"My Name Is Earl" Season 2

Season 2

---

Season 2, Episode 1: Very Bad Things Original Air Date—21 September 2006 Earl helps Joy try to get rid of a stolen delivery truck, which becomes harder when they discover that someone is still in the back of the truck.

---

Season 2, Episode 2: Jump for Joy Original Air Date—29 September 2006 Earl and Randy ask Catalina to return to her old job at the strip club, but they don't tell her that they need her to do it so that the club's owner will pay for Joy's bail.

---

Season 2, Episode 3: Sticks & Stones Original Air Date—21 September 2006 Earl makes up for teasing a mustached girl in school, and it forces him to confront his fear of taking his shirt off in public.

---

Season 2, Episode 4: Larceny of a Kitty Cat Original Air Date—12 October 2006 Randy has a crush on the the next woman on Earl's list, so he pretends to be a cat lover. But based on Randy's past experiences as a poser, Earl knows that this one will end badly.

---

Season 2, Episode 5: Van Hickey Original Air Date—19 October 2006 Earl has to get his old band back together to take care of an elderly man on his list. But it only brings out a nasty secret which ultimately forces Earl to marry Ralph's mom.

---

Season 2, Episode 6: Made a Lady Think I Was God Original Air Date—2 November 2006 Earl wants to make amends to an angry, bitter trailer park manager for playing a trick on her. But the trick caused her to change her life for the better, and the apology makes her even angrier than she ever was.

---

Season 2, Episode 7: Mailbox Original Air Date—9 November 2006 Earl promises to help a man from the trailer park win the girl of his dreams, but he falls for her instead. And Joy gets mad at Darnell when she learns that he's in the Witness Protection Program.

---

Season 2, Episode 8: Robbed a Stoner Blind Original Air Date—16 November 2006 Earl makes up for stealing an air conditioner from a stoner and winds up living on a commune for a week. The experience makes him environmentally conscious, which only frustrates him even more.

---

Season 2, Episode 9: Born a Gamblin Man Original Air Date—30 November 2006 Earl tries to make Kenny more masculine at his request, but he just winds up getting them addicted to gambling. His addiction causes Catalina to be deported, right before Randy was going to declare his love for her.

---

Season 2, Episode 10: South of the Border: Part Uno Original Air Date—7 December 2006 Earl and Randy go to Mexico to bring Catalina back and hopefully give Randy a chance to win her heart, but Earl's fear of flying causes unforeseen problems.

---

Season 2, Episode 11: South of the Border: Part Dos Original Air Date—7 December 2006 Earl inadvertently agrees to marry Catalina so that she can return to the U.S., which breaks Randy's heart.

---

Season 2, Episode 12: Our 'Cops' Is On! Original Air Date—4 January 2007 The gang fondly watches an episode of "Cops" in which they were featured.

---

Season 2, Episode 13: Buried Treasure Original Air Date—11 January 2007 Earl tries to return a set of precious silverware he stole from the public library. But when he discovers that it's gone, Randy, Joy and Crabman each reveal their own secrets about the whereabouts.

---

Season 2, Episode 14: Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck Original Air Date—18 January 2007 A guilty conscience forces Earl to have a funeral for the guy he and Joy found in the truck Joy stole. Unfortunately, however, he can't seem to find anyone who knew him.

---

Season 2, Episode 15: Foreign Exchange Student Original Air Date—1 February 2007 While Earl tries to help a former French foreign exchange student on his list, Randy finally declares his true love for Catalina. Catalina says she loves him too, but she really doesn't--she just doesn't want to hurt his feelings.

---

Season 2, Episode 16: Blow Original Air Date—8 February 2007 Earl tries to correct a past wrong he did to Joy's half-sister, who is trying to become a professional wrestler and can't overcome her life-long hatred of Joy.

---

Season 2, Episode 17: The Birthday Party Original Air Date—15 February 2007 Earl tries to celebrate his good deeds at his birthday party, but his friends' reactions only makes him realize that he still has a long way to go to on his list.

---

Season 2, Episode 18: Guess Who's Coming Out of Joy Original Air Date—22 February 2007 We flashback to around the time when Earl Jr. was born, and as we do this, we witness Earl's first reactions to his second-born illegitimate child.

