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Filed under: Internet, Web

Reocities: because Geocities is gone, but not forgotten

When Yahoo! decided to close down GeoCities, a lot of us shed a single tear for our first home on the Internet and moved on. For one man called Jacques, though, that wasn't good enough.

He took it upon himself to save as much of GeoCities as possible, by writing scripts that pinged the site to find active pages, and then downloaded them to his personal storage space. The one-man project, called Reocities, rescued an estimated 600,000 GeoCities sites before the big shutdown.

The six-day project started with just the SiliconValley neighborhood of GeoCities, but after a quick trip to Wikipedia, Jacques found a list of all the other neighborhoods on the site, and decided to save them all.

That's a heck of a lot of data, even at the 10mb/sec download speed he was getting. If you want to find out more about this...err...heroic endeavor, The Reocities "Making Of" page details the adventure and the setup that saved a big chunk of GeoCities.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Utilities, Blogging, Freeware, Op-Ed

Appfail: Nero 9 Free - of good reasons to install it, that is

What's better than a free trial? Why, when something's free forever, of course!

While I agree with that statement on the Nero 9 Free Edition download page, I'm not going to recommend any of you rush over to download it. Why not? I've got eight reasons.

1. They're asking for your email before giving out the download link.
Not a huge deal, I know, but it's still annoying. I'd recommend using something other than your primary email address on the download page or something like OtherInbox. In addition to the setup file, "you will also begin receiving Nero News with the latest tips, special offers and technology info from Nero."

2. The installer bundles the Ask.com toolbar

Again, not a massive problem - you can always opt out by unchecking the boxes during setup. Regardless, bundled toolbars are always an irritation during installation.

3. Upon completion, the installer asks you to send anonymous data
It's opt-in, but it's the third piece of the "why do they give it away for nothing" puzzle. A new address for their mailing list, possible referral bucks from Ask, and maybe some anonymous usage info from you.

Read more →

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Free GFI Backup Home offers powerful-yet-simple backup and sync


A good backup routine is a must for anyone that has any important data on his or her computer. Your documents, photos, music - even your Photoshop brushes and settings - those things are all a real pain to recover when they go missing.

For home users running Windows, GFI Backup is an excellent option. Not only does it do traditional folder and files backups, but it also makes backing up your registry, email, and program settings a breeze. The program settings feature is especially handy, and comes with built-in support for apps like Skype, Putty, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Winamp, Firefox, IE, and Opera.

Backups can be saved to CD/DVD, removable drives, LAN folders, or remote FTP. Scheduling, compression, and AES encryption are also supported, and GFI can also run tasks before and after your backup job - say, a CCleaner /auto run to make sure you're not backing up useless files.

And since a number of users sync to external hard drives or NAS devices instead of backing up, GFI can also handle synchronization tasks, too. It's an excellent, free way to keep your data safe.

If you'd rather not register on the GFI site to get the download, you can also find it at Snapfiles.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Web services, web 2.0, Web

Wobzip extracts archive files before you download


Upon first reading about Wobzip, I wasn't convinced about the usefulness of a web-based tool to decompress archive files. With my back-breakingly slow 30k/s upload cap, anything over a few megs would be brutal to even submit for processing. In that case, a desktop app like 7zip or Winrar makes infinitely more sense.

What I did find handy about the service is its ability to extract files from a URL. Anyone that has to download driver files from a hardware manufacturer can benefit from this: instead of needing to download a 200mb file just for one or two megs of files for your OS, fire the URL into Wobzip and download only what you need. As an added bonus, Wobzip also scans the extracted files for viruses.

Success with unzipping from a URL produced mixed results: http worked every time, but ftp was hit-or-miss. A number of sites that I'd like to be able to use Wobzip on only provide ftp downloads, so I'd like to see that addressed.

Shortcomings aside, Wobzip is a handy site to add to your bookmarks - even if you're only going to use it once in a blue moon.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Web services, web 2.0, Browsers, Web

BackupURL creates, archives web snapshots


Plenty of options exist for the odd time you want to capture a web page exactly the way you see it. BackupURL is an interesting new option - think of it as an on-demand Wayback Machine.

Just copy and paste a URL and press the backup button, and a truncated link is created for you. For example, the TSN page above - its content has likely changed if you visit the original link, but the BackupURL snapshot is perfectly preserved.

