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The downloads folder on a Mac can get pretty messy, but MacWorld shows off an automator script that automatically keeps that folder organized and clean.

Chances are that the bulk of your downloads fall into one of a few different categories: videos, images, disk images, or archives. With MacWorld’s workflow, you can set it up so every time you download a file it automatically gets organized into whatever folder you choose. Of course, you can also do this with software like Hazel, but the Automator script is free and built right into OS X. Head over to MacWorld for the full guide.

Automator workflow of the month: automatically file downloaded items | MacWorld
via Lifehacker
Automatically Organize Downloaded Files on Your Mac with Automator

Before shooting big action scenes, directors often commission rough pencil animations to work out the composition and sequencing. Here’s some footage of an epic Iron Man sequence that never made it into The Avengers.

via The Awesomer Iron Man Unused Animatic

Works with a machete to clear brush

via Cool Tools Reaping Hook

A few years ago, YouTube switched to a streaming protocol called Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, or DASH for short. While it’s more efficient in most cases, you probably know it best as the thing that only lets you preload the video a few seconds ahead of the playhead, no matter how fast your connection is. Luckily, it’s easy to disable.

First, you’ll need to add YouTube Center to your browser of choice, either as an extension or as a user script. Once that’s done, you’ll notice a gear icon in the upper right corner of YouTube. From this dropdown menu, go to YouTube Center Settings > Player, and uncheck Dash Playback. Now, YouTube videos will be able to preload in their entirety, which is awesome if you’re on a slow connection, or if you’re jumping around from point to point.

YouTube Center obviously has a lot else going on, so be sure to poke around once you’ve cured this particular grievance.

Update: As has been pointed out in the comments, you’ll need to enable developer mode in Chrome to install the extension, since it’s not coming from the Chrome Web Store.

YouTube Center (Free) | GitHub via Ghacks

via Lifehacker Preload Entire YouTube Videos By Disabling Dash Playback

The 2013 User Agent Blacklist blocks hundreds of the worst bots while ensuring open-access for normal traffic, major search engines (Google, Bing, et al), and everyone else. Compared to blocking threats by IP, blocking by user-agent is more effective as a general security strategy. Although it’s trivial to spoof any user agent, many bad requests continue to report user-agent strings that are known to be associated with malicious activity. For example, the notorious “httrack” user agent has been widely blocked since at least 2007, yet it continues to plague sites to this day. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if it’s the […]

via Perishable Press 2013 User Agent Blacklist

When time allows, I like to post my collections of the worst IP addresses for the current year. Certainly, there are pros and cons to using an IP blacklist. In general, IPs are easily spoofed, change frequently, and are therefore unreliable as a general security strategy. But as a short-term solution, IP blacklists serve as an excellent method for dealing with specific and/or ongoing threats and attacks. For example, you may use a firewall to protect your site against malicious scanning, bad bots, and the typical evil request, but if your site specifically is targeted by an attacker, spammer, or […]

via Perishable Press 2013 IP Blacklist

No matter what your beliefs, it’s hard to deny that the era in which the Bible takes place was a more, uh, brutal time, filled with plagues, salt pillars, and excessive murders—plus plenty of conflicting moral diktats from the man himself. Now, one designer has built a handy map to help us navigate this roller coaster ride of a religious text.

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via Gizmodo This Comprehensive Map Traces 463 of the Bible’s Major Contradictions

By Dennis Crouch Ex parte Mewherter (PTAB 2013) The USPTO has recently designated Ex parte Mewherter as a precedential decision with regards to its treatment of rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The opinion basically holds that standard Beauregard claims…

via Patent Law Blog (Patently-O) USPTO: Software Composition Inventions are Unpatentable under §101 unless they Clearly Disavow that the Storage Mechanism is a Transitory Wave or Signal

The pinwheel-like drawing above is nothing but black and white lines. When you look at it the right way, though, something strange and beautiful happens: it begins to flicker. You may think it’s just a regular old optical illusion at first, but actually, you’re looking at your very own brain waves.

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via Gizmodo This Optical Illusion Lets You See Your Own Brain Waves