optimism

Determining how to get the optimum lengths from stock-sized materials--such as pipes, bars, and beams--while reducing waste can greatly affect costs for fabricators and manufacturers. This handy app can take some of the pain out of those calculations.

1DNest launches a rather plain-though-functional interface. Although similar to the familiar three-paned e-mail client, this app features four panes: one across the top specifying the current project, a vertical pane on the left for listing and describing required parts, an upper-right pane for listing source materials, and a lower-right pane for entering size and waste allowances. A menu bar allows the user … Read more

Cocktail is both useful and fun for inveterate Mac tinkerers and would-be power-users (that is, power users who aren't hard-core enough to use the command line). This multipurpose utility can help you keep your computer happy and healthy, giving you access to scores of tweaks and optimizations pulled together from various utilities, preferences, third-party hacks, and command-line tools.

Cocktail can help you with routine maintenance and customization across your disks, system, files, network, and interface. Cocktail is organized around these five areas, with highly customizable options for everything from clearing caches and repairing permissions to changing the appearance and … Read more

Pastie is a new iPhone app that makes it possible to send ready-made text messages or e-mails to people on your contact list. This feature has been around on other phones for ages, but the iPhone has long gone without one.

Pastie's method for improving the sending of e-mail or SMS messages is to let the user create a directory of pre-written messages. These can be set up to be copied to the clipboard, or sent to the SMS or e-mail applications. As a user you can decide this at the time you click on it, or when you're building the preset.

If you frequently find yourself sending an e-mail or a text message to a particular contact, this app can be immensely helpful since there's the option to assign it to a specific number of e-mail address. For instance, several times a day I send out group e-mails telling my colleagues at work what story I'm currently working on. With Pastie you can create a preset that fills in the recipient and subject lines for you, which can save much keyboard pecking.

A few things that are on the way in a future version of the app is a way to send e-mails to multiple contacts at once, as well as being able to add text to the body of the e-mail (currently you can only fill out the subject). There will also be a Coverflow-like way to browse through your items, besides the current list form. One thing that's not in the cards--and that I hope is added, is a text countdown meter so that you know if you're reaching the limit of a text message, or a reoccurring Twitter update template you've created.

There are two flavors of Pastie--the lite which is free, and the full version which costs $1.99. The free version is just as capable as the full, but limited to just three presets at a time. You can make as many as you want, but you'll have to get rid of one anytime you want to make a new one.

The enormous demo video of how it works is after the break.… Read more

Auto speaker setup and calibration is a popular feature on almost every receiver and a lot of home-theater-in-a-box systems.

Sure, it sounds like a peachy idea, but the accuracy of auto setup is hardly a sure thing; and at their worst, auto setup systems sound worse than no setup at all.

Ideally, the setup system automatically determines speaker sizes (large or small), measures speaker-to-listener distances, sets the volume levels of all of the speakers, determines the proper subwoofer volume level, checks that all the speaker wires' "+" and "-" connections are properly oriented at the speaker and receiver ends, and calculates the subwoofer-to-speaker crossover point. Some receivers also employ EQ (equalization) curves to correct for speaker and room acoustic anomalies.

What's not to like? Well, it the auto setup worked perfectly, nothing.

But they're mostly flawed: Subwoofer calibrations are almost always off. Auto calibration systems boost the sub volume much too high, and overestimate the sub distance to the listener by a factor of two (so a 10 foot distance becomes 20 or more feet).

Worse yet, auto setup systems rarely set the subwoofer-to-satellite speakers crossover frequency to the optimum point. That is, they tend to set the crossover too high, say 150 Hertz, which unnecessarily restricts the speakers' bass response. The speakers might sound better with a lower crossover setting. I recommend 80Hz for all speakers with 4- to 6-inch woofers; 100Hz for 3-inch woofers; and higher settings of 120Hz or 150Hz only for the tiniest speakers.

Accessing the measurement data post auto setup can be tricky on some receivers. Then you really don't know what you have.

Thing is, manual setup isn't all that difficult and will likely be more accurate. And chances are you wouldn't muck up the distances as poorly as the autosetup would. Running the test tones over the speakers and manually adjusting the sound by ear or with a Radio Shack meter isn't so hard to do.… Read more

Click 2 Crop provides users with a fast and easy way to resize any photo. While the primary action is fantastic, users may get overwhelmed with the special features--some necessary and some unnecessary.

The program's interface is initially very intuitive. Looking very similar to other photo-editing software, it should come natural to anyone with such experience. However, the wealth of command buttons along the top will require a quick trip to the Help file for definitions. Resizing a picture will feel instantly familiar to those who have seen and operated photo-editing software before. A box made from a dashed … Read more

No longer a fledgling upstart, Firefox 3 is full-featured, lightning fast, and an able foe for both the big-dog competitor Internet Explorer and competitors nipping at its heels. Firefox's killer add-ons remain strong, and the latest update makes version 3.5 about two times faster than version 3. However, competition is strong and it can no longer be said that Firefox is the fastest browser available.

Several notable improvements in the latest revamp keep Firefox abreast of current browsing tech. Along with Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine that renders Web applications faster on Firefox than ever before, there … Read more

FireTune for Firefox optimizes Firefox's performance on your computer by allowing you to configure its speed and connection settings. However, we found little or no difference in our computer's performance after we put it to the test.

Right off the bat, we noticed that some of the features this add-on includes, such as the autocompletion of URLs, are features that Firefox already has built into in its current version. It does, however, allow you to set up other optimization features, such as the caching of objects shared over a secure connection, autocomplete for URLs, and optimization of memory … Read more

EnhanceMyVista Pro offers users all the tools they need to keep their computers running on all cylinders. The well-thought-out user interface makes it especially easy to make the most of its features.

The program packs a lot of information into its user interface, but it's organized in such way as to not overwhelm. It uses tabs to divide features into four categories: Tools, System, Optimizations, and Customizations. Within each tab are intuitive command buttons to access specific optimization tools. We were impressed with the program's wide array of options for not only cleaning the registry and hard disk … Read more

This program analyzes and defragments you computer in a very short amount of time. It even goes further to let you manually place files in high performing areas of your hard drive. Unfortunately, it uses a very unattractive user interface to accomplish all of these tasks.

We were a little put off at first by UltimateDefrag 2008 because we had to run it as an Administrator to access it. Otherwise, it produced an error. The program opens with a garishly designed interface that is busy and hard on the eyes. The multiple colors used also make it difficult to navigate. … Read more