---

Season 2, Episode 19: Harassed a Reporter Original Air Date—12 April 2007 Earl and Randy work to cross #29 off of the "Harrassed a Reporter" list; meanwhile, Randy embraces the true power of karma and the media as a way to get out of his brother's shadow.

---

Season 2, Episode 20: Two Balls, Two Strikes Original Air Date—19 April 2007 Richard Chubby dies, bringing Little Chubby to town to take over the family business. Meanwhile, when Earl tries to cross an item off his list, he learns the true meaning of sacrifice.

---

Season 2, Episode 21: G.E.D. Original Air Date—26 April 2007 Earl gets a taste of what it's like to teach juvenile delinquents when he asks his old high school teachers to help him get his G.E.D..

---

Season 2, Episode 22: Get a Real Job Original Air Date—3 May 2007 Earl and Randy get jobs in the shipping department at an appliance store. But Earl really wants to work in the front as a salesman, which gets him in hot water with both his fellow shipping workers and the salesmen.

---

Season 2, Episode 23: The Trial

Original Air Date—10 May 2007
Earl is a character witness for Joy's trial, but he soon learns that the only way Joy will get out of a conviction and her third strike is to falsely confess to the crime himself.

Embed documents or images on any web site with Embedit.in

Embedit.in provides a drop dead simple way to embed documents or images on a web site. Just upload a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF document or an image file and click the embed it button.

You'll need to login to the site before getting your embed code, but you can login using your Google, Yahoo!, AOL, or OpenID information.

The service creates a Flash widget that visitors to your web page can use to view the image or read the document. You can resize the images or click the button in the bottom right corner to view them in full screen. I've embedded a blank tax document after the jump in case you want to see what the widget looks like in action.

Embedit.in is far from the only service that lets you upload documents and embed them on web sites. But it's certainly one of the simples to use.

"My Name Is Earl" (2005)

Season 1

---

Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot Original Air Date—20 September 2005 Earl wins the lottery, but loses the ticket. He discovers that it could be because he has bad karma. So he makes a list and begins fixing the bad things he has done. And once he begins working on his list, the ticket finds its way back to him. Next US airings: Mon. Jan. 5 10:00 PM TBS

---

Season 1, Episode 2: Quit Smoking Original Air Date—27 September 2005 Earl decides that the next thing he needs to make right is to quit smoking. However, Randy and Catalina are of the opinion that Earl needs to face his fear of Donny Jones, even if it kills him. Coincidentally, Joy is planning to kill Earl in order to inherit his money. Next US airings: Mon. Jan. 5 10:30 PM TBS

---

Season 1, Episode 3: Randy's Touchdown Original Air Date—4 October 2005

---

Season 1, Episode 4: Faked My Own Death Original Air Date—11 October 2005

---

Season 1, Episode 5: Teacher Earl Original Air Date—18 October 2005

---

Season 1, Episode 6: Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine Original Air Date—1 November 2005

---

Season 1, Episode 7: Stole Beer from a Golfer Original Air Date—8 November 2005 Earl's efforts to undo all of the damage he did to one man's life upsets Randy, who desperately wants to go to the county fair.

---

Season 1, Episode 8: Joy's Wedding Original Air Date—15 November 2005 Earl talks Joy into letting him set up a new wedding with Darnell after ruining their last one, but he only makes things worse by sleeping with her before the wedding.

---

Season 1, Episode 9: Cost Dad the Election Original Air Date—22 November 2005 Earl convinces his dad to run for mayor again and tries to help, so that he can make up for ruining his last election.

---

Season 1, Episode 10: White Lie Christmas Original Air Date—6 December 2005 Joy convinces Earl to pretend that they're still married while her parents visit for Christmas. But Earl discovers that Joy's mom is hiding an even bigger lie.

---

Season 1, Episode 11: Barn Burner Original Air Date—5 January 2006 Earl has to make up for burning down a barn at a boys' camp when he was a kid. But he later finds out that he's not the one who burned the barn down.

---

Season 1, Episode 12: O Karma, Where Art Thou? Original Air Date—12 January 2006 Earl works as a fast food clerk for a week for a man he stole a wallet from. While he's there, he discovers that his new boss seems to be immune from bad karma--he's a total jerk but lives a charmed life.

---

Season 1, Episode 13: Stole P's HD Cart Original Air Date—19 January 2006

---

Season 1, Episode 14: Monkeys in Space Original Air Date—26 January 2006 While Randy goes in search of a job, Earl tries to give an old friend a perfect day before he is sent to prison.