There are some limitation. It shouldn't come as a suprise that some Flash elements and embedded videos won't be captured. Still, BackupURL is a handy way to capture pages where content changes frequently.

There isn't much information on the site just yet, so I wouldn't recommend using BackupURL for archiving anything of critical importance. At least not until they provide some important details like how long your snapshots will be saved.

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Pismo File Mount turns any ZIP or ISO file into a virtual drive

Pismo File MountThere are plenty of utilities that will let you mount a disc image as a virtual drive, allowing you to browse the contents without actually burning the image to a disc. But Pismo File Mount is one of the easiest to use that we've seen -- and it has the added benefit of also being able to mount ZIP archives.

To install the free Windows utility you just need to download and run the PFM Audit Package found on the Pismo web site. Once the program is installed, you can mount a ZIP or ISO file by right-clicking on the file and selecting Mount or Quick Mount from the context menu. You can also launch Pismo File Mount first and then browse for the files you want to mount.

Once you map the archive to a virtual drive, you can should be able to view the contents in Windows Explorer. You can also decide whether or not you want read/write or read only access to the archived files.

[via Freeware Genius]

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Browser Tips

Preview the contents of ZIP files before downloading with Archview for Firefox

Archview

Don't want to download a massive ZIP or RAR file just so you can extract one tiny file contained in the archive? ArchView is a Firefox add-on that will let you preview the contents of ZIP and RAR files posted online before you download them. And you can even download individual files from within the archive.

Archview hangs out in your status bar where you can click on it to enable or disable the plugin or change its settings. Future versions will add support for additional archive formats including ISO and 7z. Archview supports Firefox 2 and Firefox 3, but the version available at the official Firefox add-ons page claims that it isn't compatible with Firefox 3 beta 5 r Firefox 3 RC1. This isn't true, but you'll have to install the plugin from the developer's page if you're using anything newer than Firefox 3 beta 4.

[via gHacks]

Filed under: Social Software, iPhone, web 2.0

TreasureMyText stores your text messages online

If you shed a tear every time you have to delete a text message at the bottom of your inbox, or if you can't bring yourself to part with the latest ROTFLOL SMS sent by your best friend, then TreasureMyText is for you.

TreasureMyText is an online service that will store all of your text messages online: the good, the bad, the mundane, the unintelligible. Simply create an account and forward any text message to their standard rate numbers (available worldwide), and your message is forever immortalized.

True to web 2.0 standards, TreasureMyText also has a sharing feature called TextStream (which definitely reminds us of Twitter). You can choose to share your text messages with absolutely everyone (and you wonder why the internet is sagging under the weight of needless information?), or you can pick and choose friends and other members to share your messages with.

TreasureMyText also offers simple folders for organization, and an easy-to-use contacts list.

If you're wondering where the iPhone fits into all of this (since you can't forward text messages with the iPhone), the programmers at TreasureMyText have created a mobile client for your jailbroken iPhone that will allow you to archive your SMS over EDGE and WiFi. They have also stated their intention to create a more robust iPhone application with the release of the official iPhone SDK.

[via Technobuzz]

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Freeware

YemuZip: Free zip utility for Mac creates Windows friendly Zip files

YemuZip is a free Mac application for creating zip files for use on a Mac or PC.

But wait, doesn't the Finder have its own built-in Archive (zip) function?

Yes, it does -- but oftentimes, when you create a zip file on a Mac and unzip the file on a PC, you'll get a lot of gobbledy-gook along with your unzipped files. That's because the PC doesn't know how to read the Mac-specific metadata. YemuZip will zip your files in either a Mac or a PC format so you can avoid the unnecessary information.

The application itself couldn't be easier to use. Simply drag and drop the files you wish to compress onto the YemuZip interface, choose whether you want a PC or Mac specific zip format, and away it goes, merrily compressing.

YemuZip is free for personal use, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

[via Cool OSX Apps]

Gallery: YemuZip

  • YemuZip1
  • YemuZip2
  • YemuZip3

TUGzip: Decompress anything

TUGZip Screenshot
Have no idea what an ACE file is? Got a few ISO files laying around but you have no idea what they are? Well peek inside using Freeware archival utility TUGZip. TUGZip opens every archive format you could possibly care about, and several more, you probably don't.
  • Archive formats - ZIP, 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, BH, BZ2, CAB, CPIO, DEB, GCA, GZ, IMP, JAR, LHA (LZH), LIB, RAR, RPM, SQX, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, TAZ, YZ1
  • Disc image formats - BIN, C2D, IMG, ISO and Nero's NRG
TUGZip can also create archives in most of these formats, Including self extracting archives. All the wile using a 3 pane explorer interface (or you can change it via options to a more standard one or two pane. TUGzip also includes an explorer context addon, so you can compress files into your favorite archive, without even having to open the program. All of this, and blazing fast too.

