Paul Tow » software http://www.paultow.com Tech writer for hire Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:32:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 Mac pick: RSS Menu http://www.paultow.com/2009/06/17/rss-menu/ http://www.paultow.com/2009/06/17/rss-menu/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:03:05 +0000 Paul Tow http://www.paultow.com/?p=248 RSS MenuRSS feeds have changed the way many use the web. People don’t go to content; content comes to them. Instead of manually checking individual websites for updates that might not have been made, they check just one place- their feed reader- and see new stories from all of their favorite websites. Feed readers are often used as an alternative to visiting the actual web site, but they don’t have to be. If you like the update notifications of RSS but prefer to visit the actual web page, there’s an app for that.

RSS Menu is a free menu extra for OS X, and its interface is very simple. When closed, it’s just a little icon that sits in the right side of your menu bar, and when open it looks like a standard OS X menu. Choose a feed, then a headline and the web page opens in your default web browser. It’s like having Firefox’ Live Bookmarks without having to use Firefox. It also has scheduled checking of feeds, notifications via Growl and/or speech, and optional integration with iTunes podcasts and Safari RSS. RSS Menu is free as I said, but if you like it the developer accepts donations via PayPal or Kagi.

What feed reader do you use, and why? Sound off in the comments.

]]> http://www.paultow.com/2009/06/17/rss-menu/feed/ 0 Multiplatform pick: Folding@home http://www.paultow.com/2009/06/15/foldinghome/ http://www.paultow.com/2009/06/15/foldinghome/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:25:44 +0000 Paul Tow http://www.paultow.com/?p=191 Folding@homeFolding@home is a way to easily contribute for free to the search for cures to Alzheimer’s disease and even many cancers. All you have to do is let Stanford University’s free program run in the background on your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD) or Sony PlayStation3. I recommend that you give it a try if you haven’t already. More details after the jump.

An important biological function that scientists still don’t have a firm understanding of is how proteins fold (assemble themselves). By studying the results of computer simulations, they hope to find cures to diseases resulting from proteins misfolding. These simulations are extremely complex, to the point that they require massive distributed computing. Nobody on their own has enough computing power to do the work alone. The Folding@home project needs the help of many computers from around the world. Further information can be found in their FAQ.

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