Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’m not sure how many of our eagle-eyed visitors noticed the 15-minutes of downtime last night, but I know some of you did because Max started a discussion in the forum about it. The update was to add some of the most requested features that people have been wanting, and I’m going to introduce them to you right now!

–More Feeds–

Kyle emailed me the other day wanting to know if there was anyway that he could get our Daily Downloads posts in their own separate feed. That sparked what I like to consider a “duh!” moment, and so we decided to create feeds for each of our featured articles:

• CyberNotes (feed)
  Posting frequency: Every day
  Description: This is a daily article that is aims to solve problems, introduce new software and sites, and teach you how to do things. Some of these articles are quite lengthy, and we pride ourselves on the content they contain.
• Daily Downloads (feed)
  Posting frequency: Every weekday
  Description: This is the newest addition to CyberNet, and is essentially a brief rundown of software that has received updates. We provide a short list of some of the changes to go along with each to help you better decide whether the upgrade is worth it.
• Helpful Tips (feed)
  Posting frequency: Couple times a week
  Description: These are tips that you may find useful when the time calls for it, such as cleaning your keyboard.
• MyFive (feed)
  Posting frequency: Couple times a week
  Description: This is definitely one of my favorites. Here we come up with a list of five items that can span across a wide range of topics. It can be things we like, things we don’t like, or just stuff that’s fun.

I’m guessing that a lot of people will be using these feeds as a supplement to our main feed, but these will probably be tracked more carefully. Maybe you have a folder of “important feeds” like me, and you want to put the Daily Downloads in there to ensure you don’t miss one of the posts?

–Much Better Comment Tracking–

We’re extremely happy with everyone that tracks commenting on the site because it helps us build the respected community that we want, and today we have a new feature that will make keeping up with comments a lot easier. Let me introduce you to the Live Comment Preview located on the Management page.

Yep, all you have to do is hit the arrow to the left of the article’s title and you’ll instantly see all new comments to the post. You no longer have to remember which comment you last read on a given post, because we do that for you! And don’t forget, you can mark a post as read simply by hitting the green checkmark or by clicking the “Mark All Read” button on the bottom.

–AJAX Comment Editing–

As long as you’re a registered user you’ll be able to edit any comment you post for up to 15 minutes. That’s nothing new, but now when you click the “Edit” button you’ll be able to make changes on the same page that you left your comment! Ah, the wonders of AJAX.

Hat tip to Max for the suggestion!

–And More–

We’ve also made some bug fixes and backend performance enhancements that should speed up the site. As always send us suggestions on what you would like to see the site do. Everything that we’ve implemented today has come at the request of our readers, and your feedback is of the utmost importance to us.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

New CyberNet Features: Avatars, Email Notifications, and MicrosummariesFeedBurner Says: Go Pro for Free!CyberNet’s Birthday Bash Giveaway EXTRAVAGANZA!New CyberNet Feature: Classic RSS FeedsNew Spam Protection At CyberNet

This article was written on May 26, 2008 by CyberNet.

Back in mid-April, we wrote about a new Bill that was signed in New York called the “Amazon Tax Bill.” It forces retailers to charge sales tax to customers who live in the state of New York which then provides the state with an extra $50 million in revenue. We mentioned at the time that if ever there was a way to kill online retailers, this could be it. Clearly the people living in New York aren’t too happy (even though they are supposed to pay sales tax on items purchased from out of the state anyways), but retailers like Amazon aren’t too happy either. In fact, Amazon has decided to fight New York on this bill.

Despite the fact that the bill is named after Amazon.com, it doesn’t mean they are the only ones required to follow it. Now Newegg, a favorite store among geeks for purchasing computer hardware and software, has joined Amazon in charging taxes in New York. Recently, their customers living in the state received the following letter:

Important Message to Our New York Customers

May 23, 2008

Dear Valued Newegg Customer,

As a result of recent changes in the State of New York Tax Law requiring certain out-of-state retailers to collect and remit sales taxes to the State of New York, we regrettably inform you that Newegg.com must begin collecting applicable state and local sales tax for all orders shipped to New York addresses on or after June 1, 2008.

Qualified business customers can continue to use the Newegg.com Sales Tax Exempt Form.

We value our relationship with you and all of our New York customers. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change in New York law and assure you that we will continue to work hard to offer you the best prices, fastest shipping and award winning customer service you deserve.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with the premier online shopping experience for all of your IT and Consumer Electronics needs.

Sincerely,

Bernard Luthi
Newegg.com

Eventually all online retailers using affiliates in the state will have to comply, so slowly but surely, we’ll start seeing other retailers sending out similar letters to their customers. The only way to “get out of it” would be to drop their New York based affiliates because it’s the affiliates, according to New York Government, that give retailers a “physical presence” in the state. Now that this bill is being enforced in New York, it’ll only be a matter of time before other states will follow in their footsteps. What state wouldn’t want several extra million in revenue?

Source: SlickDeals

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Newegg Decides Not to Tax New York ResidentsAmazon Fights New York on “Amazon Tax Bill”Tax Free Shopping via the Internet Over?Chrome/Firefox: Price History Charts for Amazon and Newegg8GB iPod Touch for $269.99 Shipped

This article was written on December 05, 2005 by CyberNet.

