Free Online ToDo List Manager

This article was written on November 13, 2012 by CyberNet.

Free web todo list

I have always been a huge fan of using text-based todo lists to help manage the things that I need to get done. The reason I’ve chosen to use a text-only todo list is the simplicity of being able to update and organize items the way I need to. The free Holly web app is catering heavily to everyone that falls under the same umbrella as me.

With Holly you get the best of all worlds: the ease of managing your todo list using a text-only format while getting a UI that looks like a traditional todo list. As you can see in the screenshot above this looks like your typical todo list app, but underneath it’s just a text-based list that you can update. You can also see some special formatting for things such as tags, and you can also see the green letters labeled “5d” and “2d” which represents how many days you have left until the deadline.

So how do you edit this todo list? If you click on any of the items in the list you will see the associated text for that particular task and all others at the same level and below. That means if you click on one of the topmost items in the list you should see everything, and for the example in the screenshot above this is what the associated text looks like:

Text todo list

Pretty cool, huh? They developed a simple and elegant way to transform a simple block of text into a beautifully formatted todo list. With that example you can also see how they assign due dates and use tags to make finding items even faster.

Take a look at some of the features highlighted by the developer:

  • Edit pure text
    Edit your tasks with the most powerful input method that exists – a simple text editor.
  • Nested TODO lists
    Tasks are mini-projects with their own sub-tasks, which you can track in lists of lists. Quickly re-arrange items with drag’n’drop.
  • Keyboard controlled
    Everything you can do in Holly you can do with either a keyboard or a mouse. There are hotkeys for everything.
  • Collaborate
    Share lists with your coworkers, friends and family. No sign up required.
  • All your tasks, everywhere
    Access your tasks from any browser. Holly also works great on your iPhone or Android device.

I highly recommend giving this a try if you haven’t already. It’s a great free service that doesn’t even require an account for you to use it.

Holly Homepage
[via Lifehacker

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

How Does Google Really Feel about Microsoft?

This article was written on February 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

If there was ever any question about whether or not Google liked Microsoft, we now know for certain that they don’t. Google actually wrote-up a Press Release to talk about Microsoft’s offer to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion. Here are some of the key words and phrases I picked out of the announcement that give us an idea of how they feel about Microsoft’s proposal:

  • hostile bid
  • troubling
  • inappropriate and illegal influence
  • monopolies
  • unfair practices
  • unfairly limit

Google does not like this offer one bit and it is obvious why. They even point out that both Microsoft and Yahoo have an “overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts” which they do. On the other hand though, if you take a look at search market share, a combined Yahoo and Microsoft would get about 33% of the share while Google has 60%. In some areas Google dominates, but in others they wouldn’t.

google microsoft fight

Now that Microsoft put their offer on the table, other companies (like News Corp.) and financial institutions may come with an offer as well. An article in the Wall Street Journal points out how even Google wants to “Help Yahoo Fight Off Microsoft.” Their offer is to form some type of alliance which would be an alternative to “giving in to Microsoft.” Can you imagine the scrutiny Google would face if they did in fact form an alliance with Yahoo? Then we’d see Microsoft throwing their arms up and screaming “Monopoly” as Google just did with Microsoft’s offer.

Over at Yahoo headquarters, a memo to employees said: “We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made — and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there’s certainly no integration process underway.” All we know is that Yahoo has some big decisions ahead of them which will ultimately affect their future. Any thoughts on which route they should take?

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Find the Best Auctions eBay Has to Offer

This article was written on December 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Weekend Website

If you’ve watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno lately, you’ve probably seen their “Stuff We Found on eBay” segment. Actually, you’ve probably seen re-runs  because of the whole writer’s strike, but before that, on occasion he has shown different unique/weird/humorous things that were found and sold on eBay. It always amazes me what people list, but it amazes me more when people actually by the stuff that shouldn’t have been listed in the first place.

If you’re wondering how to go about finding the most interesting/best auctions that eBay has to offer without the help of Jay Leno, you’ll want to turn to http://bestof.ebay.com.  Best of eBay is a fairly new community driven site from eBay that is dedicated to showcasing some of the more interesting items that people put up for sale on eBay.  There are a few social elements incorporated into it which we’ll talk about in a minute, but you don’t have to be social. If you’d just like to browse through all of the crazy stuff, you can do that too.

The “Socialness” of it…

best of ebay vote As mentioned, Best of eBay is community driven. Think of it like Digg – if people don’t submit stories to Digg, there’d be nothing to the site.  It’s the same with Best of eBay – if users don’t nominate listings, there’d be nothing to view.  Not only can users nominate for listings they come across that stand out, people can also vote. Towards the right of each listing will be an image that displays how many votes each listing has.