---

Season 1, Episode 15: Something to Live For Original Air Date—2 February 2006

---

Season 1, Episode 16: The Professor Original Air Date—9 February 2006 Earl neglects the list while he hangs out with a sexy psychology professor who is fascinated with concept of karma. But as a result of blowing off his list, karma catches back up with him.

---

Season 1, Episode 17: Didn't Pay Taxes Original Air Date—2 March 2006 Earl tries to make up for not paying taxes his whole life. Unfortunately, the Government is not interested in his money, so he has to figure out another way to pay the money back.

---

Season 1, Episode 18: Dad's Car Original Air Date—16 March 2006 Earl tries to make up for losing his dad's Mustang in a drag race when he was a kid.

---

Season 1, Episode 19: Y2K Original Air Date—23 March 2006 When Earl tries to return a take-a-number machine to a department store, it triggers back memories of when the gang moved into the department store on 1/1/2000--thinking that they were the only people alive in town after Y2K.

---

Season 1, Episode 20: Boogeyman Original Air Date—30 March 2006

---

Season 1, Episode 21: The Bounty Hunter Original Air Date—6 April 2006 The girl Earl dumped for Joy years earlier becomes a bounty hunter and tries to track Joy down. Earl feels responsible for the mess, until Joy tells him how they really hooked up.

---

Season 1, Episode 22: Stole a Badge Original Air Date—27 April 2006 Earl must return a police badge he once found and used for his own benefit, to the officer who lost it.

---

Season 1, Episode 23: BB Original Air Date—4 May 2006

---

Season 1, Episode 24: Number One

Original Air Date—11 May 2006
Earl finds out that a guy he stole money from was going to use the money to buy the winning lottery ticket. So he returns to money to him, which makes Randy very angry.

Top 10 Most Awesome Approaches to Photography

Point, shoot and … what? From amazing architecture to abandoned places, sometimes the subject is at the center of compelling photography - but at other times the types and approaches take the proverbial cake. These fascinating photography techniques take the art of image-making into entire new dimensions.

Some photographers seem to freeze, slow, or speed up time. Others rotate our views in dizzying directions elevate our views to dazzling heights. Featuring eye-popping works from 3D, panoramic and high-speed to infrared, HDR and tilt-shift photographers, here is a visual guide to ten of the world’s most awesome ways to take a photograph.

1) Epic Panoramic and 3D Photography

Who says photography is limited to what a standard frame or even a panoramic one can see? Some photographers shoot entirely in the round, creating amazing full-circle spiralling panoramas or even fully-mobile three-dimensional shots that can only be viewed via computer.

2) Spectacular High-Speed Photography

While most images capture moments in time that any ordinary human could see some high-speed shots provide us with photographic glimpses of faster-than-sight phenomena invisible to the naked eye, from bullets piercing bottles to aesthetically splendidly water splashes.

3) Fantastic Time-Lapse Photography

At the opposite extreme from high-speed photography lies the vast world of motion-blur imagery. From a single time-lapse shot it can be possible to see many moments collapsed into one and create permanent montage artworks from ephemeral events.

4) Inspiring Infrared and HDR Photography

Employed to the extreme and they can seem like gimmicks but taken to just the right degree and color-altering approaches like infrared and HDR can take ordinary scenes and make them extraordinary, enhancing contrast and rendering some aspects of an image more real than reality.

5) Nuanced Night Photography

Night photography can bring out the best in photographers, playing on subtlties of shadow, shade and contrast not visible during the daytime. These photographers range in their approaches but universally add something new to the art of creating nighttime images.

6) Mold-Breaking Black-and-White Photography

Black and white is, of course, where photography began - but is not at all where it has ended up. However, some contemporary photographers have reclaimed this original art and applied new techniques to the old approaches begun by the original masters of photography.

7) Masterful Monochromatic Color Photography

: Monochrome and duotone photography are not, however, limited to black and white. Many photographic artist make marvelous compositions from a single color, shade or tone beyond greyscale. These works can be potently expressive despite their singular colors.

8) Mesmerizing Reflection-and-Mirror Photography

Mirrors are found in many places in nature and architecture - from smooth running streams to finely polished floors. Many photographers continue to experiment with the myriad possibilities of reflection that present themselves in our everyday experience.

