Suffire.com | Geek Stuffs, Technology Related

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/spendster_logo.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”133″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /br If you have a bunch of expensive stuff collecting dust in your closet or garage, it might be time to sit down with a href=”http://spendster.org/”Spendster/a and repent for your consumer gluttony. A project from the a href=”http://www.nefe.org/”National Endowment for Financial Education/a, Spendster asks folks to calculate how much they’ve spent on stuff they simply don’t need, and to share their stories. The videos already on the site are a lesson in humility that just might change your habits. And you can use the Spendster calculator to reveal the real cost of those impulse buys, expressed in credit card interest fees or how much you’d have if you bought into Google’s IPO or into an interest-bearing savings account./p div class=”related”a href=”http://spendster.org/”Spendster/a [via a href="http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/10/29/confess-your-shopping-sins-with-spendster/"Get Rich Slowly/a]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/2008-10-28_141827.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”300″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /br Windows only: LastSharp is .NET based application that helps you download music from Last.fm. The Download Squad blog reports:br/p blockquoteLastSharp has a lot of useful options, including on-the-fly normalization with MP3gain, automatic scrobbling, cover downloading, and filtering. Downloads are automatically filed in a tidy Artist -gt; Album name folder structure./blockquote pOne important caveat, the program is in German but you can switch it to English after the first run. To change it, click the tab marked Erweiterte Einstellungen. Click the drop-down marked Deutsh and change it to English, then close and restart the program. Since the application author’s web site is in German, a href=”http://rapidshare.com/files/153395020/LastSharp037.rar”here is a direct link to the file/a. If you’re looking for a cross platform solution so you can save media streams on you Linux or Mac based box, check out previously reviewed a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/featured-download/save-lastfm-streams-with-thelaststream-273032.php”The Last Ripper/a. LastSharp is a free download for Windows only./p div class=”related”a href=”http://dev.xscheme.de/lastsharp”LastSharp/a [via a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/27/lastsharp-silently-downloads-mp3s-from-last-fm-playlists/"Download Squad/a]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/map_quicklink.jpg” height=”149″ width=”160″ align=”right” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ align=”right”/Like to see your cinema options geographically? This a href=”http://hurwi.net/map/”mashup of Google Maps and movie showtimes/a plots your local theaters and their screenings, and lets you look up to a week in advance. Good bookmark replacement for a href=”http://lifehacker.com/software/notag/google-maps-movie-times-104166.php”other attempts/a that appear defunct or inaccurate. [a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/movieshowtimemap-find-movie-showtimes-area/"via/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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Windows only: Pazera Free Audio Extractor extracts audio from virtually any video file and outputs it to MP3, AAC, AC3, WMA, or WAV formats. Just plug in your video file (it supports AVI, FLV, MP4, MPG, and more) into the program, choose your output type, and let it rip. Pazera takes care of the conversion using previously mentioned command-line tool ffmpeg, and you can set several preference adjustments to get the exact output you want. As an added bonus, Pazera also works as a basic audio-to-audio converter. Pazero Free Audio Extractor is a free download, Windows only. If you’re looking to rip DVD straight to an MP3, check out peviously mentioned Free DVD MP3 Ripper.

Iowa State University researchers further blurred the line between wartime operations and video games this week when they revealed a “next generation control interface” for military UAVs. The $4.2 million system, currently under development at the university’s Virtual Reality Applications Center, will provide ground control UAV stations with views of the drones, the surrounding terrain, and overall battlefield. If the program sees complete success, it will allow a single operator to control multiple UAVs, and monitor each of their on board instruments, cameras and, naturally, weapons. The system does this using a combination of eye-tracking, voice control and interactive large screen displays—in other words, the kind of rig many uber geeks already use to play an online FPS.

VRAC officials have seen early success with the program thanks, in part, to the ass-backwards approach they’ve taken to remote UAV control:

This approach inverts the typical paradigm for conveying information to UAV jockeys, according to VRAC. Because rather than augmenting the real-time camera picture with sensor generated information, the new interface works more like a virtual operating theater-one that’s constantly fed by a myriad array of spatial and temporal information sources.

“We’re also developing and measuring the effectiveness of new human interface techniques, which will enable operators to effectively control multiple, semi-autonomous aircraft,” said research director Dr. James Oliver. “Already, up to 230 persons can be interfaced to participate in the system simultaneously.”

Again, that sounds like a kick ass LAN party to me. A deadly LAN party, that is. [CNET]