Navigating…

Navigating the site is pretty simple. Up towards the top is the option to view listings that were recently submitted, “today’s best,” and the “best of all time.” There’s also a drop down box where you can select a specific category that you’d like to view. Unfortunately, there are only select categories to choose from.  If you’re just wanting to browse and not really get involved, I recommend taking a look at the Best of All Time.

Tagging/ Top List/RSS…

top list ebay Just like many other community driven/social sites out there, Best of eBay relies on tags.  When you nominate a listing, you can select appropriate tags for it.  To the right of the page you’ll see a tag cloud so that you can quickly navigate to a topic that might interest you like Christmas, Cars, or Gag Gifts.

Another element of the site is their Top list which simply shows who has given the most votes and which items have received the most votes. You can even comment, or if you’d like to subscribe to the Best of eBay via RSS, you can do that as well.

Some of the “best” of all time……

Remember, these are actual listings!

The Hillary Clinton Nut Cracker (link):

nut cracker

This item sold for $20.50

Name my 24 Toed Kitten (link):

24 toed cat

This item had a winning bid of $28.00

Crazy Alien Eggs Straight from the Twilight Zone (link)

alien egg

This item had a winning bid of $51.00

Knitted Quiche Meal (all fake food) (link)

quiche

This item sold for $13.99 – other listings from the eBay user included a knitted holiday tea set and sunny side up eggs.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Microsoft to Use Powerset To Improve Search

This article was written on July 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

powerset.pngWe’ve known that Microsoft has some lofty goals to improve their Search, so it was no surprise when they announced today that they have acquired a company called Powerset. Powerset started back in 2005 and they launched their first product, a search and discovery experience for Wikipedia just a couple of months ago. Their goal is “to change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to understand our language.” If you’ve played around with Powerset before, you know that they’re clearly working to achieve that goal and they’ve already done some great work.

Obviously Microsoft wants Powerset’s technology which leaves us wondering what will become of Powerset as it currently is and if they’ll be able to further develop what they already started. Powerset mentioned the acquisition on their blog and said, “Microsoft shares our goal to improve search through deeper analysis of queries and documents, and understands that our technology and expertise will play a key role in the evolution of search.” They see this as a way for them to move beyond Wikipedia which is the only thing they’ve focused on so far.

On the Live Search blog, they too announced the acquisition of Powerset and highlighted some of the ways in which they’d like to bring search to a higher level. They talked about how when many of us search for something, it takes several tries before we get the results that we want because of two specific problems:

  • Problem #1 – Differences in phrasing or context between a user’s search and the way the same information is expressed on webpages
  • Problem #2 – Lack of clarity in the descriptions for each webpage in the search results

Together with Powerset, Microsoft is hoping that they will be able to solve those problems to improve Live Search so that when someone searches for something, they will get their answer the first time around and with just one click. Searching would become more natural.

Now here’s an interesting aspect of this whole situation. About two weeks ago, Powerset released an iPhone optimized version of its “Wikipedia Search & Browse.” In the announcement they talked about how over 1/3 of the company owns an iPhone which is partly why they decided to make an iPhone optimized version. Will Microsoft allow them to continue to make it available or will they insist that a Windows Mobile version be created instead?

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come ‘over time’

Google offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come 'over time'

Do you happen to be David Beckham or Toyota? Well, congratulations — you now have a Google+ vanity URL. The rest of us looking for the football star or car manufacturer need only type “google.com/+davidbeckham” or “google.com/+toyota” to reach those respective pages, enabling easy access to that must-see picture in front of a private jet, or a vehicle recall notice. Sadly, you’re probably not eligible for a custom shortcut of your own — here’s the word from Google:

At first, we’re introducing custom URLs to a limited number of verified profiles and pages. But over time we plan to offer custom URLs to many more brands and individuals, so please stay tuned!

So, for now, you better get comfy with “plus.google.com/108326689306432447266,” or whatever the good Goog has granted.

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Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come ‘over time’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google updates PageSpeed Service so you don’t waste precious seconds waiting for pages to load

Google updates PageSpeed Service to further reduce website load times

Last year, Google launched its PageSpeed Service, aiming to improve our experience across the web while reportedly deferring its own financial interests. The concept was sound — similar services like Akamai work to accelerate web browsing by caching pages in much the same way — but there’s always room for improvement. The latest PageSpeed beta uses some straightforward techniques to improve performance even further, using a new rewriter called “Cache and Prioritize Visible Content.” Using this new tool, your browser will load content that appears “above the fold” before fetching text and photos that would be initially hidden on the page, while also prioritizing other content ahead of Javascript, which often isn’t needed as quickly as more basic elements. Finally, for pages that contain HTML that isn’t cacheable, such as when personalized info is returned, standard portions of the site are cached and displayed immediately, while other content loads normally. The new tool isn’t a perfect fit for every webpage, but we’ll take a boost wherever we can get it.

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Google updates PageSpeed Service so you don’t waste precious seconds waiting for pages to load originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourcePageSpeed, Google Developers Blog  | Email this | Comments