Aug 22

Free Online Graphing Calculator

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 08, 2006 by CyberNet.

e-Tutor Graphing Calculator There have been plenty of times that I needed to graph something and I didn’t feel like busting out my calculator. So what do you do? I think e-Tutor has the best online graphing solution that I have ever seen.

You just plug your equation into the text box and it will pump out a sweet looking graph. Multiple equations aren’t a problem either because you just have to separate them using semi-colons. The thing that is makes this even more convincing to use instead of your typical graphing calculator is the ability to click-and-drag your way around the graph. It is implemented just like Google Maps so it is extremely easy to find the data you are looking for without reloading the page.

This site actually got me thinking about how none of these large companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have specific services for students. There are several products, like this calculator, that many students would find useful. Maybe we could also see some note-taking software that you can download to your computer and synchronize with an online database. That way you wouldn’t have to be connected to the Internet in order to take notes but you would also be able to access them from anywhere once you sync them up.

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Aug 22

MSN Weather gets a Hint of Vista and New Live Writer Screenshot Peeks Out

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on February 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

MSN Weather maps are now looking a bit more like Vista! Click here to go to the maps. Once you’re there, you’ll notice an image to the right that says “The Wow starts now.” (Pictured to the right) By clicking on that image, the page will be transformed into Weather Maps with a hint of Vista.

Using flash, you can flip through the weather maps just like what you’d do in Windows Vista with the Flip 3D. The image below shows what the maps look like. By hovering your mouse of the text listing the different maps, it will flip through them.  By clicking on a map, it will enlarge so that you can view it.Also on the page is a big add for Windows Vista.  This is clearly a way for Microsoft to market Vista in a more subtle way by giving people a “Vista-like” experience with something simple like the weather.

Source: Live Side

Stepping aside from MSN Weather, LiveSide has posted what is rumored to be a screenshot of the new version of LiveWriter. According to them, it came from the German Live Writer community.  The screenshot is below and definitely has the ‘Windows Live’ look and feel going on.  Microsoft is clearly making an effort to have a consistent look and feel with all of their services.

If you’re wanting to chat about the next release, or get more information, you can visit the Windows Live Writer Group where there’s also chat that the next major release is still several months away. I’m definitely a fan of Live Writer, so I’m anxious to see what will be in-store for the new release!

Source: LiveSide

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Aug 19

Nerd Watch Museum — Watch Collection For Geeks

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 19, 2006 by CyberNet.

Take a trip down memory lane with the Nerd Watch Museum, (part of pocketcalculatorshow.com) and you’ll come across some of the oldest most unusual ‘nerd’ watches. Their selection is impressive with a huge amount of calculator watches (don’t you remember when a calculator watch was THE watch to own?) as well as other classics. You’re even able to purchase some of the watches from back in the day.  They offer selected watches for sale right off of the site! And of course, if you’re wanting to chat with some of the people who own or are interested in the same classic watches as you are, they have a message board that is surprisingly active. Pictured below are screenshots of some of the classics they’re currently selling.

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Aug 18

SlashDot Site Redesigns Start Rolling In

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 27, 2006 by CyberNet.

SlashDot Site Redesigns Start Rolling In

Yes, it was just yesterday that the redesign competition started for SlashDot but the submissions are already starting to roll in. There are currently four of them that have been posted and they have had about 15 real submissions. The design that is pictured above is the only one that has a real shot in my opinion. Here are the links so that you can see them all in action:

  1. Design 1 – The one pictured above
  2. Design 2
  3. Design 3
  4. Design 4

I think that Design 1 is very well laid out and has many similarities with their current design, which is what they want. The abundance of rounded corners help make it a very visually appealing site. I can’t wait to see what else people come up with.

News Source: SlashDot Journal

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Aug 17

Yahoo + Semantic Web = The Future

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on March 14, 2008 by CyberNet.

 yahoo semantic web

The Yahoo Search Blog has made a big announcement yesterday that discussed their support for semantic web standards. The “semantic web” is often classified as the next big thing for the Internet, but the problem is that not everyone has taken the time to understand the benefits. With Yahoo jumping on semantic web bandwagon it is sure to start picking up steam.

