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Jun 11

Man Tries To Contact Michael Dell To Share His Idea

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

What would you do if you had a great idea that could take a company to a whole new level? Some of us would probably just swallow the idea while others may try to pursue it.

One man has that idea and says that it would greatly benefit Dell. However, he will only tell the idea to Michael Dell himself! For that reason he is documenting his quest to personally talk with Michael Dell. He’ll post all emails and conversations that he has with contacts at Dell all the way until he talks with the big man himself.

What idea could be so great? He doesn’t really go into specifics but it sounds like a leasing plan for software:

It has to do with desktops, notebooks, servers, and also has to do with reviving the AXIM (Dells now defunct) PDA, as well as the DITTY (Dells now defunct MP3 Player).
It will change how software is sold, and possibly lead to a method for LEASING the more expensive software packages like for example those who dont really need a full copy of AUTOCAD(Autodesk’s flagship Drafting product) for a whole year, .. maybe you only need it for a month or so.

So you think the man is all talk? If he is trying to get this much hype then he better have something good. I’m sure Michael Dell hates nothing more than to receive publicity stunts that waste his time.

News Source: Digg

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Jun 10

FotoFlexer Adds More Advanced Features

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

This article was written on February 15, 2008 by CyberNet.

Back in August we wrote about FotoFlexer, an online photo editing service that really stood out in the crowd of other online services. One of the reasons we liked it was because it had some more advanced features comparable to those you’d find in Photoshop or Paint.NET like the ability to have as many layers as you’d like. They also implemented shortcuts that are familiar to most like using Ctrl+Z to undo something that had been done. It appears they’re looking to become an even bigger competitor in the market of both online and offline photo editing services by introducing professional tools for users to work with that are free. The service is called FotoFlexer Pro and I think you’ll be impressed.

Here are some of the advanced features that you can expect:

Curves and high resolution editing (adjust coloring, contrast, and exposure)
Smart scissors for cutting an object out of its background(like the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop)
Preference saver (like Photoshop’s workspace preferences)
Color effects (like filters in Photoshop) – they offer quite the selection of different effects including blueprint, neon, grayscale, invert, painting, cartoon, and more

While FotoFlexer Pro doesn’t offer enough for it to be a Photoshop replacement, it does add enough to make it the most full-featured photo editing service available on the web that we are aware of. I’m still a big fan of Picnik though and think their interface is more user-friendly and easier to use. The only downside to Picnik is that their premium service costs $24.95 per year. Whether you choose Picnik, FotoFlexer, or any of the other services available, there are a lot of great choices out there to help you edit photos for little to no cost.

Note: FotoFlexer seems to have a few issues in Opera so you may want to use the service in Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Source: Mashable

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Jun 07

CyberNotes: Mobile Bookmarks

Posted in: CyberNotes, mobile, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on March 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Sometimes I can’t believe how many bookmarks users have. I’ve seen people who only bookmark a handful of the sites that they use the most, while others have thousands of bookmarks. I fall somewhere in between with a few hundred bookmarks, but one thing that I’ve come to realize is how difficult it can be to gain access to all of my bookmarks when I’m on-the-go.

Today we’re going to show you five terrific ways that you can access your bookmarks from a mobile device, and each solution presented here has a mobile-optimized version for browsing your bookmarks. It was a little tougher than I thought to find the quality sites that I eventually came across, and I was quite surprised at how few bookmarking sites actually have mobile versions available.

Without further ado we’ll get the ball rolling what’s likely to be a huge fan favorite…

–Foxmarks Mobile–

Foxmarks is a Firefox extension that synchronizes Firefox’s bookmarks with an online server. I’ve always used the service as a way to backup my bookmarks, but “ayup” pointed out in the comments last week that they also offer a mobile site. It’s not an extravagant site by any means, but you can fully browse all of your directories and quickly open bookmarks. In my opinion this is what mobile bookmarking is all about, but it would be nice to be able to add bookmarks from this interface.

foxmarks mobile

–Opera Link–

Opera was really smart when they launched their Opera Link service, which ties your desktop’s bookmarks together with your mobile device. The only catch is that you have to be using the Opera software (on both your desktop and mobile device) to really take advantage of everything Opera Link has to offer. The service is still accessible in other browsers via link.opera.com, but the site is not really optimized for mobile browsing.

opera mini

–Del.icio.us Mobile–

I really can’t believe that Del.icio.us, one of the most popular bookmarking sites, doesn’t have an official mobile site. Steve Rubel has come to the rescue by posting some variations of stripped-down pages that display your bookmarks. Just replace USERNAME with your own Del.icio.us username:

