Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 11, 2006 by CyberNet.

The competition for data storage has now begun because AOL has finally released a free 5GB to their users. Anyone can signup for the service on the Xdrive site but I am sure a lot of people are still going to be skeptical just because the name AOL is attached to it.

I decided to give it a try anyways and see what they had to offer. I definitely like the interface because it is easy to follow and you can find what you are looking for very quickly. The thing that makes me love the service the most would have to be the applications that they have to offer that integrates it into Windows.

Their desktop software has a lot of great features:

• Easy to use Backup Smart Pick Options
• Schedule multiple automated backups
• Access Xdrive through Windows Explorer
• Manage and share folders and files
• Drag and drop folders and files
• Open and save files directly from applications
• In-product help and user-friendly wizards
• Skip the Download plugin included

They also have a web browser plug-in that will let you download things straight to your Xdrive account by using an option in your right-click menu. I thought that would be pretty cool but I quickly got disappointed when I found out that it is only available for Internet Explorer.

An alternate solution to download content directly from the web is available but it isn’t as easy. You have to copy and paste the desired URL into a text box in order to initiate the download. It’s still nice for people who don’t use Internet Explorer.

I’m still not quite sure whether I would use this on a regular basis but I have been pondering the idea of using this for sharing files with my friends and family. Xdrive has an option that will let you share a folder with certain people that you choose. I’ll have to play around with it a little more to find out how much I really like it.

Thanks for the tip Jeff!

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This article was written on August 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

One of the biggest pitfalls of text-to-speech utilities is that people always say that they never sound like human beings. They just aren’t natural, and often have a robotic tone to their voice that makes it difficult to listen to for a lengthy period of time. What if we could index songs and piece together sentences based upon the lyrics? Would that be any better?

As it turns out, no it wouldn’t. Over in the forum Pieter noticed a site that is dedicated to converting text to songs using snippets from music. I decided to try it out myself, and it is extremely amusing! To see what I’m talking about click here to listen to a phrase that I put together:

Computers are the future. They will control the world soon! Save yourself!

I also noticed that it isn’t able to pronounce everything, and if a letter is skipped it will be highlighted in red. For insance, it can’t pronounce "CyberNet News" without skipping the letter C. If this does happen, however, they let you give the title of an existing song that uses that word. It will then (hopefully) get added into their database.

Go ahead and try it out. It’s actually pretty fun.

Let Them Sing For You [via Download Squad and the CyberNet Forum]

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This article was written on December 28, 2006 by CyberNet.

You’re definitely going to want an invite for this one, just to try it out! Hey! Watch is a new online video converter that’s currently an invitation only beta. They’ve been working on this for a year, and now they’re just about ready for their full launch. Paid programs have been available for a while now, but a free online services that include the ability to upload from hard drives or a URL haven’t. They’re even offering a full API.

So, with no software needed, only a browser, you can get started. Just about any source is game like:

• Online video services (Youtube, MySpace, Google Video, etc.)
• Video Podcast feeds
• Video links (direct or from a webpage)
• Videos from your very own hard drive

After you’ve selected your source, then you’re able to choose from just about any output format you could want and to just about any device like:

• DVD, Divx, mov, MP4, flv, swf, asf, Real, vcd, svcd
• Devices (Mobile phone, iPod, PSP, NDS, Archos, Pocket PC, Creative Zen)

So about that API thing….

They’re offering a full API which means  developers will be able to create plugins and extensions which will certainly help the program expand. They also make use of a bookmarklet so that it is easy to keep track of the videos you’re wanting to convert and keep.  For example, if you’re viewing a video on Youtube, you can click the button and go back to the file later from the RSS feed (An RSS feed has been created for user’s converted files).

While this sounds like an awesome online video converter, I do have my concerns over the time it might take to upload a video from your hard drive, convert it, and then re-download it. Will people really be willing to take the time? The time it might take to do something like this may not be worth it. Earlier today, Ryan pointed this out in his CyberNotes article “How to Convert your Files for Free.” One of the free applications that he mentioned specifically for media is called MediaCoder which would do the same types of converting for free without the hassle of uploading and downloading. Another concern for Hey! Watch is bandwidth costs which could quickly blow them out of the water if the service takes off.

Regardless, it’s worth trying out, particularly if you have a fast Internet connection and you don’t like to clutter your computer with software. While it’s a ‘private’ beta, they do have an option to get an invite.  You simply enter in your email address, and you will receive an invite soon.

News Source: TechCrunch

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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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 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

In the past we have mentioned The Green Button, a site dedicated to Windows Media Center. They have all kinds of great information available to those needing questions about their Media Center answered. Over-time it has become even more helpful with actual members of the Microsoft Media Center team dropping by to personally answer questions. While we own Macs for personal use, we are huge fans of Windows Media Center and use it every single day on a PC dedicated to recording our TV shows and managing our other media. You could say that we have grown fond of The Green Button Forums, which is why we were happy to hear that Microsoft has bought TGB website.

The administrator of The Green Button, Daniel Sterling, made the announcement and was sure to point out that very little will change. He explained how there will be no changes to the editorial policy and that the Windows Media Center team doesn’t have any intentions on restricting what is said. People go there to get advice, talk about problems they are having, offer ways to improve Media Center, and simply complain and criticize. None of that will change, says Daniel.

One of the changes that will happen, and it’s a minor one, is that the actual Media Center “Green Button” will return in the logo. We imagine they weren’t able to use the logo because of legal reasons, but it will be back in the logo. The other change is that initially the ads will be removed which is great news as well.

We’re thinking this was a smart move by Microsoft because The Green Button is such an important tool for Media Center users. If nothing changes with the posting process, meaning content isn’t filtered (they say it won’t be), this can only be a good thing.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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