9) Head-Twisting Tilt-Shift Photography

Scale are perspective are pervasive issues in the realm of photography - mastering them is one thing, but twisting them to a whole different purpose can be quite another. Tilt-shift photography tweaks our ideas of relative and real sizes and unique and creative ways.

10) Pinhole and Photogram Photography

Who says you need a camera to take pictures? Long before cameras as we know them existed, innovative artists and scientists used these techniques to create images - creative contemporary photographers have returned to them as well.

BONUS: 20 Funky Frozen-in-Time Photographs

While they stage their work very carefully - to the point of it being as much about performance as freeze-frame photography - Denis Darzacq and Liwei have made an incredible art out of perfectly timed and angled photographs.

BONUS: 14 Hilariously Twisted Monument Photos

As with Darzacq and Liwei, Michael Hughes has made a mission of somewhat less-than-serious but strangely compelling photography. He travels the world and replaces real-life monuments and wonders with his own miniatures in self-made images.

Open++ is a Windows context menu tweaker's dream

I've seen plenty of context menu enhancement apps before. Most of the free ones, however, offer a standard set of actions and only allow a few minor tweaks.

Open++ is another story. Virtually any command or file your computer knows how to execute can be set up as a right-click action using its customize window. Arguments are also supported, and can either be pre-configured or requested via a prompt. You can even pick an icon to display next to your entries.

Roll Open++ with NirCMD, for example, and you can embed functions like volume control, display resolution switching, and shutdown options. Create a few simple "move to" commands with Open++ to simplify hard drive organizing chores. If you're willing to invest some time and get creative, there's really no limit to what Open++ can do with your context menu.

The author's download page was inaccessible when I tried, but you can find the file on both Softpedia and Tucows. It's freeware for Windows only, but didn't work with Vista x64.

[ via Freeware Genius ]

DriverBackup! 2

Fast and user-friendly free tool for drivers's backup, restoration and removal with command line options, automatic restoration from CD\DVD and path formatting. DriverBackup! includes also an interactive command line builder.

FoxGLove is Firefox for Google addicts

You would think that Google Chrome would be the perfect web browser for people who spend most of their day using Google applications like Gmail, Google Calendar, and GTalk. But Chrome lacks some of the features that draw many people to browsers like Firefox. So one Firefox user who uses a ton of Google services decided to mash the two together and create an alternate browser he calls FoxGLove, which you can download from Lifehacker.

The browser is based on the portable version of Firefox, which means you can run it without messing up your normal Firefox settings. You can also run it from a USB flash drive. At first glance, the browser looks a lot like Google Chrome, thanks to the ChromiFox theme. The home pages have been set to Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs, and there are bookmarklets that will open GTalk, Google Calendar, or Google Notes in your sidebar. But that's just the start.

FoxGLove also comes preloaded with a ton of Firefox addons that provide enhancements for Google applications. It also replaces the Firefox search bar with the Google Toolbar. And the developer even figured out how to make Google Gears portable so you can have online/offline access to web pages and applications that support Gears.

Flip Title lets you type uʍop ǝpısdn!

I always thought typing upside down was an obnoxious novelty trick, but I admit it can be pretty fun. Flip Title, a site that flips over any text you input, showed me that it can also be useful. Upside-down characters can be part of URLs or passwords for a little bit of extra security. They can also be part of usernames on some services, which makes it a pain in the butt for anyone to add you without using copy and paste.

Using the magic of Unicode, Flip Title totally flips your words, upside down and backward. If you want text that's upside-down and forward, you'll have to look elsewhere (or type everything backward into Flip Title). Despite the practical uses I described above, I'm still against anyone using upside-down text to annoy me in instant messages.

If you're looking for a text-flipping alternative to Flip Title, you might want to check out our earlier review of Reverse Fad's upside-down text tool.

Mailplane 2.0: desktop Gmail client now supports Gmail video chat

If you use Gmail on a Mac, you should definitely know about Mailplane. It's basically a really fancy site-specific browser for Gmail, getting Gmail out of your browser tab and adding a lot of features you'd demand in a desktop email client. You can drag and drop attachments and sign in multiple accounts at once, just to name a couple. Plus, a release candidate for Mailplane 2.0 just came out, and it adds 37 new features.