[ via Ghacks ]

Filed under: Windows, E-mail, Productivity, Freeware, Search

MailStore Home: Backup and archive emails quickly and easily

Have you ever lost your massive email database to a hard drive crash, inadvertent deletion, program failure, or monsoonal winds? Go on, it's okay to admit it; we're all friends here. Well now there's no need to let the failures of the past haunt you; now there's MailStore Home.

MailStore Home is a wonderful solution for people who have a need to backup their emails in a straightforward and simple fashion (read: everybody). Best of all, it's free. As in 100% free. It works with all POP3 and IMAP accounts (as in Gmail), as well as Thunderbird, Outlook, Exchange Server, Windows Mail, and many others.

MailStore Home offers a simple three step process for backing up your email accounts. Once you've downloaded and installed the free program (12 MB), open it up, click on import, enter the settings for your particular account, and double-click your newly created email profile. Wham! It's done. But unlike the 80's band of that same name, it won't wake you up before you go-go.

Once the backup is created, you can leave it in MailStore, export it to .eml, or burn it to a CD or DVD. Or, like me, you can lean back in your chair, lock your hands behind your head, and feel pretty good about yourself for backing up what really are your most important files (regardless of that picture of you and the Prime Minister of Malaysia).

[Via Cybernet]

Filed under: News, E-mail, Microsoft

British Library compiling email archive

emailThose thousands of emails in your inbox might be worth something one day. No, you can't sell them for cash, but archaeologists of the future will be able to tell a lot about the 21st century by looking at our discourse.

The British Library and Microsoft are launching a project to archive millions of emails for future study. The idea is that email is the main form of written communication, replacing the letters sent in bygone days. Of course, the archive will consist of messages that people voluntarily send to the museum, so it might present a rather skewed look at 21st century communication.

Still, if you want to participate, forward an email from your inbox or sent messages to email@emailbritain.co.uk. It would appear that the museum's looking primarily for British emails. So if you're not in the UK but want to be included, now might be a good time to look up that old pen pal in London.

[via Telegraph]

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Blogging, E-mail, VoIP, Social Software

Dev Chair : Safety first


Many years ago, car manufacturers emphasized only new features to entice new buyers. Then some time in the early 90's car safety became important and car manufacturers put safety features top of the selling points for new model.

I feel that right now Web 2.0 service providers are operating like those car manufacturers before the shift to car safety.

Ever since the infant days of the internet, people have been putting more and more data online (emails, newsgroup posts and IRC conversations) without giving it any thought. But in the Web 2.0 age we are leaving behind a trail of data much more personal than ever before. We tell people about our lives, our thoughts, and where we've been with our photos (some even tagged with geo-data).

Read more →

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Web services, Social Software

Website Wiki by AboutUs.org

website wiki, aboutus.orgAboutUs is a wiki directory of websites aimed at creating a free and valuable internet resource. Its entries are for the most part automatically generated, and edits are made daily. Search for your web site and it will automatically generate a page for it if it's not currently in the system. It looks as though AboutUs rips through the site entered and displays the site title and descriptions, as well as the WHOIS information. It's pretty effective, but tends to mess up a bit for blogs and database sites. AboutUs looks like just another way to index the web in a wiki format, but is a great way to easily research websites, without the hassle of viewing source, or reading the sometimes confusing whois records.

[TechCrunch]

Filed under: Business, Fun, Web services, Yahoo!

Yahoo time capsule projections

yahoo time capsule projectionA while ago I wrote about Yahoo's initiative to archive the current state of the web with writings, photos, videos, audio, and drawing submitted by users to teach future generations. Enter another kooky idea, projecting the images in New Mexico. Yahoo is planning on projecting the images from its time capsule project on the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico. Although permission was denied by the Teotihuacan archaeological site in fear that the projections could somehow damage the ruins, it looks like Yahoo will continue on rolling the 15 hours of materials. Dates for the projection are from October 25 to the 27th.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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