Tech Humor: Justice in the digital world

Funny little cartoon for those (ANNOYING!!) folks that comment-spam. Bloggers – you know what I’m talking ’bout!

Image by Rob Cottingham of Noise to Signal:
http://www.socialsignal.com/image/rough-justice-on-the-digital-frontier

What is Twitter? Better yet – what’s a tweet??

Twitter. Funny word for the latest trend in online social networking. There are a ton of posts, articles, videos and more on twitter. Here are two I particularly enjoyed:

Why Twitter is worth the risk - this is a post from Jochen Lillich discussing the benefits of using Twitter and why you might want to take the plunge. Here’s an excerpt:

Twitter asks its users: “What are you doing?” and puts a 140 character limit to your answers. Those “tweets” get sent to everyone who subscribed to your Twitter account, either by the Twitter website, via email or over SMS sent to their mobile phone.


You can also mark tweets that are meant for a certain person by starting them with “@username” (an at sign followed by their Twitter name). If you’d like to send them a non-public message, start it with “d username”.


In a way, Twitter is the virtual equivalent to your pub at the corner. You periodically spend some time there and, over time, start conversations and learn to know the other regulars. Sometimes, you even engage in a deeper discussion, but most of the time it’s just smalltalk. Nonetheless, you learn about what people are doing, what happens in the community or in the lives of your friends.


Twitter does the same for you, but you are able to choose the people whose messages you get. It’s your decision who you’d like to “follow”, as Twitter puts it. By posting what you’re doing or thinking, you let people participate in a little bit of your life. Over time, your followers will recognize things they share with you, be it that you are a Mac user or going to be a parent. You can direct people to interesting websites, maybe your own. Pose a question and often you’ll get responses from your followers in a matter of minutes.

Read more of this informative post here:
http://www.jochen-lillich.de/why-twitter-worth-risk

Another source of great info on using Twitter was found via McGee’s Musings, and includes an embedded video introduction to the service. Video: Twitter in Plain English is worth the watch if you want to learn more about what the creators refer to as “micro-blogging service Twitter“.

Click here to access McGee’s post and watch the embedded video from Lee and Sachi LeFever.

BONUS: Here’s a third  post from Caroline Middlebrook with TONS of great info: Twitter Guide Part #1: What is Twitter?

Now, before you ask, no – I’m not yet a member. I blog too much and between that and the real world I don’t think I’d have the time to manage another network. The service does sound interetsting though and I can see the appeal. I wonder how long I can hold out before I drink the kool aid??

Related info:

• What is Twitter, and is there any reason I should care?
• What is Twitter? (ask Bob Rankin)
• What Twitter is (Scripting News)
• Twitter — what is it good for? Absolutely Something!

PDF Tools: View Docs in Browser, live previewing of PDF and docs

I came across two useful PDF Tools. The first is PDFMeNot:

Webapp PDFMeNot bypasses the need to wrangle with a separate PDF reader application—instead, it opens PDFs right inside your browser. Billed as “a nicer way of linking to PDFs,” plug in the URL of a PDF and PDFMeNot will webify the document and make it viewable in-browser, as well as offer embed code to include the PDF into any web page. To see it in action, check out the Quicksilver manual PDF as rendered by PDFMeNot. After the jump, check out the embedded version.

For more PDF fun, check out our top 10 PDF tricks.

PdfMeNot.com [via steverubel]

Read more of this post:
http://lifehacker.com/357345/view-pdf-documents-in-your-browser-at-pdfmenotcom

BONUS: Check out the comments for reader opinions and alternative tools/suggestions like  Vuzit, the PDF Download firefox extension, and Foxit PDF Software.

The second tool was referred by the good folks at Box.net. Their tool allows you to view and share PDFs and documents online as well as collaborate:

thought you might be like to know  that Box.net just integrated Scribd’s iPaper technology onto our site  so that all PDF, word, excel and power point documents are instantly  viewable online. Now a user can upload a PDF to Box.net, and share  files without that person having to deal with long load times or missing software.


Example PDF file:
http://www.box.net/shared/voxeug6wwk




This works for all shared files on Box.net. It’s a free service

Here’s a bit more info direct from their website:

