Todd’s posterous

How to Ditch GoDaddy (Redux)

February 8, 2010 at 9:37 am

by Gina Trapani

Last year's trashy GoDaddy SuperBowl commercials annoyed me enough to switch domain registrars; this year's just confirmed I made the right decision. If you want out, here's what I posted about it last year:

Yes, I knew that popular, cheap domain registrar GoDaddy always used sex to sell their services, and yes, their bullying upsells always bugged me, but yesterday’s Super Bowl ad shot my “Stop doing business with GoDaddy” to-do to the top of my list. But where to transfer to? I polled my Twitter friends on which registrars were the best alternatives. Here’s a spreadsheet of the full vote tally; turns out the least expensive, top vote-getter was Namecheap.com.

Been very happy with NameCheap ever since, and their "Not happy with your current registrar's advertising methods?" switching coupon code, SWITCH2NC, still works. Sorry, Danica: I like looking at beautiful people, just not at Hooters.

Vitamin D Webcam Monitor Hits 1.0, Still Has a Free Option

Vitamin D, the Windows/Mac remote webcam monitoring software that we liked for customizable accuracy, and which one reader used to nab proof of a derelict dog walker, has hit a 1.0 release and announced its pricing. There's still a free version that does most of what the (soon-to-expire) beta does, but is limited to monitoring one camera. A Basic ($49) version supports two cameras, and Pro ($199) license monitors as many camera streams as your computer can handle. [Vitamin D via TechCrunch]

Party Booth is a Great Excuse to Bust Out the Webcam

Windows/Mac/Linux (AIR): It's always fun to throw a party and let your guests get goofy with a camera. Free photo app Party Booth creates photo-booth-style picture strips from a webcam, and can automatically upload them to Facebook, Twitter, or other services.

After setting up your camera and connecting Party Booth to whatever social/photo service you'd like—and, most definitely, making sure you know just how visible those photos might be—it's a very simple app to use, which might be perfect for, well, later in the night. Simply hit the space bar, and a timer ticks off until Party Booth captures four frames of your guests. You can set up the photos for old-time, vertical four-strips, two-by-two grids, any many other options, including the addition of custom backgrounds.

Don't like the idea of automatic uploads? Set Party Booth to just save to your disk, and your job is safe on Monday.

It must be said that Party Booth costs $38 for a full version, which isn't cheap for software you'll probably only use every so often. It does, however, offer a 10-day free trial that only nags you upon launching the app. That's perfect for giving it a go at an upcoming shindig, and it makes a nice complement to other photo projects to document your party.

Party Booth runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux under Adobe AIR.

Party Booth - Photo Booth Kiosk Webcam Software [via Download Squad]