scrubs

Clean your computer's clock

This program, like many others, promises to clean your Registry, make your computer run faster, and, if you're lucky, do your dishes, too. At least when it comes to cleaning your Registry, Advanced Registry Optimizer seems to do a pretty good job.

The scan process was easy to initiate and was done in about 3 minutes, although don't forget that the scan time depends on the computer system. A smart-looking row of five tabs and their labels makes navigating the program options stress-free, and the lack of lag on the system was much appreciated. The user interface has … Read more

Clean up text quickly

TextSoap is a powerful utility with a single purpose: to quickly clean up text from any source, so that you can reuse it in other applications. A godsend for software developers and Web designers who have to frequently work with a motley variety of text, TextSoap can almost instantly remove extra spaces and "garbage characters" while still maintaining text formatting--and it can also automatically convert formatting like bold and italics into its HTML equivalent by inserting tags.

The app's clean interface looks much like any simple text editor, but you'll find most of its power in … Read more

iPhone OS 3.0: The new podcast controls

You can keep your copy/paste, MMS, and tethering--for me, the best thing about iPhone OS 3.0 is the new and improved podcast controls (which are also available in audiobooks). Here's the rundown:

Adjustable scrub speed If you've ever tried to jump forward or back in a podcast (meaning dragging the scrubber across the timeline), you know it's virtually impossible to hit the spot you want. OS 3.0 fine-tunes the scrub controls: tap and hold the position marker, then slowly drag your finger down to access different scrub speeds: high-speed, half-speed, quarter-speed, and finally "… Read more

Where we can't show you our tattoos

EPISODE 65

UPDATE: NASA Etsy contest story here.

A.viary.com co-founder Michael Galpert joins us to talk about Adobe's latest online foray into a bad version of Photoshop (on the Web!). Plus a transgendered male is pregnant, and we start a contest (on a completely unrelated note) to create human-animal hybrids. If you want to win the board game Weird USA or just for the Hell of it, send us photos of the 404 host or just some guys as animal hybrids. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Brushing teeth by remote control

We're not ashamed to admit that we like toothbrushes here at Crave, as well as anything else that promotes oral hygiene. (Note to co-workers: You know who you are.)

So nothing delights us more than an opportunity to combine technology with our favorite OCD subject. The new "Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide" is kind of like a remote-controlled cleaning system for the mouth. Using a "sink-top LCD display that wirelessly guides your brushing," according to CrunchGear, "it clocks you to make sure you are moving your bristles long enough and makes sure you get each '… Read more

ScrubIt antiporn DNS heralds future security services

I am not looking forward to the day that my son goes online, because then I'll have to have The Talk with him. About safe surfing. Sites he can and cannot view. Or I'll have to somehow rig the family computer or our home network's router so he can't view the sites I don't want him to. More likely, I'll do both.

There are products that can help: Filtering systems (like Naomi) that work on PCs, and services that work with popular routers, which attempt to block your computers from viewing entire classes of … Read more