Such remote locations include but are not limited to:
- your local library
- the internet cafe down the street from work
- your aunt's house
- those weird McDonald's locations with internet computers inside
- the boss' laptop
- Russia
Web-based Vi text editor hits the web: text-edit from anywhere!
Such remote locations include but are not limited to:
Microsoft's I'm Initiative hits Hotmail
The "service" makes using Microsoft's services -- specifically Hotmail and Messenger -- beneficial to several causes. Microsoft shares a portion of its advertising revenue collected through its email and instant messaging apps, and although this is "nice" on Microsoft's part, there's a clear business-minded motivation behind it.
Despite that, at least there's some good coming out of the ridiculous amount of instant messaging and emailing we all do. Though we can't praise Microsoft too much: $1.5 million out of the billions Microsoft makes everyday is hardly significant. Then again, if more companies donated a tiny portion of the tremendous amount of money they make everyday, the world could benefit significantly.
YouTube and New Orleans team up for presidential forum
It's been quite some time since New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, but the city is not done suffering. There's about 86,000 evacuees stuck in Houston, Atlanta and 40 other cities, and there the government currently has no plan on how it will bring these people home (not to mention the city's other 921,332,437,208 problems). So even if the candidates don't show up to the debate, the publicity stunt should help to remind government officials that it's not over yet. In other words, it's a giant call for help.
Despite that many may dismiss YouTube as a time-waster, this isn't the site's first dive into the presidential race. Last year, YouTube allowed its users to record and send in questions, which would be answered by the candidates on TV. And though we know the Google owned site gets a lot of great publicity out stuff like this, we can't help but tip our hat for the good work.
[via Silicon Alley Insider]
Pirate Bay gets a new name: Liberty Bay?
The purpose for the publicity stunt is unclear, but -- considering the company's line of work -- it's likely to get the word out on the highly-rumored rumored Grand Theft Auto IV torrents that all the young kids blab about nowadays. Though we don't think the site's blog will address the gutsy move unless Rockstar starts throwing a fit, we'll let you know if things gets messy.
[via Kotaku]
Troubleshooting RSS addiction: a blogger finds freedom in a world without feeds
"I dread opening my RSS reader these days," she posted the day before giving up on RSS. "Right now there are 876 unread items glaring at me, from a total of 269 feeds." As of this writing, the brave soul has managed to get through about a week without relying on a reader -- you laugh, but some of us are truly addicted!
RSS and other technologies are often praised for their ability to save time, effort, etc, but it seems many forget their limits when they get into the habit of turning free time into work time -- all the time. This gets us wondering: How many feeds is one too many, and -- for all the RSS addicts out there -- how often do you check your feeds?
[via Valleywag]
Add file type support to Vista's Explorer preview pane with PreviewConfig
But fear not lazy and/or less-advanced Vista users! PreviewConfig makes it easy to add support for more file types. Simply open the application, choose the file type on the left and select how to preview it on the right. In the photo above, you can see the results of adding support for a multimedia file -- in this case an MP3 -- which is previewed through Windows Media Player.
Though it was easy to add support for MP3 files, adding more would require the user to go through the process again. This isn't a big deal if you're looking to add a few more, but adding support for 20, 30, or more file types could prove to be extra boring. Then again, it beats doing the registry hack over and over again.
[via the How-To-Geek]
Parenting 2.0: Mom pranks son's MySpace as punishment
Grounding him to his room would only be a blessing: video games, TV, the Internet, movies, phone, etc. Getting him to do chores has already proved fruitless. Perhaps in another time-period, she would've beat him into a coma with a yard stick, but today's politically correct nation requires Parenting 2.0 -- officially trademarked, copyrighted, and owned by T-Mobile.
Continue reading Parenting 2.0: Mom pranks son's MySpace as punishment
New project aims to combine Flickr, Google Earth, and "spatial location"
The goal is to eventually create a service that basically mixes something like Flickr with Google Earth, enabling users to view and post photos within their virtual environment. Flickr currently allows for geotagging, but viewing the pictures within their environment adds tons of more fun to the idea.
Perhaps Flickr should consider expanding its photo services instead of adding video, which it is trying to do right now, since Flickr users seem to hate the presence of moving pics on the Yahoo owned site. It seems a partnership with Viewfinder and Google Earth would be a better move, and -- since Yahoo's busy intermingling with all sorts of companies right now -- why not?
