Posts filed under 'Toolz'
What Is RSS? RSS Explained - www.WhatIsRSS.com
I have found out that there are still a lot of people out there who do not fully appreciate the power of RSS…
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.
I myself was a late comer. In fact, I got into RSS when I re-discovered the beauty and elegance of the best browser on the planet, Firefox.
Here is a site I found from Clif’s Newsletter which will shed light on one of the most useful tool for surfing the web.
Popularity: 28% [?]
March 21st, 2007
You Send It
YouSendIt.com allows you to send large files, up to 100 MB, for free to any e-mail address. This is great when you need to send a large file but your e-mail account has an attachment size limit. It is also helpful if you e-mail blocks the file type you want to send, such as zip files.
YouSendIt lets businesses, professionals and consumers move big files. If you know how to use email, you can easily use the YouSendIt service. YouSendIt currently has over 3 million registered users across 220 countries and over 13,000 paid users. More than 400 million files have been transferred using the service and YouSendIt is transferring over 1 million files with 30,000 gigabytes daily.
Popularity: 23% [?]
March 14th, 2007
I haven’t tried this out, and I’d probably get arrested if I did but they look like a lot of fun. Axdo.net sells a exhaust flame thrower kit that will transform your car’s exhaust pipe into flame thrower. For $44.95 you can turn your car into the ultimate cop bate.
Popularity: 35% [?]
March 13th, 2007
ReasonableAgreement.org
Everywhere we go we are confronted, usually in very small text, by quasi-legal agreements. When you install software you must click on an “I agree” button before completing the installation, when you sign a credit card slip at many major retailers you are also signing a legal agreement with the store. Everywhere you turn you are asked to give up your consumer rights.
ReasonableAgreement.org has come up with a counter-agreement (an anti-EULA) for consumers to fight back with.
Frankly, it’s all bullshit. The way the system should work is, you buy something, you own it. The law of the land governs your interactions with the seller. What’s the point of having a consumer-protection law if all it takes to get around it is to announce that you’ve agreed to waive your rights by buying something? If consumer protection laws don’t protect people who buy stuff, whom do they protect?
Here is the text of the anti-EULA:
READ CAREFULLY. By [accepting this material|accepting this payment|accepting this business-card|viewing this t-shirt|reading this sticker] you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (”BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.
Popularity: 17% [?]
March 7th, 2007
From the Official Google Blog:
There’s nothing worse than getting stuck in traffic when you have some place to go, so I’m happy to tell you about a new feature on Google Maps that can help. For more than 30 major U.S. cities, you can now see up-to-date traffic conditions to help you plan your schedule and route. If you’re in San Francisco, New York , Chicago, Dallas, or any of the other cities we now include, just click on the traffic button to show current traffic speeds directly on the map. If your route shows red, you’re looking at a stop-and-go commute; yellow, you could be a little late for dinner; green, you’ve got smooth sailing.
We can’t make traffic go away, but we hope Google Maps traffic info helps you avoid it whenever possible.
Popularity: 22% [?]
February 28th, 2007
I’m trying out Bunny’s Technorati Tags Wordpress plugin, written by Stephanie Booth to create tags for indexing by Technorati (see the list of links at the bottom of this post). So far it looks like it is working great and it was fairly easy to install. I’ll post again later with my impressions after I’ve used it more.
Popularity: 38% [?]
February 26th, 2007
Cool Tools
After reading Kevin Kelly’s book, New Rules for the New Economy I came across his Cool Tools web site. This site is updated daily with great products that either work really well, are better than comparable products, or are a great bargain. A lot of the cool tools are only useful for a select group of people; but that select group will find the tool invaluable.
Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group. I depend on friends and readers to suggest things they actually use.
Popularity: 12% [?]
February 21st, 2007
Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the Shiv
This is a fascinating and frightening gallery of prisoner made shivs.
From Wikipedia:
A shiv (from the Romani word chiv) is a slang term for a sharp or pointed implement used as an improvised knife-like weapon. The shiv is the favored weapon of inmates in prisons across the world. It is famous for its versatility - a shiv can be anything from a glass shard with cloth wrapped around one end to form a handle, to a razorblade stuck in the end of a toothbrush, to a sharpened spoon. Some inmates have even sharpened the ends of pork chop bones to make them into weapons.
There are some innovative designs here made from very limited resources. The shivs in this gallery were confiscated more than twenty years ago from New Jersey’s Rahway Prison (now East Jersey State Penitentiary), a maximum-security facility that houses more than 1,500 inmates serving sentences of twenty-five years to life. Prison is a scary place!
Popularity: 12% [?]
February 2nd, 2007
Blurb
Blurb has released free software for creating your own book. The catch is you pay them to print the book for you. I got a demo of the software at Mac World and it is impressive. It does much of the work for you, letting you easily move around photos and blocks of text with their excellent interface. One unique Blurb feature is the ability to import your blog from the major blogging services and turn it into a book. You can just enter your username and password and Blurb will download the content of your blog and turn it into a book. Blurb also has the option of marking up your book and selling it through their site for a profit.
Popularity: 23% [?]
January 12th, 2007
Joe’s Goals
Joe’s Goals is a simple web-based goal-minder. It is so easy to use that it shouldn’t create too much extra work in helping you track your progress towards achieving you goal(s). The site is currently bursting with new year’s resolutions, here are the top five:
- 17% Lose weight
- 13% Be a better person
- 13% Stop smoking
- 8% Spend less money
- 7% Exercise more
The interface is a simple grid with two kinds of goals: Good (worked out) and bad (skipped class). Clicking on a grid square will add a check mark (good goals) or an X (bad ones) icon. You can add as many as you want to any grid square, and at the bottom of the grid, your accomplishments are tallied.
Popularity: 20% [?]
January 4th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts