balances

General aviation pilots can use Aircraft Weight and Balance to check their aircraft before takeoff. It takes into account the weight of the pilot, the plane's oil and fuel, plus the weight of any front or rear passengers and their baggage. The program has presets for one actual aircraft plus two dummy presets. Users can edit the program's INI file to input data for their specific planes.

The program's interface is basic but functional, and pilots will understand it easily. The first question we had when we opened the program was how to make a preset for … Read more

My mom always told me “Make your passion your profession, and you’ll be a happy man.” She was right, and I am glad I followed her advice. Yet I appear to be part of a minority. In an article about growing disenchantment at work (“Hating What You Do”), this week’s Economist cites a survey conducted by the Center for Work-Life Policy, an American consultancy. It found that between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of workers who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%, and the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% … Read more

Levers is a clever puzzle game with an artsy aesthetic and relaxing--almost hypnotic--sound, graphics, and gameplay. Spare by design, this balancing game makes even learning how to play part of the challenge. The object is simple: you have to keep a series of increasingly bizarre objects out of the water, by tilting your phone and dragging and dropping them onto a mobile-like set of hangers that you build out as the game progresses.

Without spoiling too many of the game's surprises, you soon discover that the objects--including a bowling ball, a pipe-smoking snowman, and a birdhouse with three very … Read more

Checkbook offers users a chance to keep their finances in order with this simple program. Utilizing a familiar design and garnering fantastic results, this may be a dream come true for those who dread balancing their checkbooks each month.

The program's interface is reminiscent of the inside of a checkbook. The entry fields are intuitive and should not be a problem to navigate. There is also an excellent step-by-step Help file to guide anyone who is not perfectly comfortable with the program. Balancing our books was delightfully simple. All we had to do was fill in the appropriate fields … Read more

The last time we spoke with Shaun White on The 404, he was promoting his multiplatform video game Shaun White Snowboarding. We got to sit down with the Olympic gold medal winner again this week at an Ubisoft event in lower Manhattan where he explained what's new in Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, an exclusive title for the Wii.

With the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver around the corner, World Stage focuses on taking snowboarding globally. The game will once again take advantage of the Wii Balance Board, allowing you to sway back and forth like you're actually … Read more

Checkbook Ease Freeware will help you take charge of both your checkbook and budget. You will have to spend a considerable amount of time manually entering your bank information, but once you're done it, it'll give you a clear overview of your finances.

This free program is impressive with its practically limitless options, but the number may overwhelm the less experienced. Users are shown a large screen outlining all their accounts in the upper right where bank account, credit, and loan balances are showcased. Dominating the bottom of the screen are recent transactions and to the right are … Read more

I'm not the world's biggest Linux fan and I don't own a Wii, but I can always appreciate ingenuity, even if the clear benefits of said ingenuity are not immediately recognizable.

Case in point, Matt Cutts has connected a Wii Fit balance board to a Linux box via Bluetooth. So far, all he can do is weigh himself in kilograms and move a red dot around by leaning in different directions on the balance board.

Not exactly exciting by any means, and seriously, it's difficult to see how this could be applied to do something actually … Read more

Life Balance for Windows provides users with an opportunity to organize and prioritize their lives. Where some calendar systems attempt to simply keep you informed, this one attempts to help you meet goals and provide balance in your life. However, users may need to schedule time just to use this complex tool.

This programs looks like many other personal organizational/calendar programs, but the comparison ends there. Users are given opportunities to schedule events, reminders, and other crucial information for one's day-to-day life. Life Balance also adds value by providing users the ability to input their goals, such as … Read more

On the look out for the weird and the wonderful at the 2009 New York auto show, we saw what we first took for an amphibious car--a high-observation area for the rear-seat passengers looking like the flying bridge of a motor yacht. But the Counter Balance turned out to be a pickup truck concept from an independent designer, a garage-built labor of love. We suspect similar projects can be found all around the country in backyards and work sheds, but the Counter Balance, from Barkan Designs, found its way to the floor of the New York auto show.

The concept … Read more