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Treklink256 presents:

--5 totally cool things you didn't know you could do with your computer!--

1: Inventory your belongings
Wrestling with the insurance company is probably the last thing you'd want to do after a devastating fire or flood. Make the process easier on yourself by making an inventory of all your belongings ahead of time. The free Home Inventory Software from the Insurance Information Institute allows you to inventory your entire house, with information like each item's purchase date, serial number, price, and even a picture. Just be sure to save a copy of the inventory outside of your home!

2: Cure serious diseases
As you biology students may know, the body uses a process called folding to process protiens. Unfortunately, protiens don't always fold the way they're supposed to. Misfolded protiens are believed to be a leading cause behind Parkinsons, Altzheimers, cancers, and a wide variety of other life-threatening diseases. There probably isn't a single person on this earth who hasn't experienced the heartbreak of having to watch a loved one battle with at least one of these terrible diseases. And anyone who has owes it to their loved ones to check out folding@home. This screensaver uses your computer's spare processing power (when it would otherwise be sitting around sucking up electiricity) to model and analyze the process of protien folding. Once the analyzation is complete, the data is sent to a central server at Stanford University. Someday, scientists and doctors may be able to use this data to treat or even cure these diseases. Note: IMO it's not really worth running this program unless you have a multicore CPU and/or a DX10.0 or better GPU; even a state-of-the-art rig can take days to complete a single work unit, so the more powerful, the better.

3: Sell your music and photos
Do you like to make techno music? Do you have a small band with your friends? Ever wish you could sell your songs on the big music download sites, like iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, and others? Good news - you can! TuneCore allows you to distribute your songs through those sites with little effort and only a little expense. You only have to pay a one-time fee of $19.98 per-year per-album, a one-time fee of $0.99 per song on that album, and an additional one-time fee of $0.99 for each store (iTunes, etc) that you want your album sold through. TuneCore passes ALL of the sales money to you, and you get to keep ALL the legal rights and ownerships to your music. Just make sure you sell them YOUR OWN ORIGINAL SONG, and not just a crappy rendition of Ricky Martin's "Shake Your Bon Bon" (or any other copyrighted song), or you might get yourself into legal trouble.

Have a really good-quality digital camera? Know a thing or two about photography? Need to make some dough? Point your browser to istockphoto. After registering and taking a quiz on copyright law, you'll be asked to send in a sample image to see if your photography skills and equipment are good enough. If they are, you can upload and sell as many photos as you like--although the site will turn down photos that do not meet it's standards.

4: Find the right recipie
What do you do when you have a sudden 4:00 AM craving for a Taco Bell Enchirito, nothing else will satisfy it, and every single Taco Bell in a 50-mile radius is closed? Instead of starving yourself, make one yourself! Head to topsecretrecipies, where you can learn to make all kinds of first-rate restaurant foods. Note that only a handful of recipies are free.

5: Name that tune
Ever try to download a song when you don't know the name of the song, the name of the artist, the name of the album, or even the lyrics? Pretty much impossible, isn't it? Not anymore! Jack a microphone into your soundcard and point your browser to midomi, then simply press the "sing" or "hum" button, and let loose with your best interpretation (don't be shy!). The site will analyze the acoustic signature of your attempt and compare it against a huge database of known songs, and will provide artist and title information if it finds a match.

As long as I'm making lists, I'll end this entry with...

10 obscure game consoles I'd like to own someday:

1: Sony PS2-DESR-7000 - A version of the Playstation 2 that's capable of recording TV shows to a built-in 250GB hard drive and then burning them to DVD. It was released back in 03 in Japan and sold very poorly.

2: Casio Loopy - The first, and to my knowledge, the only video game system marketed exclusively to girls. Most games were either bishojo/ren'ai-type games oh so hot in Japan, or "put the clothes on the virtual doll" type games. The system was released back in 95 or so, long before Nintendo figured out that girls would rather play games like Nintendogs over games like Barbie Dress-up Sing-A-Long. Too bad Casio didn't think of that.

3: Nintendo N64DD Randnet Kit - The marketing and logistic failures that Nintendo made with the 64DD could probably fill an entire journal entry by itself. In summary, it was an add-on system for the Nintendo 64 that was only released in Japan, and didn't sell very well.

4: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer - $700 US for a video game system? Preposterous! Long before the uber-expensive PS3 made it's debut, there was the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. The gaming system justified it's high price tag by being marketed as a high-end AV system, not a game console. Of course, gamers weren't fooled so easily.

5: Atari Jaguar - Atari's last major home gaming system. Had only two decent games. Sold pretty well at first, but eventually got slaughtered by the PS1, Saturn, and N64.

6: Sega Nomad - Basically a portable version of the Sega Genesis, arguably Sega's finest home console.

7: Sega Game Gear - Before the Nomad, there was the Game Gear. Basically a portable version of the 8-bit Master System. It probably shouldn't be on this list, since it sold relatively well, but I'm including it anyways.

8: Wonderswan Color - A Japanese competetor to the Gameboy Advance.

9: Apple Bandai Pippin - Apple's video game system. Yes, THAT Apple. The makers of the iPod. Yes, they made a video game system. No, I'm not joking.

10: Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP Legend of Zelda Edition - Back in the day, you could get one of these new for $250 US. By the time I was ready to buy one, they were so rare, you couldn't even find them on eBay. By the time one finally did surface, it ended up selling for nearly $2000! More sellers started selling them after seeing that, driving the price down to a somewhat less outrageous $500 or so, which is still way more than I'd like to pay.

That's all! Stay tuned for more journal goodness!