Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

School is back in session which means students will be taking pages upon pages of notes. There’s the traditional paper/pencil route that many people use to take notes, others use a text editor. In case you’re looking for something a little bit different than the two more popular methods, you’ll want to check out NoteSake.com.  I always preferred to take my notes in Microsoft Word, but NoteSake would be a nice online alternative if I were still a student.

The first thing you’ll want to do is register.  You’ll have to do this, obviously, if you want to take notes. Registering is simple, and only takes a minute.

–Use for your own notes, or share with a group–

One of the nice things about NoteSake.com is that you can use it for your own personal notes, or you can use it to share your notes among a group and view their notes as well.  Groups are usually a huge part of most college courses, even if it’s just a group of students to study with, so this feature will be helpful for those who want to share their notes with people in their classes or group members they’re working with on a project. Simply clicking the "group" tab will allow you to see all of the shared notes for the people in your group. There’s no need to worry about people getting a free ride — your notes will only be shared with those who you’ve invited to the group.

And of course, you can use it just for your notes and not even use the groups feature. To take notes, it’s as simple as clicking "Take Notes," and then the text editor will load so that you can begin.

–View Your Notes–

When you log in to your NoteSake account, you’ll see a list displayed of your notes.  You can either view "Your Notes" or "Group Notes." To view your notes, you’ll just click on the title of your notes that you’d like to read.

When you go to view your notes, you’ll notice that it’s a simple page with no distractions so that you can focus.  All you’ll see is a small "toolbar" up at the top, and your notes. That’s it.

–Organize Your Notes–

If you’re not so good about keeping all of your notes organized for each course you’re taking, NoteSake can help.  Each time you go to take notes, you can enter in a title, the date, which course the notes are for, and tags. When you’re wanting to view your notes, you can sort by the title, the date, or any items that you’ve "stared" so that you can reference them quickly. With your notes organized nicely, searching will be fast.  And when you search, it will search through both the title, as well as what’s in the body of your notes.

–What I like–

• Tags! – You can tag your notes with key words so that when you want to go back to find a particular topic that you wrote about, you can.  What’s nice though is that you don’t have to tag anything.  NoteSake doesn’t require that you fill in the "tag" field.
• Format your text – If you’d like to make something bold so that it stands out, or highlight something, you can. Other options include italics, underlining, strike-through, center the text, right align the text, etc.
• Star notes – If there’s something that’s really important, just star it for quick access.
• Back-ups – They back-up your notes every 12 hours! That means there’s really no chance that you could lose your stuff.

–Changes I’d like to see–

• Auto-save feature: You have to remember to click "Save &Close" If you don’t click save, all of your work will be lost. It would be nice if there were an auto-save feature.
• Offline access: It would be awesome to see them implement offline access, and Google Gears would be one way to do this.

Wrapping it up

Not only are you able to take notes online with NoteSake, you’re also able to keep them organized and share them with other classmates. If you’re looking for a note-taking solution, I definitely recommend giving NoteSake a try! It’s simple and gets the job done.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on July 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

One of the best sites that I’ve come across for those who enjoy food and entertaining is Chow.com. There are so many different recipe and food sites out there these days, but most of them have a listing of recipes and nothing more. The reason I like Chow.com is because they use audio, video, blogs and message boards to make cooking and entertaining fun, easy, an delicious!

They describe themselves as “a new kind of food media. Not only is our subject matter different — about the parties you really want to go to, the meals you really want to eat, the gear you really want to have – but we deliver it to you in audio, video, and everything else the Web’s got to offer.  Come to us for recipes, instruction, news, entertainment, discussion, and advise.”

No registration is required at Chow.com, so you can just head on over there and start browsing. While you don’t have to register to use the site, it is free if you do. By registering, you’ll be able to add comments to content that they post and manage a myChow page.

How-to Videos

This is probably one of the best features on the site. Just click “videos” at the top of the page to access all of their “how-to” videos. Here you can learn all kinds of tips and tricks for cooking in the kitchen like how to poach an egg or butterfly a chicken.