You can do anything in Mailplane that you can do in Gmail, including the new video chat feature. The new gmail themes are also supported, and you can add your own custom stylesheet. It feels strange to use Gmail in a browser again after playing with Mailplane. Customizable keyboard shortcuts, dragging and dropping, and iPhoto integration are just a few of the handy features that make Mailplane a joy to use. It also supports one of my personal favorite things, Growl notifications

Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 for Windows now works with Firefox

While Adobe may have been the driving force behind the PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader has grown to be a bloated application which can take an excruciatingly long time to load. One of my favorite alternatives is Foxit Reader, which can open most PDF files in just a second or two, while providing many of the same features you'd expect from Adobe Acrobat Reader, like the ability to fill in text boxes or open password protected documents.

Last week the Foxit team released version 3.0, with a ton of updates. Possibly the most exiciting is a plugin for Firefox that lets you open documents in your web browser. Adobe has offered this feature for ages, but again, it often takes forever to load. To be honest, the Foxit plugin isn't exactly a speed demon. You may find it faster to download some files and open them in the desktop version of Foxit Reader. But it's nice to have the option of opening them in your browser.

Here are a few other new features:

• Thumbnail previews of each page
• Attachment panel shows list of files attached to a PDF and allows you to open, delete, or perform other actions on them
• The text select tool now also lets you add annotations like highlights, strikeout, or underline
• You can transfer your preference settings by copying an INI file
• New Foxit OnDemand Content Management add-on allows users to share and collaborate on documents online

You can find a complete list of updates in the Foxit 3.0 release notes.

5 disposable email services with RSS support

If you're looking for a little anonymity and security when signing up for download links or invite codes, a disposable email service is a good option. Instead of providing one of your working email addresses, just grab a meaningless temporary one from any of these sites and keep your identity hidden.

These five sites all provide RSS feeds for your address, which is handy. No need to return to the site after registration, just subcribe with your favorite newsreader.

MailCatch - Choose your own address or roll the dice. MailCatch also provides an iGoogle gadget and creates a subdomain (using your address) for quick access to your web inbox. MailCatch also provides temporary forwards, and they've got an FAQ and forums.

MyTrashMail - Offers password protected temporary accounts in addition to the traditional public variety. Note that the Firefox "toolbar" they offer requires you have the Google toolbar installed first. FAQ and about links are prominently displayed.

FilzMail - Sports a clean interface featuring puffy, web 2.0 images. Create your own address or generate a random one and messages are available for 24 hours (which can be extended).

Incognito Mail - The option for minimalists. Choose or generate your address, and it's valid for 60 minutes. No FAQ or TOS is posted. There are a number of other services that look very similar to Incognito Mail, offering different time limits.

DodgeIt - Ok, maybe this is the one for minimalists. You pick the address (no random generator), you check for messages - they're deleted after seven days.

Do you use a different service? Share it with us, but stay on topic - make sure it supports RSS!

Anyone can make animated digital clips with Xtranormal

I can't remember how many times I've had a seemingly great idea for a skit with one of my coworkers. Sadly, most of us don't have the time or resources to produce our own animated shorts.

A beta web app by Xtranormal aims to level the playing field by making movie creation drag-and-drop simple. If you can write dialog that makes sense and click a mouse, you're well on your way to creating a digital masterpiece.

Choose a character, type in a block of text, and drag in facial expressions, actions, and sounds. The speech is surprisingly fluid, all things considered - no MS Sam here!

You're currently limited to one or two actors, but that's plenty for putting together a quick, fun clip. You can choose either Lego-style (my preference) or more life-like actors to play out your script.

When you're done piecing together elements, just click the action button and Xtranormal will render your clip. If you've registered for an account you can save your work for later. Finished clips can, of course, be shared for anyone to view.

Quite honestly, I don't have the time or skills to throw together 3d animations from scratch. Even if I did, I'm not certain the half-baked ideas I come up with would merit expending any serious effort.

Xtranormal is a great way to finally see your cinematic ideas in come to life with minimal fuss.

Doc Scrubber removes hidden data from your documents

Every Word file can contain a fairly large amount of metadata. This is stuff like the revision logs (for tracking changes), name of the author, last time edited, and last time printed. All that information is there for a reason, but embarrassing incidents have been known to occur when people don't realize what they're sending in their metadata. If you want to avoid that, you could delete it all by hand, or you could get Doc Scrubber, a free metadata-removal app.

