useful things, no. 13

o The links I post in this category are generally hacks, and free ones at that, but this $1600 Optimus Maximus keyboard where each button is a custom screen is just too cool.
o YouConvertIt goes from format-to-format for you. Awesome and amazingly handy in theory, but it sometimes has been wicked slow when I’ve tried to use it. It did do what I wanted it to do–rip a YouTube video into an mp3–though it only did so at 64 kbps and didn’t tag it all. Drag.
o SoundSnap has free loops and sound effects. (Thx, Michael.) (I think/suspect.)
o TabMixPlus is a plug-in browser-tab management system for FireFox. Allegedly, heads have been using it to set TicketMaster pages to reload automatically when shows go on sale. Haven’t tried it personally, but it seems like it’d work. (And couldn’t be worse than the Dylan on-sale last week when one had to stop loading the TM page with split-second precision in order to buy the tickets.)
o GoogleEarth-based atlas of album cover art. Perhaps not useful, but a solid database and a functional time waster.
o The Forvo database pronounces words in their original language. Wowzers. Maybe now I can learn how to say those Brazilian/Portuguese song titles properly.