[via boing boing]
Continue reading New project aims to combine Flickr, Google Earth, and "spatial location"
Yahoo and Google go on a date: we'll see where it goes from there
Though the mini-partnership is cute and we're sure they'd make a fun but powerful couple, don't make any assumptions about their intentions yet. As much as Google would like to get in that pair of pants, Yahoo will only support AdSense in up to 3% of all search results for now. If AdSense does what it promises to do -- make more money than Yahoo's advertising services -- the two companies should enter into a more committed relationship.
It feels like Yahoo's just giving up, but you can't blame 'em. Google's an innovative monster, and how do you compete with that? I guess if you can't beat 'em, catch a ride on their coattails.
Browse the news geographically, explore the stars with Google Earth
In all honesty, the feature is a great idea, and we're sure the company has some work to do (hopefully adding support for other news outlets), but it comes off as "half-assed" for now with New York (what a surprise!) getting the most NY Times markers. California, Mexico, Michigan, and a few other places get a marker too, and as you can see in the picture, the NY Times provides Google with the most important of news stories. Oh well, it'll probably get a lot better.
Other Google Earth improvements in version 4.2 include a simpler GUI, high-res photos of terrain, the ability to explore stars and constellations, and more.
[via Techmeme]
Google Maps diminishing value of homes, causing "mental suffering"?
They didn't like that Google invaded their "privacy". Some of the court papers are available online, and if you check them out, you'll notice mainly boring gibberish but also the address of the home. Suing Google has already done more damage to their "privacy" than the pictures on their own.
Aaron and Christine Boring want at least $25,000 and the 360 degree pictures destroyed, but something tells us the case doesn't stand a chance against Google's well paid, state-of-the-art, corporate lawyers, which come from the best lawyer factories in the nation.
Want to Rickroll the New York Mets and fans for the rest of the year?
During this year's April Fool's Day, YouTube "Rickrolled" -- as its called -- every user that clicked on a "Featured" video on its front page. Rickrolling refers to getting unsuspecting victims to watch or listen to "Never Gonna Give You Up." There were several efforts that linked to YouTube vidoes of the music video on April 1st, but getting a giant crowd to sing it on a regular basis for the rest of the year is... well, ridiculous. Here's to supporting ridiculousness.
Note: The dancing in the video is also ridiculous, and if you happen to need an extra identity (hey, some of us don't like being counted only once), the fake name generator is always good to go.
Is Microsoft supporting Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition pirates?
The loop-hole exists in the Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition, which requires a previous install of Windows 2000, XP, or Vista but the upgrade edition will install even if they're absent. The Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition retails for about $110 less than the full version of Vista SP1, which means users can save money on upgrading to Vista by purchasing the cheaper upgrade box.
Livingston believes Microsoft supports the hole since the upgrade edition installs over itself in Vista SP1. Although it may seem absurd at first, Microsoft may benefit from such software pirates -- if they can be called that anymore.
The theory behind this is already at play and has been at play for many years. As more and more users install some version of Windows, others will see it as "the standard", and then they will buy it -- or they'll pirate it and indirectly influence others to buy it.
Continue reading Is Microsoft supporting Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition pirates?
Set-up Firefox to search through text like Safari (dimmed background, animated)
Safari always had an interesting and convenient way of searching for text: it dims the background and highlights text-matches throughout the page. It's too bad Firefox can't couldn't do that. It's now possible to easily add that functionality to everybody's favorite open-source browser thanks to a recent mozillaZine post.
The install process is pretty simple if you use the better set of instructions and files, and it shouldn't take more than a few minutes of copying, pasting, and mouse clicking to complete. The animation process in between "Next" clicks is also fun, and if you're still on the fence about it, you could check out a video or two on the custom feature.
[via CyberNotes]
The install process is pretty simple if you use the better set of instructions and files, and it shouldn't take more than a few minutes of copying, pasting, and mouse clicking to complete. The animation process in between "Next" clicks is also fun, and if you're still on the fence about it, you could check out a video or two on the custom feature.
[via CyberNotes]
Omnisio: online video editing with YouTube and others
The three sites still provide for a very large library to choose from, and you could always add your own videos to a YouTube account should you need some extra content. We can see Omnisio being very useful for all types presentations -- professional or student related -- in which the subject is heavily documented on those video sites (what subject isn't heavily documented on YouTube?).
We can also see the online video-editing service spawning a whole new breed of online-content-remixers, which traditionally take funny and interesting videos, pictures, etc. to turn them into into (what's supposed to be) funnier but fairly stupid creations that usually make fun of the subject and gain mass notoriety. Thank you, Omnisio, for helping us clutter the Internet with even more Star Wars Kid edits.
