End of an Era – RIP Geocities October 26, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Clippings, Internet, Websites.add a comment
As of today, Yahoo! are pulling the plug on Geocities; it’s kind of sad to see these websites disappear into nothing, as some were – albeit corny – quite interesting to visit. Of course, Archive.org will always exist with backups of your favourite Geocities, and for ones that are still up, you can copy them to your hard drive with tools like HTTrack.
This marks the end of the 1990s internet – scrolling text, flashing banners, webrings, counters and guestbooks. Geocities used to be divided categorically into ‘neighbourhoods’, but a majority of what it hosted was always tacky personal pages, which will be missed by all.
HowTo: Photo Frame to Info Screen July 8, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Geeky, HowTo, Images, Internet, Photos, Tools.1 comment so far
Digital photo frames are the ideal gift for many people; they’re elegant, they show photos without hundreds of physical albums, and they’re easy to use. But for some people, their gets a point where seeing the same pictures over and over seems a little pointless.
The more geeky among us will be glad to know that digital photo frames can easily be extended using their RSS capabilities into an Info Screen, allowing you to flick through image ‘channels’ that keep you updated with what you want.
How we do this? Microsoft’s tool, Windows Live FrameIt. Here’s a rundown of some good ideas for ‘channels’ that I use with my frame.
Weather Channel
FrameIt already comes with a tool for weather forecasts. Simply enter your location in the world, and FrameIt will make an RSS feed of a graphical forecast.
News Channel
Enter the RSS feeds of your favourite websites to receive the latest news headlines. Whilst I’d personally opt for Google Reader for blogs and websites, creating a News Channel on a photo frame can be used to quickly check local news & sports.
Mail Channel
Some email providers allow access via RSS to new messages in the account; whilst you can’t send any messages using it, it’s useful to be alerted of new emails without having to fire up a computer. GMail uses a secure RSS feed, but you can follow this guide from MakeUseOf to create an unlocked feed, which can then be loaded into FrameIt.
Art Channel
deviantART offers a feed of its popular daily art, which can be found here; you can add it as a Photo RSS feed to have different art displaying each day.
Social Channel
Friendfeed works wonders for aggregating social feeds, so you can use it to create your very own social channel to deliver your updates on social networks. Also, FrameIt has a tool to display photos from Facebook that you’re tagged in.
Other Channels
You can essentially create a channel from any website with an RSS feed, but for those without, fear not; FeedYes will create one for you, and you can tweak your channel to your liking with Pipes, trimming down the info in a website to make it graphically friendly for use in a photo frame.
A photo frame can actually be quite useful with a few simple tools, and you can still use it to display all of your photographs. Got any more creative uses for a digital photo frame? Scribble it in the comments.
[http://frameit.live.com/]
[http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-your-gmail-in-a-web-based-rss-reader-with-freemyfeed/]
[http://www.feedyes.com/]
Twitter Proxies? May 11, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Clippings, Internet, Twitter, Websites.add a comment
Many people may find that Twitter is blocked by their corporate network, as I did today, and it got me thinking; most proxy sites are already blocked by my network, and I don’t have the privileges to install software (such as Tor) or change proxy settings in the browser, so how can I tweet?
And then it dawned on me – there are numerous websites which use the Twitter API to send messages, so why not harness one of them?
Twuffer, which is used to send delayed tweets, is a good one, as you can tell it to send the message now, but you can’t read tweets, only send them. I also had a look at TwitterGadget, which can be integrated into any gadget site that isn’t blocked (GMail, iGoogle, NetVibes etc.) so you can tweet from a website you know, and read your own tweets, too.
Has anybody else found good Twitter proxies? Does there need to be one developed just for Twitter?
Webapps Extending Uses March 8, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Clippings, Internet, Software.add a comment
DesignM.ag has posted an article on unorthodox uses of WordPress – that is, not using it as a blog. For example, WordPress can be turned into visual bookmarking database, an email newsletter hub, a contact manager and even a wiki; Design.mag links to all of the tutorials and plugins so it’s easy to adapt your WordPress installation, and if you don’t already have hosting for WordPress, hop on over to DreamHostApps for no-strings-attached webapp hosting.
This article got me thinking; what other applications do we use that could work for us in different ways? I’ve tried to think of some myself.
- It’s not a secret that Google Calendar can be used to book resources and equipment but I don’t see it being implemented as often as it could be.
- A CMS like drupal could be turned into a portfolio or note-taking application.
- GMail has been transformed into a ‘Personal Nerve Center‘ which is used to store information, bookmarks, to-dos, news updates and blogs.
- I’ve used GMail + Thunderbird as a cross platform, offline sync’d note-taking system.
- Twitter can be used to run a link blog (article to follow)
It’s harder than it looks to think of uses for online software. Perhaps in the future, we’ll see more plugins and tutorials on adapting well-known internet applications for other uses.
