat healthy? Knowing the calorie content of your meals can be important. CalorieKing features a mammoth food database to keep you on track.

Just type in a certain food, whether it be a banana or a Big Mac, and CalorieKing will give you a break down of its nutritional value. This comes in pretty handy for foods that don't come with labels such as produce and fast food. They do offer a few products (books, software, diet plans) but most of the information is available to you at no cost. Personally, I only use the food database but there are some other useful tools at your disposal. There's a nice recipe index that features a special section for diabetics as well as numerous articles aimed toward living a healthy lifestyle.

So whether you're starting a new diet or you're just curious how many calories were in that dang quesadilla you had for lunch, CalorieKing is a good place to start.

CalorieKing

Manage your digital photos

Does your hard drive resemble a photograph graveyard? A place where many a good photo have been buried in a folder, never to be seen again. If you have a digital camera then I'm guessing you answered "yes" to the previous question. If you recently got one as a gift, then there's still hope for you. It's not too late! Start exhuming these old photos and show the world why you took them in the first place with Snapfish.

Snapfish is an HP product that gives you several options for managing your digital photos. First you create a free account and upload your images. Your account is limitless, so feel free to empty the entire graveyard. Now you have the option of ordering prints or simply sharing your pictures online for free. Prints are 12¢ a piece and come in a variety of sizes. You can also create personalized gifts such as coffee mugs, mouse pads, and calendars to name a few. Snapfish gives you the option to edit your pictures as well. This comes in handy if you don't have Photoshop capabilities.

So you'd prefer to get your prints at the local print shop eh? Well you can still benefit from a Snapfish account. Your limitless account can be used to create albums with which you can share your photos with whomever you choose. So now aunt Ida can get her grandchildren photo fix, which is probably a good thing for everyone.

Snapfish

Get your mp3 files on the same volume level

There you are, groovin' along to some new tunes you recently discovered. Just as the next song begins, you notice it sounds a little quieter than the previous song. So you turn the speakers up and continue groovin'. But when the next song starts, it's much louder than the last. Now your groove is all out of sync and you decide to take it out on the dog. Ok, so maybe that's an exaggeration but it's still frustrating nonetheless.

A good way to fix this annoyance is to "normalize" your mp3 files with MP3Gain. You download a small program, it does some analysis on your mp3's, and voilà. Your collection now has the same volume level. There is no quality lost in the process so your songs will sound just as groovy as before.

MP3Gain

How about a little Toothpaste For Dinner?

Chuckle. What a crazy word. Just say it a few times. Go ahead, try it. Pretty crazy eh?

If you're as easily amused as I am, then you'll probably appreciate the comedic genius that is Toothpaste For Dinner. Drew puts out a new cartoon every day and has archives dating back to 2002. That's ~1,600 comics for your viewing pleasure! With that in mind, I do have to recommend consuming Toothpaste For Dinner in moderation. It's very easy to kill a half hour perusing the archives. Drew also has a blog going so you can keep up with any changes. So I'll leave you with this little gem I found on the blog:

I might turn on a Zeno and burn a zit off my neck or something. You never know. Video chat is off the hook.

Toothpaste For Dinner

Learn to build web pages

I recently stumbled upon this informative site while searching for a good HTML tutorial. As you can tell from the MindJerky.net layout, my HTML skills are pretty basic. But with the help of W3 Schools I hope to be sprucing this place up in the near future! If you have any interest in developing web pages, then W3 is definitely worth a look.

W3 has put together a superb collection of tutorials on the subjects of HTML, XML, browser scripting, and web building in general. The tutorials are very easy to follow and actually make learning the stuff interesting, unlike any text books you may have tried. Each tutorial features try-it-yourself examples, so you can actually see and feel what it is you're learning. The tool I find to be the most helpful is an on-line HTML editor. This device allows you to play around with the examples given, edit them, and see what your changes did. The editor simply opens in a pop up window so you don't have to download anything. And it beats having to create your own text document and loading it into your browser.

W3 Schools

Discover new music with Pandora

If you're anything like me, you're always on the hunt for new music. A great way to satisfy that hunger is through Pandora. The good folks at Pandora have put together a massive musical database for your listening pleasure. You create a "station" based on a certain artist or song that you like. Pandora then suggests songs related to your station and you give them a thumbs up, or kick 'em to the curb. Based on how you rate its suggestions, Pandora then tailors the subsequent songs to fit your taste. You're able to create multiple stations which Pandora saves so that each time you return, you can pick up where you left off.

I will admit that Pandora can get a little sloppy at times though. It can be kind of irritating when you create a station based on the artist Weezer and Pandora recommends Fuel. But for the most part you'll get some good suggestions. And keep in mind the service is constantly expanding its library which should result in new, updated selections for you to rock your socks off to. You can also keep up with all the fresh Pandora news at its blog listed below.

Pandora Blog
Pandora.com

For all the music lovers

A great tool for anyone who enjoys music. Allmusic.com features an extensive database that can be searched by artist, album, or song. I have very rarely failed to find an artist or song I was searching for and it even allows you to sample songs which comes in handy if you're not sure if you want to buy an album. The writers at allmusic.com review every album and give you their picks for top albums and standout songs. New releases are critiqued and featured on the main page so you can always keep up with what's coming out.

I use this site all the time and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys music. Whatever your musical taste, allmusic.com will have boatloads of info for you.

Allmusic

Welcome to MindJerky.net!

Hello to all. My name is Ty and this is my first experience with blogging. Ok, so that sounded a little like an intro to an AA meeting. Work with me here though, as I'm jumping in head first and let's hope I don't hit any sharp objects on the way down! On a serious note, I intend to make this blog a place people can come to find interesting and useful information. I know that sounds a little vague, but I'll be covering a variety of topics such as music, movies, photoshop, and sports to name a few. I hope you enjoy the blog and find it to be worthwhile!