Bookmarks and Descriptions
http://del.icio.us/html/USERNAME/?extended=body&tags=no&rssbutton=no
Bookmarks Only
http://del.icio.us/html/USERNAME/?tags=no&rssbutton=no
Bookmarks and Tags
http://del.icio.us/html/USERNAME/?&rssbutton=no
Increase the Bookmark Count to 100
http://del.icio.us/html/USERNAME/?&rssbutton=no&count=100

It’s not exactly the best solution, but it works for those of you looking for something simple. The next two mobile bookmarking solutions we’ve listed support Del.icio.us though…

–Mobleo.net–

Mobleo is a full-blown mobile bookmarking solution that goes above and beyond anything that I expected. It has a desktop browser interface available so that managing your bookmarks on your computer is a piece of cake. You can make your bookmarks public or private, organize them into groups, grab some or all of your Del.icio.us bookmarks, prioritize them, and much more.

The mobile interface compliments the service very well. You can manage your bookmarks, browse through the different groups, and surf the different sites using the Mobilfier technology. Mobilfier optimizes a site by stripping unnecessary layout information thereby speeding up the load time. Pretty slick, huh?

mobleo

–Mobilicio.us–

Mobilicio.us creates a mobile interface for accessing and navigating bookmarks stored on Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, and Wieza. You just have to log into your account, and you can start browsing your bookmarks page by page. Alternatively you can filter through them by tag name, URL, or description.

The thing that I really like about Mobilicio.us is that you can customize the size of the text on the page. If you have good eyes you can make it pretty small to conserve screen space!

By default Mobilicio.us will modify the URL’s of your bookmarks so that they pass through Google’s mobile transcoding service. You can turn this off in the settings, but if you’re on a device with a slow connection it will definitely help by having Google optimize (such as remove the CSS) the page first.

mobilicious

–Overview–

Now is your time to chime in! Let us know in the comments below how you get access to all of your bookmarks when you’re on-the-go.

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Jun 02

eBay to Acquire StumbleUpon/Google Launches Queryless Search

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

This article was written on April 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

According to TechCrunch, eBay is all set to acquire StumbleUpon, a popular web discovery site which helps users find new sites, and more recently videos. It’s often described as “channel surfing” on the web.Rumor has it that the price is anywhere from $40–45 million or higher, and Google and AOL were also said to be in on the talks.

The same thoughts are going through my head right now with this deal as when eBay acquired Skype– they don’t exactly seem like the perfect match. It will definitely be interesting to see what eBay has in-store for StumbleUpon and how this will benefit them. While none of this has been confirmed, TechCruch says that people close do the deal are talking, and it’s imminent.

Also interesting is that Google just announced their queryless search. Yes, that’s right, it sounds like they’re taking on StumbleUpon. Convenient timing, isn’t it? It’s integrated into the Google Toolbar and it will appear as a pair of dice. When you click on the logo, you will get a site recommendation based upon your Google Search History.Google will give you up to 50 recommendations per day.

Another queryless search option they’re giving you is to get recommendations right from your Google Personalized Homepage. You can “Add a Tab,” then type “recommendations” as the tab name, and then you’ll get a page of recommendations that are updated everyday. If you don’t have Search History enabled, neither of these services will work for you.

Source:Google Blogoscoped

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Jun 02

Yahoo Mail Beta Opened To The World

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 15, 2006 by CyberNet.

You no longer have to trick Yahoo in order to test out their new Mail Beta which embraces the Web 2.0 functionality that many websites are starting to converge to. In order to activate Yahoo Mail Beta you will have to go to this site. It only takes a few clicks to start using it and I found the bouncing guy to be pretty amusing (he is displayed while your mailbox is loading).

Yahoo Mail Beta seems to run faster than when I had previously used it and works great in Firefox. It is also really nice not having to wait for a new page to load each time you are viewing another message. The tabs make it really easy to switch back and forth between viewing and composing an email. However, I just don’t feel like everything loads as quick as I would like.

I’m sure there will be a lot of people who love using it but I am still stuck on the clean, simple, and organized interface that GMail provides me. Yahoo Mail Beta will definitely be a success since Yahoo has so many users that already use their service, but I think a lot of the tech savvy people will still be addicted to GMail. Do we have anyone out there that is converting from GMail to Yahoo Mail?

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Jun 01

Coverage of the Olympics Around the Web

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on August 08, 2008 by CyberNet.

The olympics have officially started which means coverage around the Internet is abundant. We mentioned a couple of ways that you could keep up with the Olympics using Google, but there are PLENTY of other sites out there. Here’s a quick list of places you can go on the Internet to get the coverage of your favorite sports.