Other videos that you may find useful:

• How to Carve a Turkey
• How to make a pie crust
• How to Dice an Onion

The only requirement for watching videos is that you have Flash 7 installed. There are many, many videos which help explain some cooking techniques that you may not have known before.

Stories

The stories section is where you’ll find articles on entertaining, different cooking gear, questions and answers, and more.  They also have featured articles. The content is updated frequently, and you can subscribe to it via RSS so that it’s easier to keep up with.

One of their recent featured articles is “Roast Your Own” – The next step in ultimate coffee brewing. If your morning just isn’t started until you have your daily cup of coffee, you’ll want to read it.

Keepin’ up with Blogs

Chow.com is keeping up with blogs and blogging with The Grinder (their food media blog) and The Digest, “Chowhound’s Daily Roundup.” You can subscribe to both via RSS.

From The Grinder, checkout 101 Ways to Avoid Heatstroke in the Kitchen.

From The Digest, Meat and Three

Recipes!

At Chow.com you’ll find tons of recipes! You can browse around for a main dish, something sweet, or maybe a drink. Another option is to just use the “search” feature to find something in particular. 

Recipes are broken down into categories, including:

• Breakfast/brunch
• Condiment/Sauce
• Drink
• Main
• Pasta
• Project
• Side Dish
• Soup/Salad/Sandwich
• Starter
• Sweet

Boards

Have a food question that you want answered? Visit the boards. From the looks of it, they’re very active and if you have a question, I’m sure it will get answered.

There are a variety of topics including inquiries about where you can find the best food in a particular city, cooking ribs, and recipes for children.

Wrapping it up

Chow.com is a great place to go “for those who live to eat.” The variety of media that they use makes the site all that much more appealing, from videos and podcasts to blogs and forums.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on May 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

We’ve already shown you how to setup an FTP server in less than 30 seconds, but now I thought I would show you how to retrieve your IP address when you’re not at home. After all, you do need to know the IP address of your computer before you can remotely access it, and if you have an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that is always changing your IP, it can be hard to keep track of.

There are many tools that will tell you what your IP address is when you request it, such as my favorite this-ip.com which tells you the information you want to know without a bunch of clutter. However, it could pose a problem if you’re not in front of the computer you want to know the IP address for. That’s where these tools will come in handy.

I wanted to write about this because a reader emailed me asking if I knew any utility that would let them know when their IP address changes. Luckily my ISP never changes my IP address so I haven’t had to worry about it, but I started looking around to see what kind of freeware solutions I could find.

The first application that I found is called IP Observer and it is essentially a zero-configuration solution. All you have to do is download the program (download mirror for version 0.8.4), unzip the folder, and run it. Then you can optionally enter in your email address(es) for it to send the notifications to. Click on this screenshot to see just how easy it is:

Most software applications (even the ones you pay for) require that you take the time to setup your mail account in order to send the emails. Not with this one! They do offer the option to use your own mail account, but I like being able to just enter in my email address and let it do its work. Here is what the email notification looks like that you’ll receive each time your IP changes:

You can let IP Observer check for IP address changes every 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 6 hours. It will even show you the computer’s local IP address (in case you’re behind a router) and MAC address, which is something many of us are always searching for.

There is, however, a small downside to this program and it’s that it lacks the ability to minimize itself to the System Tray. Normally I would say that is a big downside, but there are plenty of applications (examples: DM2 and TrayDevil) that most people will already have installed which makes doing this possible.

While I really like that application, there is something that I’m a little more partial to because of how useful it is…LogMeIn! I’ve written about the service before because it lets you remotely control any computer using just a Web browser, and it also needs no configuration. It is a free service, but there is a feature that let’s you view the IP address of the computer as well. When you’re on the “My Computers” screen (which you’re taken to after logging in) just click on the Edit link of the computer who’s IP you want to view:

Then you’ll be taken to the screen where you will see the IP address of that computer:

LogMeIn is also nice to have because you can always connect to the computer that you’re having troubles with. It’s a nice service to have and I use it all the time, but if you’re looking for something a little more straightforward (and something that doesn’t require installation) then IP Observer (Download Mirror) might be the better solution.