• Send files to anyone
  Send files of any type — large documents, photos, videos, zip files — to friends, contacts and clients. Forget the hassle of sending email attachments — with Box, you just send them a link to the file. It’s web file sharing at its easiest.
• Keep a safe copy
  Your data is valuable, and there’s nothing safer than keeping an extra copy of important files in online storage. Box is an online backup solution that makes it easy to have that peace of mind.
• Email uploading
  Upload files to your Box online storage by sending an email to upload@box.net. The next time you receive an attachment you’d like to save or work on later, forward it to us and it will be saved to your account.
• Publishing with Box
  If you have a website or eBay auctions, you can host your photos and other files on Box. There are no bandwidth limits on web file sharing. You simply upload a file, right-click on it, and get a link. The file is instantly hosted.
• Upload files to one place for use anywhere
  Box users can now utilize third-party applications with their files stored online, which means you will only need to upload files to the web once. Upload an image to your Box account and be able to edit it online with Picnik, send it to a friend on Facebook, add a link to it on Twitter, and turn it into a custom t-shirt on Zazzle — all from a single file upload.
• File consistency
  Maintain a single set of files online no matter what you do with them. Collaborating with others through Box and your online network is now even easier as you can seamlessly move files from one application to another. Collaborate with others through Box, edit documents online with Zoho, and get them signed with the EchoSign OpenBox application. No duplicate files are required.
• Share files anywhere with the Box Widget!
  Web file sharing is easy when you add the Box widget to your website, blog, or MySpace profile. The Box widget lets you share files by publishing your photos, documents, audio, or video in a user-friendly form. You can even upload additional content at any time directly from the widget, without having to visit Box! The Box widget is perfect for personal media, project collaboration, large-scale file distribution, and more.
• Mobile Access: m.box.net

  Box.net gives you access anywhere to your documents, photos, and files from any mobile device with a web browser. Box.net’s mobile website m.box.net is easy to use and does not require any mobile software. Every file from your Box.net account will be available through your mobile browser, allowing you to instantly share files, view documents, and browse photos when you are on the go and.

Learn more about Box.net here:
http://www.box.net/

Good Thoughts On iTunes vs. Xbox vs. Tivo for Movie Rentals

Here’s a post with some great info on iTunes vs. Xbox vs. Tivo for Movie Rentals:

I use iTunes every now and then to rent a movie for my iTouch; usually when I’m traveling. Last night I rented a movie via my XBox 360 from Microsoft and previously, I’ve rented movies from Amazon’s Unbox from my Tivo. Here is a chart laying out the basics of each of the three options. Below it I’ll discuss my thoughts on them.

	XBox 360	iTunes	Tivo
Minimum Hardware Price	$349	$229	$99
HD	Yes *	Yes	No
Monthly Fee	$5	$0	$12.95
Movie Price	480 Points (aprox $6.95)	$.99 – $3.99	$1.99 – $3.99
Terms	Expires 15 days (24 hrs after you click play)	Expires 30 days (24 hrs after you click play)	Expires 30 days (24 hrs after you click play)
Mobile Device	iPod family	None	Windows Based Laptop

Read more of Cal Evans post here:
http://blog.calevans.com/2008/02/25/itunes-vs-xbox-vs-tivo-for-movie-rentals/

Some great comparative information for renting media via the internet. Do read the complete post for more detail on each of the above options.

Cool Tool: PDFTextOnline – A Hassle-free PDF to Text Converter

Here’s some great info from makeuseof on a  a free, no-registration web app that quickly takes your files and converts them to plain text, where you can copy or save as a text file. PDFTextOnline is a “Hassle-free PDF to Text Converter” with the added bonus of being able to change font & layout style of the converted text, and the ability to access both bookmarks and properties from the original PDF. There are other features on this web app you’ll want to read up on, for now here’s a clicp from the article PDFTextOnline : Hassle-free PDF to Text Converter:

Getting text out of your PDF Documents is often a major hassle. Enter PDFTextOnline, web-based text extractor that allows users to upload and extract text from PDF documents in less then a minute. Once extracted users are able to easily change the font and layout of the text, and download it back as a text file. No registration required, simply click “Start Now” button and select the PDF document that you want to convert.

Read more here:
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/pdftextonline-extract-text-pdf/

Related reading:

• PDFHammer : Merge and Edit PDFs Online
• SpokenText : Online Text-To-Speech Converter
• Free PDF Text Reader – Reviews and free Free PDF Text Reader
• Free PDF Converter- create high-quality PDF from any printable
• Online PDF Converte & Document Creator -Convert MS Office

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Use Google Docs Loader To Get Documents Online In ONE Click!

I’m just getting started with using Google Docs and found a great tip via lifehacker: put-documents-online-in-one-click-with-google-docs-uploader. Here’s a clip:

Windows only: Google has released a simple one-purpose application that lets you upload multiple documents at once to a Google Docs account, as well as add right-click uploading options for all the document types accepted by the free online office suit. Before the free app’s release, meant to show off the Google Docs API, your best bet for posting multiple files was through email, but even that had a 500KB size restriction and only worked with certain document types. Not much more to say—it’s a simple, effective tool, and it seems to work pretty quickly. Google Docs Uploader is a free download for Windows only and requires .NET Framework 2.0.

Read more:
http://lifehacker.com/348887/put-documents-online-in-one-click-with-google-docs-uploader

You can learn more in a related post: Easily upload your documents to Google Docs!

To demonstrate the functionality of the Documents List Data API, I have released a new sample application that makes uploading your documents even easier. The application works on Windows PCs running the .NET Framework 2.0 or higher.

Download the Documents List Uploader.

