Web Tools

If you are anything like me you are always forgetting the birthdays of friends and family members. Usually I remember the dates of my mother, my father and my brother, and that was about it.

Then a couple of weeks ago I thought to myself: “There must be an online application out there that will let me input birthday dates, and then it will email me one week ahead or so.”

After researching a bit I found a site called Remime.com. It does exactly that. Once you create an account you will be able to input all the birthdays of your friends and family, and the service will email you a notification so you won’t forget them. You can even decide if you want to be notified one week before the date or on the day itself.

It is a pretty cool service, and it is also free, so check it out.

Whether you are a music artist or someone just wanting to kill some time, I am sure you will have fun with the websites listed below.

1. JamStudio: An online music creation tool with a very user friendly interface. Simply input the notes, choose the instruments and hear the results.

2. DubStep: Created by LoopLabs, this online music mixer will let you create a wide range of electronic tracks. It comes with a big database of drum sounds, synths, bass sounds, keyboard and sound effects. Just mix them together and see what will come out.

3. Tony-B Machine: Quite an addictive little piece of software. You get a melody playing in the background, and you can press different buttons to add effects, vocals, change the key and so on. Use your keyboard and you will start feeling the groove.

4. Noteflight: If you are a serious musician, Noteflight will allow you to create compositions online. It basically lets you create, store and hear to music notations online, with surprising quality.

5. CreatingMusic: If you have young kids, this website is a nice resource to get them interested in music. They have a Java application that will let your kids make music online. The interface is very simple: you just need to select the instrument is draw the sound on the screen.

6. Beatbox DJ Mixer: A fun little tool that lets you mix tracks online. You need to choose songs among their preloaded collection, but there are some nice songs there. After that you mix the track controlling different channels, and you can save the results.

I just found a site where you can make some really funny pictures, called Picjoke. Basically every day they add a new photo effect. To apply it to your pictures you just need to select it, upload the picture and bingo. After that you can either save the image to your computer or email it to friends.

The site started back in April, but they have already added 151 effects. You can browse for them month by month, and on each screen you will see a roundup of all the effects published that month.

For example, you can place your face (or the face of friends and family) on billboards, magazines, skyscrapers, movie posters, t-shirts, balloons, computers, stamps, you name it. It is like having an online photoshop for special effects.

Here are some pictures that we made with the DailyBits logo:

Obviously the effects were made to be used with faces, but still we had some fun playing around with the logo. If you are looking to make some funny photos, check that site out. And make sure to bookmark it for those slow days at the office. If nothing else you will be able to put the face of your boss on the cover of Vanity Fair!

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