What is the semantic web? It’s a set of standards that will give computers the tools needed to better understand the relationship between data on the Internet. Computers would be able to collect data from several different sites, aggregate it together, and display it in a way that’s meaningful for the users.

For example, imagine doing research on Christopher Columbus for a report that you have to write. On one site you might find some information regarding Columbus’ childhood while on another there might be details on his voyage in 1492. We can obviously see the connection between the two sources, but computers can’t. That’s where the semantic web comes into play.

Websites will be able to create specially designed RDF files that can be used to give computers the data they need to make relationships. Or, as seen in the screenshot at the beginning of the article, a search for someone’s name could return more helpful results. Here’s what Yahoo has to say about how they can use the semantic web to benefit consumers and site owners.

By supporting semantic web standards, Yahoo! Search and site owners can bring a far richer and more useful search experience to consumers. For example, by marking up its profile pages with microformats, LinkedIn can allow Yahoo! Search and others to understand the semantic content and the relationships of the many components of its site. With a richer understanding of LinkedIn’s structured data included in our index, we will be able to present users with more compelling and useful search results for their site. The benefit to LinkedIn is, of course, increased traffic quality and quantity from sites like Yahoo! Search that utilize its structured data.

The Internet is just brimming with too much information, and the semantic web will give surfers the ability to find content that they may not have found otherwise. Now we might start to see more applications of the semantic web emerge since Yahoo has joined in the game, and I can’t wait to see what comes out of all this.

Yahoo Search Blog [via TechCrunch]
Thanks to Omar for the tip!

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Aug 15

Skype Reaches 100 Billion Minute Milestone

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on February 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

skype 100 billion minutes An announcement over at the Skype blog on February 13th almost went unnoticed. Skype’s Villu Arak wrote up a post a week ago and mentioned how 100 billion humans have walked on this planet and the human brain has 100 billion neurons. What does Skype have in common with those two facts? The number 100 billion. That’s how many Skype-to-Skype free minutes have been used among Skype users over time. 100 billion minutes is a pretty big accomplishment for Skype, and to think, we almost missed it.

It’s taken about 4 1/2 years for them to get to this number. Some of you probably remember when the first public beta version was released in August of 2003. Since then they’ve had some major events like when they were bought by eBay, and more recently and the end of 2007, they hit 276.3 million accounts.

In the announcement, Arak said, “This figure is so mind-numbinly large that it’s nigh impossible to wrap my head around it.” He also thanked everybody for helping them get to where they are. Not being a Skype user myself, I didn’t contribute to any of those 100 billion minutes, but I’m sure some of you did! Are any of you regular Skype users?

Source: TechCrunch

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Aug 15

What Should You Read Next?

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 18, 2008 by CyberNet.

When you’re looking for a good book to read, you have a few options. You could rely on a recommendation that someone gave you, go to the bookstore or library and wonder around browsing through books, or you could visit a site called What Should I Read Next. It’s a site I actually Stumbled Upon thanks to StumbleUpon, and it recommends books to you based upon a database of readers’ favorite books.

The site is pretty plain, but it does what it needs to do. When you visit What Should I Read Next for the first time, it will start by having you enter in the Title and Author of a book that you like and then you’ll get a page of recommended reads, based upon that.

To start, I entered the title of the book I last read, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. Then it returned a page of books that might interest me. For those who want more accurate suggestions, they can become a member, add a bunch of books they liked to a list which helps build the database, and then receive better results.

This One Next.png

Visit What Should I Read Next

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Aug 13

Best Buy Kiosks Display In-Store Prices Disclosure

Posted in: lawsuit, sales, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

If you’ve been into a Best Buy store over the last several months, you may have noticed a disclosure displayed across their Kiosks warning that what’s displayed are in-store prices which could be different from Internet prices. The addition of this banner across the screen was likely a direct result of a lawsuit that was filed back in May accusing Best Buy of deceiving their customers with a bait-and-switch scheme using their in-store Intranet. They adamantly denied the accusation, but at that point, many people didn’t trust them anymore.