Files can be uploaded to Google Docs either by enabling a right-click menu item or through drag-and-drop functionality. This makes it simple to browse through your local files and selectively upload the ones you want to edit, share, or publish using Google Docs.

Read more here:
http://googledataapis.blogspot.com/2008/01/easily-upload-your-documents-to-google.html

Related reading:

• Welcome to Google Docs
• Google Docs Tour
• Official Google Docs Blog
• Google Makes it Easier to Share Documents with Co-Workers
• YouTube – Google Docs in Plain English
• 5 things you probably didn’t know you could do in Google Docs …

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Good Tips: Update Twitter, Facebook & other status messages simultaneously

Here’s an interesting post for twitterites, Facebookies, MySpacers and other’s using status messaging: Update your Twitter, Facebook and other status messages simultaneously:

HelloTxt makes it easy to make sure all of your friends know what you’re up to all the time, no matter what social networking services they use. Actually, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but HelloTxt does let you post messages simultaneously to a whole slew of social networking sites that allow you to frequently update your status.

You don’t need to register for an account to use HelloTxt, but as you’ve probably guessed, you do need to enter your login information for your various social networking sites. If you do register for an account, you only have to enter this data once, and then you can broadcast your updates to your hearts content. Registered users can also see a timeline with your latest updates and responses from their friends.

Read more here:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/03/update-your-twitter-facebook-and-other-status-messages-simultan/

Visit HelloTxt directly:
http://www.hellotxt.com/dashboard

Related reading:

• Social Networks: Update Your Status Across Social Networks with …
• HelloTxt – Making Microblogging Quicker And Easier
• HelloTxt Sends Messages to Twitter and the Rest
• HelloTXT: Post to Twitter, Pownce, Facebook … Simultaneously …
• HelloTxt: Centralize Your Microblogging Services – Rev2.org
• Update all microblogs once with HelloTxt
• HelloTxt is like Meebo for Microblogging

Good Question: Should Microsoft Buy Yahoo?

Good post on the Microsoft/Yahoo deal from Tech and Biz Buzz: Good Question: Should Microsoft Buy Yahoo?. here’s a brief clip:

Eckel starts with a great line “I read somewhere that over half of acquisitions fail. I think the percentage may much higher than half. ” I think he’s right about the percentage being higher, but maybe it just sounds right. The article proceeds to outline two past big-name acquisitions like “Borland buys Ashton-Tate” and “HP buys Compaq”, and then tackles the current potential big buy – “Microsoft might buy Yahoo”..

Read more here:
http://techbizbuzz.blogspot.com/2008/02/good-question-should-microsoft-buy.html

yep – Yahoo! hands its music business to Rhapsody

In a post over at download squad titled Yahoo! hands its music business to Rhapsody, author Brad Linder provides some interesting info:

Yahoo! is preparing to dump its Yahoo! Music Unlimited service and replace it with a partnership with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody. A few weeks ago we reported on a rumor that Yahoo! was exploring the idea of launching a DRM-free music store to compete with Apple and Amazon. It looks like the company decided to go another direction.

Both Yahoo! Music Unlimited and Rhapsody allow users to access a large library of on-demand music for a subscription fee. But while Yahoo! has been charging $5.99 to $8.99 per month, Rhapsody charges $12.99 per month. Existing users will have their accounts automatically transferred to Rhapsody, with their music libraries intact. But when you’re contract runs out, you’ll be charged the higher rate. 

read more here:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/04/yahoo-hands-its-music-business-to-rhapsody/

I wonder how this all ties into the Yahoo! / Microsoft talks going on? Here’s some related reading:

• Yahoo partners with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody Puget Sound Business …
• Rhapsody on Yahoo! Music
• Yahoo selling music service to Rhapsody America – Yahoo! News
• Yahoo partners with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody: Financial News – Yahoo …
• Yahoo says Rhapsody will handle its digital music | Technology …

How to add your URL, Website or Blog to Google

A pretty easy solution is offered by Google itself – Add your URL to Google. Here’s a bit’o info from the page:

Share your place on the net with us.
We add and update new sites to our index each time we crawl the web, and we invite you to submit your URL here. We do not add all submitted URLs to our index, and we cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when or if they will appear.

Please enter your full URL, including the http:// prefix. For example:
http://www.google.com/
. You may also add comments or keywords that describe the content of your page. These are used only for our information and do not affect how your page is indexed or used by Google.

Please note: Only the top-level page from a host is necessary; you do not need to submit each individual page. Our crawler, Googlebot, will be able to find the rest. Google updates its index on a regular basis, so updated or outdated link submissions are not necessary. Dead links will ‘fade out’ of our index on our next crawl when we update our entire index.

Read more here:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
 

The process itself is very simple. At the page above there is a text box where you enter your site URL and a second for optional comments on your site or blog. Once the info is entered you type in the security letters from the image on the page and click “Add URL”. Your site should be crawled by Googlebots on the next run.

If for some reason you should ever need to remove your site or blog from Google click here for more information.