If you know of any other great freeware tools that will email a user their IP address feel free to post them below in the comments.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Microsoft Monday

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan put together a list of reasons why he loves Windows Vista Media Center. Among his reasons were appearance, the option to add multiple tuners, and the fact that you can purchase an Xbox 360 and use it as a Media Center extender. He also listed a couple of extensions which are really helpful as well.  Today we’re going to take a look at six amazing plug-ins for Windows Vista Media Center. Some of them have been mentioned before, others haven’t. If you’re looking for additional plug-ins to make the most out of your Media Center experience, we recommend taking a look at The Green Button Forums. It’s a place dedicated to Windows Media Center and you’ll find all kinds of great information there.

MyNetflix

MyNetflix plug-in is great for those of you who subscribe to Netflix. This plug-in adds “Watch Now” support to Media Center which eliminates the need to use the Netflix application for watching movies on demand. We covered this in early February and here is a review of some of the features:

• View your Netflix queue from Media Center
• Browse movies by genre, top 100, new titles, etc.
• View your history and recommendations
• Add movies to your queue
• Remove movies form your queue
• Move movies to the top of your queue
• Browse “watch now” movies

This plug-in is currently available as a free beta download.

WebGuide

WebGuide is one of the most popular plug-ins for Windows Media Center because it allows users to manage all of their recordings from any browser. This means that when you’re away from home, you can easily set a show to record. Even more impressive is that users are able to stream content from their Media Center PC to another computer. Back in September Microsoft hired the WebGuide Developer and then offered it for free! On the developers website it’s described as “the ultimate remote viewing & scheduling add-on for Media Center and Windows Home Server” and we agree!

WebGuide 4 is available here for download.

The interface is simple and easy to use, and there’s even a mobile version for phones and PDA’s! If you’re a Media Center users, this is a must-have plug-in, especially now that it’s free.

DVRMSToolbox

The name of this plug-in really doesn’t give you an idea of what it does which is probably its biggest downside.  DVRMSToolbox is actually a commercial skip add-on for Media Center and it’s completely free. The add-on will scan the shows that you have recorded for commercials and then tag where they are. When you go to watch the show, it will fast forward past those commercials. While they aren’t actually removed from the recording, it’s like they were. If by chance it skips past part of a show that wasn’t a commercial, you can easily hit the back button and then you’ll be able to view what had been skipped.

Another great feature will this plug-in is that there are all kinds of settings which you can tweak to your liking. Below is a screenshot of one of the configuration screens.

Get DVRMSToolbox here (it works for Vista and XP)!

MCEBrowser

MCEBrowser is brought to you by the same guy who created the MyNetflix plug-in.  The purpose of this one is to allow easy surfing of the web, right from Media Center using your remote control. The screenshot gallery for this plug-in gives you a great idea of what all you can do. Some of the features include:

• View your list of favorite sites and then navigate to them
• Navigate through your favorites subfolders
• Enter a URL that you want to browse to
• Zoom in and out of a web page
• Form support for filling out edit boxes, list boxes, etc.

The download for MCEBrowser is available here.

MC Organizer

MC Organizer is a plug-in that helps you organize and then play your videos.  Features include:

• Ability to play movies that have multiple files
• Adds a Cover Flow like interface to your movie collection so you can easily horizontally scroll through movies
• Multiple video formats supported (for example, if there are three files for a movie, it will play them in order)
• Integrates for Ziotek Media Carousel Plus (for those that own it) to show the location of the DVD within the carousel

If you have a huge collection of DVDs, this will be worth using. Best of all, it’s free.

Download MC Organizer here. Note: You have to complete a registration before you’re able to use MC Organizer.