[http://designm.ag/design/11-non-traditional-uses-of-wordpress/]
Foldershare out, Windows Live Sync in November 21, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Clippings, Internet, Microsoft, Software, Sync, Tools.1 comment so far
My favourite cross-platform syncing tool, Foldershare, is doomed to die soon.
In its place will spring Windows Live Sync, a tool promising the same great features, and then some.
Click the link below to read the full letter from Microsoft, as it also explains how to prepare for the upgrade, because your libraries will be lost by Windows Live Sync.
Let’s hope this new version’s really something, hey?
Faux Google Gears – wget July 27, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Clippings, Code, HowTo, Internet, Software, Tools.add a comment
Yeah, I know I go on about Google Gears a lot, but Lifehacker’s wget tutorial makes me think of a simple, powerful, and portable solution to back up your online data for offline use. Now you can access your important websites offline, even ones that don’t support Google Gears.
What’s wget?
a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP
Basically, it’s a tool that can download files and webpages. How is this different from a normal browser?
wget can selectively download parts of a webpage. You want all links to be downloaded? No problem. You want images to be dropped? That can be done too. wget provides an advanced level of customisation for getting your files.
[http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/]
The guide, written by Lifehacker, will walk you through advanced ways to download content from del.icio.us, Digg, and Goolge Notebook, but if you read the comments you will find user tips and strategies, which you could just as easily implement into other uses of wget,
Browser Sync is dead. Long live Weave! June 15, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Google, Internet, Software, Sync, Tools, Websites.add a comment
Google has announced that Browser Sync will be dropped with the release of Firefox 3, so many people are stuck for an alternative.
It’s a shame that this is happening – Browser Sync was useful, but evidently deemed not important.
Luckily, Mozilla are developing a new tool to fill the gap – and more.
It’s called Weave, and as you’d expect by the name, it ‘weaves’ multiple browsers together.
It’s possible to synchronize Bookmarks, History, Cookies, Passwords, Form data, and soon, Tabs, Extensions, Themes, Microformats, and Search Plugins.
Similar to Browser Sync, you can encrypt your data with a PIN as well as your password, but there is also support for using a different server to store your data, which makes Weave more open. The source code is readily available online.
[http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/06/google-browser-sync-to-be-discontinued.html]
[https://services.mozilla.com/]
Twitter’s wide open May 6, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Internet, Technology, Theoretical, Twitter, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
Sorry, can’t see the photos, not got MySpace.
Google Talk? Can’t chat there, I use AIM!
Ever heard Phrases like these?
Not with Twitter!
Think about it. Twitter is an open data platform.
It’s easily accessible via the web where anybody can see it.
It publishes universal RSS feeds, which people can subscribe to or do cool stuff with.
And then there’s SMS support. Bi-directional SMS usage, all over the world.
The API then opens more doors.
There are all sorts of programs and plugins for it. Email, IM, anything you can think of is now using Twitter.
More web apps should use open standards. It makes life easier for everyone.
Sync Essentials May 4, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Creations, Internet, Software, Sync.add a comment
Sync. Good. Observe:
[And by that I mean, here's my Sync set-up. As it changes, I'll update this post]
Notes: GMail
You may think it’s bizarre, but see my reasoning here.
Favourites: del.icio.us
The famous del.icio.us is plain and simple, but works great.
Browser: Mozilla Weave
Makes all your FireFox’s feel like one.
Files: Foldershare
Microsoft’s creation is distinctly un-evil. A fast, no-nonsense internet folder sync.
Email: GMail iMap
Storage increasing every day, and now I can have my email wherever I want.
News: Google Reader
So you can keep track of where you got up to reading feeds. It beats Offline clients with Gears, and I extend it with Read it Later and Better Greader.
Contacts: Plaxo
Anywhere you want your contacts, Plaxo will have them.
Tasks: Remember the Milk
Also uses Gears, Remember the Milk has gotten better and better over the years – and it was always great to begin with.
Chat logs: IM-History
Consolidate, sync, and access your Chat logs anywhere, on or offline.
Calendars: GCal
With tools such as Plaxo, Spanning Sync, Google Calendar Provider, and plain old Prism, Google Calendar syncs across anything. It also will SMS you reminders.
SMS: TreasureMyText
No bells & whistles, just simple SMS archive and synchronizing.
Passwords: PassPack
A very secure, very versatile password manager on the web.
TV On Demand Toplist April 24, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Clippings, Internet, Life, Tools, Video, Web 2.0.4 comments
Like most people out there, I miss my favourite shows when stuff happens.
Also like a lot of people, I use the internet to my advantage.
- BBC iPlayer [http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/] for all BBC shows on all of their channels.
- ITV Catch Up [http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/default.html] for independent drama on ITV.
- 4oD [http://www.channel4.com/4od/index.html] for Teenage shows on Channel 4
- Five Download [http://download.five.tv/] will serve me shows from Five.
- Veoh [http://www.veoh.com] for user-uploaded programs, mostly anime.
Quoting BBC iPlayer –
Making the unmissable, unmissable.