Doc Scrubber can quickly tell you what all the "hidden info" on your docs says, or just delete it for you. It'll handle multiple docs at once, and is compatible with Word 97, 2000 and XP files. It doesn't do DOCX files, but those also don't handle metadata the same way, so they're less likely to expose your info.

18 Health Tricks to Teach Your Body

Eating 10 hot dogs in 6 minutes and belching the national anthem may impress your friends, but neither of those feats will do much for your body—at least not much good.

Instead, why not train yourself to do something that may actually pay off?

We're not talking bench presses and interval training (though those do help). You can teach your body to cure itself from everyday health ailments—side stitches, first-date jitters, even hands that have fallen asleep.

Just study this list, and the next time your friends challenge you to an ice cream eating contest, chow down: You know how to thaw a brain freeze—and 17 other tricks that'll make everyone think you're the next David Blaine. But without all that "hold your breath for 17 minutes" mess.

SEE ALL LISTS IN THIS SECTION »

How to embed high quality YouTube videos

A lot of people don't know that YouTube has high quality videos, as well as the generally poor-quality standard versions. The links to the better (not HD, but still pretty good) versions are easy to miss, but there are a few steps you can take to make sure you're watching (and even embedding) the good stuff. Jason Kottke ran through a few of them recently on kottke.org.

First, make high-quality your default setting. You can do this in the Account menu, under "Playback Setup." That takes care of playback, but what if you want to link to the high-quality version of a video? Just paste "&fmt=18" or "&fmt=22" at the end of the URL. 18 is the 480x360 version, and 22 is the 720p version. Some videos will have one, but not the other, so try both if you need to.

When it comes to embedding, you can make a quick change to the embed code to get better video quality. Just add "&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" to the end of the URLs in your embed code.

Digsby = IM + Email + Social Networks

Manage all your existing IM, email, and social network accounts from one easy to use application.

Customize the look of digsby with application skins	Lots of message themes to choose from to personalize conversations	Manage all your email accounts right from digsby
Keep track of social networks and get alerts of new events	Put a widget on your blog, website, or profile to chat with visitors	Manage multiple conversations with drag + drop tabs
Multitask with popups that you can reply from	Combined duplicate contacts on your buddy list into 'merged contacts'	Log Manager makes finding old conversations easy

Digsby helps you manage all your IM, email, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application. Digsby lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It provides notifications when new e-mails arrive and lets you perform actions such as "Mark as Read" or "Report Spam" without having to go to your inbox while also keeping you up-to-date on what's happening on your social networks with popup notifications and a newsfeed of recent events for Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

VoxOx brings chat, social networking, phone calls together

VoxOx is one of those applications that does so many things that the easiest way to describe it is by listing some of the tools it can replace: AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, whatever email and social networking notifiers you use. In other words, it's like Digsby. But with support for video chat and VoIP calls to telephones. Oh yeah, and VoxOx automatically assigns all new users a phone number which people can dial to reach you on your computer.

VoxOx is currently in beta, with clients available for Windows and OS X. Linux and mobile clients are coming soon. And right now some of the services listed in VoxOx are unavailable. For examle, you can link the client to your Yahoo! Mail account to receive a pop up message every time you get a new email. But when you click the button to do the same thing with Gmail, nothing happens.

One of the most interesting things about VoxOx is the company's business model. You can do text chats with anyone for free. You can make free voice or video calls to anyone using VoxOx. And when you sign up you get 120 minutes of free calls to telephones. You can purchase credit for additional calls, or pay a monthly fee fro unlimited access. But every time you refer a friend to the service you get another 2 hours. And VoxOx will also soon add the ability for users to gain points by watching video ads.

If you're one of the first 500 Download Squad to register using our signup page, you'll get 1200 VoxOx Points which are good for 1200 domestic phone calls minutes of domestic US phone calls. Keep reading to find out how to get your bonus minutes.

I tested VoxOx to make a few phone calls and to chat with a few friends. The voice quality was pretty good, although I feel like there may have been a tiny bit more lag than I typically experience in Skype calls. The chat features work pretty much as you'd expect - except that the chat window is much larger than it needs to be. I also found that VoxOx has an unusal solution for sending files to friends using different chat platforms like AIM, or MSN Messenger. Instead of actually transfering a file directly from your computer to your friends', VoxOx uploads the file to its servers and creates a temporary download link which can be shared via Chat, SMS, or email.

VoxOx does suffer from excessive RAM usage, which shouldn't be surprising considering how much this application does. I found that it used between 125MB and 200MB of memory. If you plan to take full advantage of all of the program's features that might seem reasonable. But if you just need a chat application you might be better off sticking with Trillian, Pidgin, Digsby, or Adium.

To get 1200 free Vox Points, visit the Download Squad signup page.

PhotoFunia makes it easy to create funny photos

Looking for some good photos of McCain, Palin, Obama and Biden on this Election Day 2008? Thanks to PhotoFunia I was able to create something a little more interesting than what you will be seeing on CNN.

I have yet to master the skills in Photoshop to be able to make convincing fake photos. I usually fix colors, crop and reduce red eye but I rarely change any photos. PhotoFunia gave me the opportunity to make some pretty cool stuff today in just a few simple clicks. If you have a good head shot of anyone, you can make convincing photos.

Check out the gallery to see the variety of candidate photos I have assembled.

Gallery: PhotoFunia

Notifu: group messaging to help you make plans

If you've ever been in the situation of trying to make plans with a group of people who are all communicating via different methods (SMS, IM, email), then you know how much of a pain it is to keep track of what everyone is doing. Notifu tries to make it easier, with a web app that can send messages to your friends via email, IM or text message, and let you know when they've received them.

On Notifu, you can set up a contact list, complete with groups. You can also set up polls, so your friends can text back a single number to indicate what they prefer to do, and Notifu will count them up for you. Notifu's developers are also very savvy about web platforms, with an iPhone web app available and an OpenSocial app in the works.

G-Alarm

• Summary: Alarm application that forces you to complete a maze for snoozing the alarm...

• Requirements:
Windows Mobile Pocket PC 5 , 6 , 6.1

T2 Remote Touch

• Summary: Super fast remote control of your computer using your Windows Mobile phone. Full features keyboard, touch panning ...

• Requirements:
Windows Mobile Pocket PC 5 , 6 , 6.1
+ Windows Computer to control.
+ Wifi or internet connection.

Control your system via email

Certainly you've run into this situation before: you are over here, and your computer is over there. We're not talking about you and your system being across the room from one another, although that might apply too. We're thinking something more along the lines of your computer is at home in New York, but you're at a meeting in California. Now that's serious "over there." Now that you and your computer are physically remote from one another, you decide that there's something you need to do on or to get from that remote system. That's where the trouble starts.

There are several remote control tools out there. Some of them will cost you a pretty penny. Others are available at a much more modest cost, but there may be configuration headaches involved in getting them up and running, whether it's with the app itself, or tweaking firewalls between here and there. What if there were a solution that didn't require any of that?

RemoteByMail is an interesting tool that lets you control your machine remotely via email. You've already got email on your system, and there's no problem with its working in your computing environment. With RemoteByMail, you send an email to your computer, and within minutes, it will respond to your request. You can grab files or folders, or even run applications on your system. Did you forget an important file? No problem—it's sent to you. Do you need to run a backup on your hard drive? Done.

RemoteByMail is a free Windows application.

Download RemoteByMail

Make Magic Sand!

Build the Starship Enterprise from useless office supplies

Build the Starship Enterprise from useless office supplies

For the Star Trek fan in every office, you too can build this NCC-1701 Enterprise from junk in your desk drawer. Easy to assemble. Impress your friends. Makes a great gift or holiday ornament.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build_the_Starship_Enterprise_from_useless_office_/Build_the_Starship_Enterprise_from_useless_office_.pdf

Make Your Drawings Move!!!

Zoho online productivity and collaboration suite

Online productivity applications are a great breakthrough. They're cheap, easy-to-use, and they're compatible with many platforms. Google Docs is a widely used platform for word processing and spreadsheets. But there are others out there.

Zoho is a suite of tools that includes productivity and collaboration applications, Along with the word processor and spreadsheet apps you would expect, they've also got email, a presentation tool, a wiki, online organizer, and more. Along with these unlimited tools, they're got more business tools that do carry some limitations: a CRM system that supports 3 users, a project management tool that can help you oversee one project at a time, and others.

You can create documents online, or you can upload files from your local system—browse your hard drive, or even email them as attachments. If you're without Internet access, you can still work on your docs and sync them up later. And of course, you can share documents to collaborate with friends or co-workers.

Zoho is a free service. It should work with most systems running a modern web browser.

Download Zoho