Video Browser Plug-in

The highlight of the Video Browser plug-in is that it allows for DVD playback right from your hard disk.  That means that you’ll easily be able to view TV shows and movies that you download or those that you copy straight from a DVD to your hard drive. This add-on also supports metadata for TV shows and movies, but that does require a few extra steps like installing Ruby.

The developer realizes that there are areas which need improvement and he says they will be addressed in the future. For now it is a great plug-in with a nice interface that will allow you to easily watch movies from your hard disk.

Download Video Browser for Vista Media Center here.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Weekend Website

When you think of the Wikimedia Foundation, what comes to mind? For us it’s immediately Wikipedia and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales who started the foundation. It’s based in San Francisco, and the foundation operates several wiki projects including the ever-so-popular Wikipedia. Wikipedia is obviously the most popular site that’s part of the foundation, but there are other projects that are gaining some ground. Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the Wikimedia Foundation Projects that are currently going on, aside from their most popular, Wikipedia. They include: Wikiversity, Wikiquote, Wiki Books, and Wikispecies.

Wikiversity

Wikiversity is a place to go when you want to find educational types of resources. For educators, there’s nothing better than free learning materials and activities. There are two main goals of the site:

1. Create and host a range of free-content, and multilingual learning materials/resources for all age groups in all languages
2. Host scholarly/learning projects and communities that support these materials

At this point Wikiversity is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Greek, and other languages will be added in the future. It launched back in August of 2006.

By visiting the homepage, you’ll gain a wealth of knowledge just from taking a look at some of the information they have featured.

One area of the site we recommend visiting is the Featured Content Section where you can explore featured content. They provide a tour for it which helps you come across information you may not have discovered otherwise. You can find it here.

Wikiquote

For those of you who like quotes, Wikiquote is going to be one of those pages that you’ll want to bookmark. It’s a free online collection of quotes from various people and in various languages. Within the quotes you may find links to Wikipedia for more information on a certain topic, which is nice.

Each day they have a quote of the day displayed on the Main Page, and then they also have a page for each month where you can view “quotes of the day” from each day in the month. In the left sidebar under the “navigation” section you’ll notice a random page link (as with all other Wiki sites). Clicking it will provide you with a random page with quotes.

One area of the site we recommend visiting is their TV Shows section. Here you’ll find lists of quotes for various TV shows. For an example, we clicked on the Big Bang Theory section and it pulled up quotes from the show organized by which episode it came from. Some shows have quite a few more quotes than others.

Wikibooks

Some of you may not have known that Wikbooks even exists yet it’s been around since the Summer of 2003. The purpose of Wikibooks is to provide a place for the creation of free content textbooks and annotated texts that, like other wikis, anybody can edit. (Source)

Out of all of the different Wiki’s, this is the one we were least familiar with so we turned to none other than Wikipedia to learn more about it. We were wondering if all content was new and specific only to Wikibooks or not, and we found our answer. They say, “While some books are original, other began as text copied over from other sources of free content textbooks found on the Internet.”

The one downside to Wikibooks is the fact that the content is written and edited by volunteers which means you may come across incomplete books. The other issue is quality. Not every book you come across would be considered quality content.

Despite these criticisms, they must be doing something right because they have over 30,495 pages of content that people have written. Searching and browsing through content is easy because they break things down into categories, subjects, alphabetically, by the Dewey Decimal classification, and by the Library of Congress classification.

Wikispecies

Now this is one we didn’t even know existed, probably because we’ve never really had a use for it. Wikispecies, like the other wiki-based projects we included today, is free and includes a wealth of information. In this particular situation, it’s a wealth of information about species. I guess you could say Wikispecies isn’t for your average joe, and instead is more focused towards those in the science field.

It’s been around only since 2004, but it has grown pretty steadily since. They say they cover Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista and all other forms of life. Since 2004 they have been able to collect 143,657 “taxonomic articles.”

If Science is your forte and you’re wanting to learn more about all of the various species, Wikispecies is for you.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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