I have always been fascinated with online operating systems. Now I am happy to say I have installed a web OS called eyeOS. eyeOS is an open source webOS that I have played with before and finally installed for no real reason except to share and for my own amusement. You can register yourself. Just click on the link in my nav menu.
When Mom bought her new Dell laptop, it had many cool features including included Dell exclusive software for the build-in webcam. The software had cool effects that could transform the person into creatures and other extras. When I got my Gateway laptop, I was a bit disappointed with the Camera Assistant Software it had. It had no real special features and the extra effects were pretty lame. After surfing the web, I stumbled upon WebcamMax. After doing some research on WebcamMax and receiving a referral from my friend, I quickly downloaded the free trial to see if it really held up to its good reviews. After a quick and easy installation, it opened up nicely without any lag. At first glance, I already knew it offered a user-friendly interface and even lists Current Effects (which is nice, because after applying a bunch I forget easily which ones are in use). She screen is nice and clear (as good as the webcam offers). Oh, and a nice bonus was it detected the built in webcam immediately.
After playing with the effects (ranging from becoming a kitty to altering the background or adding text) I started playing with the other features. Have you ever wondered how people are able to broadcast their entire screens or use it in a video? Well using WebcamMax, you can select your sources which are the webcam in use, the computer screen (which you can select an area or use the entire screen), play movies with WebcamMax (which amused me greatly when I could play around with previously recorded movies of mine), to a slideshow or even a plain black screen (useful when you don’t want to broadcast whatever you’re doing or when you want a simple announcement displayed).
Oh, have you ever wanted to be able to doodle on your cam? Maybe circle something or just plain fool around? Well with WebcamMax, you can doodle on the screen. I played with this for hours. What can I say, when I come across a great application, I put it into use, even if it’s for my own amusement. WebcamMax also features various skins and layouts which can change the experience to fit the user. And to top it all off, WebcamMax can be used with various other popular applications such as MSN, Skype, Stickam, AIM, ICQ, Camfrog, and more.
You know what’s even better? I keep finding features. For instance, while writing this review I discovered PinP abilities. This would be really cool for webcasting. You can choose up to 16 PinP sources which can be any of the sources listed above. For instance, if I wanted multiple USB cameras used, I could select multiple to be shown at one time. Or if I wanted to display my “now playing” from my media player I could select a portion of my screen and have it displayed. How cool is that!?
But don’t just take my word for it, head over to WebcamMax and download it today!
Note: This review was based off of the WebcamMax 6.0.1.9 Alpha Test. So far, no issues!
Well, it's been a couple of days since I've been in Grand Forks. The train ride was alright. Rae and I chilled in the observation car (lounge). We hit 20 minutes of rain and some pretty cool lightning and even though we ended up arriving 25 minutes late, it all went well. So far we've ordered pizza, went for a walk, ran around at the mall (spending a bunch at the arcade) and all out relaxed. We still have a lot more planned.
Well I finally convinced Rae to use the site so I set up an area just for her. So head on over to her site!
Well that's all I have for now. I'll update more later.
Well I'm heading to the train station. I'll be on the Empire Builder (Amtrak...) heading to Grand Forks, ND. The nice little blinking map below shows the route in red. The rest of the line is the full route for the Empire Builder.
So far, the train isn't delayed any (which is probably the second time in my rail-riding career). On the train, my girl and I will be relaxing in the observation car. I'll have my laptop so we can play games and watch movies as well as my cell phone so I can update the GPS location on Loopt as well as my Twitter. Sadly, Amtrak hasn't implimented
wifi on the trains yet (which really isn't that hard to do...), even though many airlines have begun doing so because wifi uses a different frequency than cell phones which uses the same frequency as many of the instruments of aircraft.
Of course, you can still reach me by e-mail and such.
We will be back on August 6th.
I'll keep ya updated throughout the trip.
Well, I would have had this post up yesterday, but my web text editor in the cpanel decided to time out (the entire cpanel login timed out) and I lost the post. So here we go again... [this time, I typed it out else where and then added it]... So basically the reason for the title of the post, "Mana Drain", is because the mid-summer is coming to an end. I had 3 extra days off of summer school because I got my work done early. All I gotta do is show up on Thursday for some stupid book club thing and to present my project. And then I'm free. Hoorah!
Then Thursday night, my girl and I catch the train to North Dakota to see my dad for 2 weeks. You may remember me complaining about Amtrak and their on-time performance (4+ hours late)... And we're expecting some rain for those two days, so we'll see how it goes. I'll be posting updates on Twitter , which you may have noticed the twitter status widget in the top left corner (that I had to edit the javascript for), as well as posting my GPS location on Loopt. I have a loopt widget below that will be updated regularly.
Oh, and I have some good news. I got into St. Paul College for PSEO. I'll be in the Computer Network Engineering (AS) Program. What's nice is that I get A+ certified in the program as well. Bonus! But for now, I'll only be taking an online class so it fits into my schedule. Ah well.
That's it for now. I'll update again tomorrow.