Below you’ll see what the banner looks like. It simply states “This kiosk displays in-store prices- which may differ from national Internet prices. Promotions can differ between stores and Internet.  See your sales associate if you have questions.” What it doesn’t say though, is if they’ll honor the prices in-store that are advertised online, or if this disclosure now prevents them from price matching?

best buy disclosure

As a side note, while I was visiting the Best Buy website, I noticed in big print that there was an error in their most recent weekly ad for a Panasonic TV. On the front cover, they showed that the 50″ Panasonic Plasma TV was on sale for $1799 before $90 savings when they really meant to advertise the smaller 42″ Panasonic TV at that price. Considering that the 50″ Panasonic TV that they advertised is regularly priced at $2,799, that would have been quite the deal! To make up for their mistake, they’re offering a $100 instant rebate on all of their plasma TV’s this week.

Source: The Consumerist

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Aug 08

eBay Tests New Search Page, Try it Yourself!

Posted in: search, Today's Chili, Web Sites

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

eBay Redesign
Click to Enlarge

I was just doing some searching on eBay.com and noticed that I must have been randomly selected to use a drastically redesigned search page. The new design might be a little bit old, but it’s the first time I’ve tested it. As you can see above they have broken the search results up into two different columns, the one on the left providing the auctions and the one on the right listing the Buy It Now items.

I love the new design, but if you have a small screen the two-column design might be a little cramped. It is a lot easier, however, for people to see what items they can buy immediately, and which ones are on auction. Below the price on each item it lists the shipping cost, which is nice for determining whether a deal is as good as it may seem.

Now here’s the thing, most of you probably won’t see the redesign. I’m guessing that they are just testing this out much like how Google tests out new search pages. I hope they push this one through though, because I think it will definitely benefit both buyers and sellers.

BUT, I know how these redesigns work. They store cookies in your browser, and before I lost the cookies eBay had set I made sure to grab the data. Therefore you can test out the new design, too! Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Copy this URL by right-clicking on it, and choosing the copy option.
  2. Pull up the eBay.com site and paste what you copied in Step 1 into the address bar. Press Enter and you should see a popup confirming that the cookies have been set.
  3. Do a search, and you should see the new design pictured above.

Hope everyone enjoys the new design! Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Aug 08

New Wikipedia Approval System Could Stifle Creativity

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on July 18, 2008 by CyberNet.

Wikimania 2008.pngOne of the beauties of Wikipedia is the simple fact that nearly anybody is able to contribute to the site. They’re also criticized for this as well, and some say the practice of allowing open-editing makes Wikipedia susceptible to vandalism. What is Wikipedia to do to find a happy-medium where they can allow open editing of content yet keep the site accurate and free of vandalism?

Right now at the annual Wikimania 2008 event going on in Egypt, Wikipedia officials and contributors are discussing what they can do to improve the quality of content on Wikipedia and reduce vandalism. One idea that has come up and is already being tested on the German Wikipedia site is something they are calling “flagged revisions.” The concept of flagged revisions is pretty basic but could definitely change the way Wikipedia operates. Under the system, when someone contributed a change to an article, the change would not appear on the site until an “authority figure” verified the changes and assured they were accurate.

What does this mean for Wikipedia users? Well, for those who tend to use it almost as a news source, they’ll no longer be able to. The near instant updates to the site have turned Wikipedia into a place where you could go to learn about current events, but by the time an authority figure is able to verify changes, the event will probably no longer be “current.”

The New York Times wrote about this new approval system and said, “it well could bring some law and order to the creative anarchy that has made the site a runaway success but also made it a target for familiar criticism.” It’ll be near impossible for Wikipedia to please everybody because on one-hand they’ve got those that like the current system as it is, flaws and all, and then on the other-hand they’ve got those pushing for a more accurate and correct Wikipedia with a checks and balances system.

Our thought on this is that Wikipedia has done something right to get millions upon millions of visitors every single year. Why “fix” something if it isn’t broken? Flagged Revisions could certainly help cut-back on vandalism, but in the process it could stifle creativity and slow-down the flow of information.

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