Adobe stated on Thursday that it had received clearance from the Justice Department to complete its $3.4 billion merger with Macromedia. The completion of the merger is expected on Saturday after a seven-month process. This will be one of the most powerful multimedia companies currently existent. Some talk has been over the future of Macromedia Fireworks. Currently, Adobe Photoshop is the dominating professional photo editor, but Macromedia Fireworks has its fair share of users as well. Will Fireworks just disappear? I guess we won’t have long before we find out.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Download Adobe Flash Player 9Adobe Releases The Beta Version Of LightroomAdobe CS3 Design and Web Editions ReleasedAdobe Creative Suite 3 Expected By The End Of 2006Adobe Reader 7.08 Released

This article was written on January 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

–Hunt for the Camera Owner–

This was sent to us as a tip from “kiltboy,” and after reading it we just couldn’t help but write about it. It’s a story about a New York taxi cab passenger who had found a camera left behind by someone else when they got into the cab. They used the 350 pictures and 2 videos that were on the camera to hunt down the owners:

After several phone calls and a visit to the hotel to show the pictures around, Nancy Ascher persuaded an employee to search the Radisson’s guest records by first name and country of residence. Indeed, a Noel from Ireland had stayed there on the date stamped on the photo. Nancy Ascher charmed the hotel employee into sharing the guest’s e-mail address.

You’ve got to read the entire story to learn how the whole thing evolved, and how the owner was actually found. By the time I got done reading that I was wondering whether I would have gone through that much work to try and find the owner. But there was a happy ending:

Murphy, an insurance underwriter, had been devastated to lose the pictures from a trip he had planned for years. It was Jan. 10 — his 34th birthday — when he heard he would be getting the photos back. “I was over the moon,” he says now. “Best present ever.”

“I owe you one,” he wrote to Ascher. “It’s good to know there are some honest people left in the world.”

–Bluetooth Legs–

Late last week CNN wrote about an Iraq veteran, Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill, who had a bomb explode under his Humvee back in 2006. He managed to survive the blast, but was forced to have both legs amputated.

Bleill is one of two Iraq veterans getting outfitted with the next generation of prosthetic legs. Each leg amazingly communicates with the other:

Bleill’s set of prosthetics have Bluetooth receivers strapped to the ankle area. The Bluetooth device on each leg tells the other leg what it’s doing, how it’s moving, whether walking, standing or climbing steps, for example.

“They mimic each other, so for stride length, for amount of force coming up, going uphill, downhill and such, they can vary speed and then to stop them again,” Bleill told CNN from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he’s undergoing rehab.

It’s astounding that Bluetooth technology has come so far that it’s even being implemented in prosthetic legs, and it will probably have a great impact on many people’s lives.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Turn Off Your Computer on May 3rdDigging A Hole Straight Through Earth?Flickr Donates 10,000 Pro Memberships "for Good"How To Put The Old 3.5 Floppy Disk To Good UseSkype Not Such a Great Buy for eBay Afterall?

This article was written on August 24, 2006 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Text messages are becoming a very popular way to communicate with your friends and family. Well, the messages may be fun to receive but sending them is not treat. You have to sit there pounding numbers until your thumbs hurt like they did when you would play Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo. Maybe you are fortunate enough to own a Blackberry which means it isn’t quite as bad, but those are still some small keys you have to press.

There are free services that you can use such as Google’s Send To Phone that offers a simple form to complete in order to send a message to a user. That works great but I have some computer monitoring software that alerts me when my IP address changes at my house. Instead of sending it to my email address I wanted to have it send the new IP to my phone which meant that I couldn’t use Google’s handy form.

Doing a little research showed me that cell phone carriers have setup email addresses that will convert the email to a SMS text message and send it to your phone. All you have to do is find your carrier in the list below and send an email to the designated address.

• Alltel:     0123456789@message.alltel.com
• AT&T:     0123456789@mmode.com
• Boost Mobile:     0123456789@myboostmobile.com
• CellularOne:     0123456789@mobile.celloneusa.com
• Cingular:     0123456789@cingularme.com
• Nextel:     0123456789@messaging.nextel.com
• Omnipoint:     0123456789@omnipointpcs.com
• Qwest:     0123456789@qwestmp.com
• Sprint:     0123456789@messaging.sprintpcs.com
• T-Mobile:     0123456789@tmomail.net
• Verizon:     0123456789@vtext.com
• Virgin Mobile:     0123456789@vmobl.com

NOTE: Make sure you replace the “0123456789″ with your 10-digit mobile phone number.

That is great if you are setting up alerts or sending a message to yourself, but what if you are sending it to a friend and you don’t know what cell phone service they have? TeleFlip will take care of that for you. Just address a message as 0123456789@teleflip.com and they will do the dirty work. TeleFlip does limit you to sending no more than 100 emails per month but they do not require you to register. I would say that is a pretty good deal.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

CyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryiPhone is Popular on FlickrSend Text Messages To Any Cell Phone For Free Using GoogleCyberNotes: Get Your Writely Invitation HereeVoice Delivers Voicemail To Your Email Inbox