If someone ask me to give the #1 most useless application of Windows Vista, I’ll give him, accepting that UAC isn’t a program, the new Windows Vista Sidebar. Those widget’s are nice to play with, but I always liked a clean desktop with only one icon on it (the bin). Why do I want feeds on my desktop when I have my new Google partnerpage? To search the web with Google, starting firefox from the start menu and then typing the search string takes as much time as typing the term in a gadget and let the gadget start firefox. That’s why I immediately disabled the sidebar after installing Vista. Though now, after months of Vista use, I though that one thing could expand my desktop in a useful way: A Google MP3 search gadget. I don’t download songs using Google that much, but if someone asks if you got some kind of popular song and you don’t want to use limewire, a quick Google search gives you the song in 1 minute.

That’s why I started dreamweaver (yeah, those gadgets are just plain html/javascript!) and wrote a small Google MP3 Search widget:

You can download the widget here (redirects to gallery.live.com).

To get a song: Just type the name of the song or artist in the blank searchbar and hit enter.

DISCLAIMER:

This piece of software is only intended to demonstrate the power of Google search and eventually to download non-copyrighted songs. In most countries it is illegal to download copyrighted songs (I mean: Don’t download Norah Jones’ latest songs using this tool, buy her CD instead, it’s worth the money). We are in no way liable for the thing you do with this gadget.

Yesterday I posted a way to stream your iTunes library over the internet. This post has been warmly welcomed by most of you so I decided to write a part 2. It is easy to download the shared music from the network.

To do this, simply download ourTunes from http://ourtunes.sourceforge.net/ (if you are running windows, download the executable).

Log on to your hamachi network (click here to read part 1) and start ourTunes. It will automaticly connect to all hosts available. Click ‘File > Download Directory’ and set the download dir.

To download, select the songs you want to download, right click the selection and choose ‘download’.

As you see on the screen below, there are networks containing 17000+ songs.

A few hours ago I was searching for a way to share my music itunes library with some friends. After trying some different options I think I found the best one. Hamachi allows you to share your iTunes library with a few mouse clicks (and only with people you know so it won’t destroy your bandwidth).

The requirements:

- iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/)
- Hamachi (http://www.hamachi.cc/)

Preperation:

1. Install and open Hamachi.

2. After following the brief on screen tutorial and create a new network by clicking on the bottom-middle button.

The guide:

1. Open iTunes and Click Edit>Preferences>Sharing.

2. Click the ‘Share my music’ checkbox.

3. Now give the name of your network along with the passowrd to someone you know, let him join your network and start iTunes. If he or she also follows the previous two steps (not the netwrk creation) you will also be able to listen to his/her music!

Troubleshooting

Q: I cannot see any shared music?
A: Two solutions:
1. restart iTunes (simple, isn’t it?)
2. In iTunes click Edit>Preferences>Sharing and click the ‘Look for shared music’ checkbox

CLICK HERE TO READ PART 2!!!
Disclaimer

Of course you need to respect copyright. I think you know that it is illegal to share songs that contain a copyright. Use this guide only to share your homemade music.