marker

Whether you're doing graphic design, Web design, desktop publishing, or some other task where proportions and positions matter, it can be useful to have onscreen markers that denote specific spots on your screen. Screen Markers is a simple program that does exactly that. It's not fancy, but it will do the job if you need a reminder of an object's size or location on your screen.

The program's interface is all business, and it's adorned with various abbreviations that took us a minute to figure out, though our background admittedly is not in design. If … Read more

It appears that a single gene variation provides clues as to how rapidly Alzheimer's disease will progress, according to an international investigation of tau proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which was led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings were reported online yesterday in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics.

It has recently been established in multiple studies that elevated levels of this protein in cerebrospinal fluid indicate Alzheimer's, and that because symptoms can reveal themselves slowly, testing levels of tau would offer a glimpse into the future--a red pill, if you … Read more

Exif wMarker is a basic program that applies watermarks to batches of images. With the capability to apply not only custom text but also EXIF and IPTC information to images, this program gives you some extra options for creating useful watermarks.

The program's interface is plain and fairly intuitive: Simply select the source and destination folders for the images to which you want to add watermarks, and then input the actual watermark information, which is formatted as a separate header and footer on each image. You can write freeform text or easily insert File, EXIF, and IPTC metadata information … Read more

We were underwhelmed by this program's ability to mark up a Web page, and found the options too few and the steps too many. eMarker only works on MHT files, so you'll have to save the Web page first. Instead of guiding you through the process, you're left on your own to figure it out.

In fact, eMarker gets off on the wrong foot from the beginning. Each time it launched, we got an error message that we had to open a file or document first. Since there was no prompt to do so, this was a … Read more

Folder Marker Home is like TiVo, one of those programs that you didn't know you needed until you tried it. It takes folder organization up a few notches by letting you customize your folders for quick, at-a-glance access. We're just not sure it's worth the hefty price tag.

The program has an extremely easy-to-use interface. All you have to do is browse for a specific folder or folders (you can customize multiple folders at once), select from a tabbed-style menu of folder icons, and click the Apply button to instantly apply the changes. The icon menu includes … Read more

The correct attribution for online photos is a touchy subject. People like to snazz up all sorts of things with photos they find on the Internet, and hunting down who owns the picture isn't always the easiest thing if it's been passed around without the proper credit. In December of last year, the video "Here Comes Another Bubble" caused a stir when video creators The Richter Scales were found using other people's photos without any kind of attribution whatsoever. The snafu sparked an online debate about digital media rights, and the fallout was substantial. The … Read more

This morning Google Maps has a handy new feature for users who want to give the free mapping service a little more precision. Users who are signed into Google Maps with their Google account can now edit where a marker appears on any location, be it a business or residential listing. The feature stemmed from some of the options found in Google's My Maps, which lets users create their own maps using specialized markers and road directions.

To curb potential abuse, users aren't able to edit the location of a business that has already verified its location via Google's Local Business Center. There's also an official review system that has to double check your edit if it's more than 200 meters away from the original location. If you come across a marker that's been moved, you can view its original location and you think is inaccurate, you can click a link to send it back to its original spot.

While you have to be signed in to make changes, other users can only see the first two letters of your name. Likewise, if any changes have been made you can track them in a history, which shows the original marker location, along with its new one, on a mini map.

Eventually the company hopes that this will let users with potentially mismarked residential listings rectify any confusion that results as a part of difficult to find entries--typically the kind of thing you find in tightly packed urban areas, or buildings with multiple entrances. Google has also put together an explanatory video, which I've embedded after the break.… Read more

Short of keeping a pen, paper, and notebook in your glove compartment, there's not really an easy way to track your driving habits between gas fill-ups. Enter MyMileMarker, a simple and useful solution for figuring out how much driving is costing you in gas, and how many miles you're likely to put on your vehicle in the course of a year. Best of all, you can upload your data to the service for free on the Web, or using your mobile phone.

Setting up your vehicle with MyMileMarker is about as simple as it gets--just put in the … Read more

It's a good thing teenagers are attracted to ironic fashion statements like a moth to light. MusicMarker, purveyor of the too-adorable Tamagotchi-like MusicMarker song-identifying keychain fob, will soon be selling their product at America's one-stop solution for disenchanted suburban youth--Hot Topic.

The MusicMarker helps people identify songs they hear by recording a short audio clip into its memory and then uploading that data to the MusicMarker Web site when it gets plugged into a computer USB port. The data then gets analyzed and (ideally) reveals the song information and where to buy it. A number of people … Read more