The Red Ferret Journal

T.E.D. – Torrent Episode Downloader – is a free program for TV junkies who need to keep up to date with their favourite programs. Missed an episode? No problem, just fire up TED, add the show and it will automatically hunt out and download the Torrent file so you can play catch up viewer later on. Marvellous.

TV-Browser is a free web browser based Electric Program Guide (EPG) which comes with all the smarts you need to track and manage your television viewing from day to day and month to month. To say it’s chock full of features is an understatement, from reminders to favourites to ratings and multi-lingual support. The only slight problem is the interface which feels as if it was born back when 8–bit was the state of the art. You almost expect the thing to go beep every so often.

Anyhoo, design is a very subjective matter as we all know, and that aside, there’s no doubt that this is just about the best free EPG out there at the moment. It installs your local/national channels faultlessly, offers a lovely set of customisations and really comes across as very useful indeed. Oh and it supports plugins too as the icing on the cake. If you’re feeling the need to take more control of your PVR viewing experience, then this software is definitely something you should download.

Here’s a selection of 7 Fun Games Which Are Also Good for the Brain. What, puzzle based casual games which are fun to play, and yet exercise the brain? Sounds too good to be true, don’t it? But actually it’s true, they are definitely cool games and they do make you think a bit. Which is Good!

There’s no reason why maps should be boring, and Worldmapper proves it. The idea is to deliver a range of maps – over 700 in fact – which reflect interesting datasets, rather than just supplying bland generic information.

So for example there’s a map which focuses on population and has a bloated Asian section and a skinnier Europe and US to reflect the different population densities. It’s a clever way to grab a quick visual overview of a dataset. There are also animated maps on the site which are fascinating (click on the Income one for a bit of an eye-opener).

Trompe l’oeil – or trick of the eye – art can be absolutely extraordinary when produced by a master. Here are some of the most amazing demonstrations of the art around.

John Pugh produces ‘monumental’ scale art on walls, buildings and interiors which are so realistic it sometimes takes your breath away. Astonishing stuff.

Ron Francis is a universally acclaimed master of the art and it shows. This window with children playing outside in a garden may not be real, but it is truly delightful.

Julian Beever creates astonishing pavement art which seems to spring up from the ground with a vivid 3D power that is simply mesmerising.

Chinese artist Liu Bolin has already run afoul of the Chinese authorities because his work is considered subversive, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s brilliant. The invisible man indeed. More here.

For a fabulous collection of stunning trompe l’oeil images from France (with before and after shots via the precedente/suivante links) take a look at the trompe-l-oeil.info site. This example features a cinema frontage in Cannes. I could spend hours on this site just browsing while oohing and ahhing. Stunning stuff.

CouchSurfing is a super cool social network which takes social interaction off the computer monitor and returns it firmly back into the realm of real life. The non-profit works by helping travellers hook up with locals to share accommodation – or sometimes just a friendly chat and drink – on their journey, but it seems to go much further than just finding a cheap place to crash.

According to the site they’ve helped facilitate 1.25 million stays, 1.5 million new friends have been made (90,000 of those ‘close’ friends) and overall an impressive 99.6% of users have reported a positive experience. Beat that Facebook! This is all the more remarkable when you consider it’s based around one party opening up their home to a stranger, and a traveller trusting their rest-stop to a remote member of an online community.

The heart of the service lies in a system of references and verified profiles, both of which are designed to minimise the risks of coming up against a nutcase on your travels. People can only vouch for those they have met, and they can give references to indicate honesty and people appeal.

Overall this is such an excellent idea it makes you wonder why it’s not as well known as Facebook. Apart from the obvious benefits of cost efficient travel for those on a budget – and we’ll leave aside the ecological issues of the global travel industry for now, shall we? – it has to be a force for good when people from 231 countries and over 67,000 cities can come together both online and face to face to share experiences and cultural differences in such a fabulous way. Great stuff.

Dropresize is a fab little freeware tool which adds drag and drop simplicity to resizing photos and image files. Just fire it up (no install needed), set it to watch a folder of your choice and every time you drag or copy an image into that folder it will automatically be resized to the dimensions and quality you set. This could revolutionise your life if you do a lot of photo forwarding by email or embed images in things like websites, newsletters and such. A veritable keeper.

Twitcritics is an aggregator that scours the Twitterverse� looking for tweets referring to current movies. It then determines whether the tweet is positive or negative and adds them all up giving the movie a rating. All the tweets are linked and visible so it’s easy to click through and check to see if it’s a genuine Twitter account or shameless astroturfer.

It’s not perfect though, that’s what the Beta bit is all about I guess. For instance Amelia is currently playing and from the tweets I looked at, it’s picking up things like “amelia goes to me why are you fat natalie yells stop saying that she is not!!…” thus rating the movie as thumbs down, and things like “Amelia singing me Happy Birthday – priceless. Love my kiddos.”, rating the movie thumbs up. It’s not all bad though, there are plenty of valid tweets and the algorithm seems to be doing a good job sorting them out. Site visitors can also wade through the reviews and tidy it up to help with the process and the owners are working to improve the accuracy. I reckon sites like this must send marketing people apoplectic.

TwitCritics automatically gathers tweets about new movies written by people like you. Twitcritics then determines if those collected tweets are positive or negative to give you a rating and critique from people just like you.

Tags: twitcritics, twitter, twitter+app, movie+review

PC Decrapifier is one awesome bit of freeware which removes multiple programs from your Windows Vista or XP computer all in one go. You know what that means? Yes, you don’t have to sit there in Control Panel laboriously clicking on each program you want to remove. It’s a superb uninstaller in other words.

The only hassle is when it fails to trap the program uninstalls that require a re-start, but it’s a small price to pay for this kind of convenience. Definitely one of the most useful tools ever (especially if you spend your life reviewing software eh?)

Rapid Typing Tutor is a free program designed to help you type faster and more accurately to impress friends, family and the occasional passing stranger. Mavis Beacon is the one to beat here of course, but she costs money.

The interface for this program is certainly cute, with a fish tank motif, but I’m not sure how much it adds to the value of the tuition. And the music kinda sucks. Still, this is definitely a worthwhile option to consider if you’re looking to improve your speeds and are reluctant to hand out cold hard cash.

Screenjelly. Simple, fast, free public or private screencasting app. Nice big red shiny button. What more to say?

If you’re the de facto gadget guru in your neck of the woods, and frankly you’re sick of telling Aunt Mildred which netbook she should buy, then tell people to drop by Measy and sort themselves out.

Measy is a wizard-based gadget recommendation website, similar to alaTest but which works by asking you a series of questions to rate how important certain features are. Using the information gathered it creates a list of products that are worthy of your attention. So far the only gadgets listed are HDTVs, digital cameras, digital SLRs and netbooks but I’m sure it will expand. Very, very useful.

On a personal note, using Measy’s wizard I checked my last couple of purchases (dSLR and HDTV) and the last 2 recommendations I made (digital camera and netbook) and got 3 out of 4. I failed only in choosing a dSLR for myself as apparently I should have bought a D300 instead of a D700. But what would I know? [Photo from Flickr]

Measy makes finding the right electronics a simple and fun process. We help you express what you are looking for, and then match you with the best product at the best price. The whole process is backed by comprehensive research from the most knowledgeable experts on the Internet. Measy is personal, informative, and so easy, anyone can use it… even Dan.

Tags: gadget, measy, gadget+buying, gadget+recommendation