Yahoo

If you go to Yahoo.com you’ll find a Medal Count listed under the “News” tab along with an “Olympics Preview.” They also have a Yahoo! Sports section with coverage of the games that is more comprehensive. You can view info about the athletes, get the schedule of what sports are going on, and when, medals count, and more.

yahoo olympic coverage.png

Google

We already mentioned Google’s coverage earlier this week, but at the time we were unaware of an additional site they put together for the Games. It’s found here, and they use Google Maps to display the medal count for the countries that are participating in the games. For those of you using your mobile device, you can go to m.google.com and get the 2008 Summer Games Olympics Gadget.

google olympics-1.png

NBC

NBC is the official broadcaster in the United States for the Olympics so it’s no surprise that they’ve got a site dedicated to it. Like the other sites, they’ve got a medal count, athlete profiles, and images of the games. Visit www.nbcolympics.com. There’s also a mobile.nbcolympics.com site for mobile users.

NBC olympics.png

Microsoft/Silverlight

We can’t forget Microsoft whose Silverlight technology is being used by NBCOlympics.com to provide video content. You can download Silverlight here and then you’ll be able to watch four different events at the same time. The Silverlight Player is customizable and gives you yet another way to keep up with the games.

TVTonic

TVTonic makes it possible for owners of Vista Media Center PCs (Home Premium and Ultimate) to download “up to HD” quality coverage on a sport-by-sport basis. You will be able to grab the coverage about twelve hours after a particular even ends, and you’ll be watch to watch the videos all the way up until the Olympics end.

Get TVTonic Here.

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May 27

Microsoft Rebranding Complete for Windows Live Hotmail

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on March 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

What was originally meant to replace Hotmail, Microsoft has completed the re-branding for their new mail service(in beta) and now it’s officially Windows Live Hotmail. In February they made the announcement that they were going to bring together the best of both worlds, Windows Live Mail and Hotmail, and create a new name that would satisfy both old loyal users, and new users.

The general overall response was one of confusion. Why would Microsoft revert back to using Hotmail in their name after they promoted their new service as “Windows Live Mail” with a fresh look and new features. At one point Hotmail led the way for online mail, but it was about time to retire the name.

Two months after the announcement, the re-branding is complete. If you log into your account, you’ll notice the new logo (pictured to the right) saying “Windows Live Hotmail Beta.” They’ve also hit another milestone which means they’ll be rolling out new features (chances are, you already have them):

Photo upload control (edit, and then insert them inline)
Spell check is back
Bi-Directional Language Support (Arabic and Hebrew readers)
Version picker– do you want the classic, or full?
Improvements to the safety bar
More reliable, and faster (particularly if you’re using the classic version)

With the version picker, you can select which version you want — classic or full. The classic version is really for those who have a slow Internet connection, it will help you get the fastest experience possible. The Full version is primarily for those with a broadband connection, and it’s been optimized specifically for that.

They say that there’s more under the covers that will be implemented and released eventually. I really hope they’ve got some great things in-store because still, as it stands, they’re lacking with the features compared to other services.

Update:

These changes only apply to you if you’re part of the beta. By rebranding, we meant the change from “Windows Live Mail Beta” to “Windows Live Hotmail Beta.” If you’re not yet part of the beta, you can get on their waiting list at http://ideas.live.com If you are currently a part of the beta and you want to go back to MSN Hotmail, from your account, click “options” and then click “Switch back to MSN Hotmail.”

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May 25

More SlashDot Redesigns — This Round Is Much Better

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on May 03, 2006 by CyberNet.

There are some more redesigns posted for SlashDot and these are much better than the previous designs. There are a couple that really stand out to me and, in my opinion, would be great to see on SlashDot. Here is the list of designs:

Design 1 – Has nice collapsible menus
Design 2
Design 3 – I think this is a bit much
Design 4 – My personal favorite so far
Design 5
Design 6
Design 7
Design 8
Design 9
Design 10
Design 11
Design 12

I am actually surprised that there aren’t more ’stunning’ designs, but I guess these people aren’t getting paid to create the SlashDot redesign (the winner does receive a laptop). I can’t wait to see some more of these because they are kinda fun to go through.

News Source: SlashDot Journal For Redesigns

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May 23

Huge List Of Default Passwords For Routers

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on September 26, 2006 by CyberNet.

It seems like whenever I am trying to solve someone’s computer problems they are always related to wireless somehow. The first thing that I go to do is get on their router, but they never know the password! That is a bad thing for two reasons:

If they don’t know the password that typically means that they have not changed the default password.
Now I have to go find the default username/password.

I always end up changing the default password for them but I first have to get on to the router. It typically doesn’t take me too long because I just look for the online manual but it still consumes more time than it should.

Sifting through manuals will now be a thing of the past because this extensive list of routers has the corresponding usernames and passwords for each router! You may be thinking to yourself “how big can this list be?” Let me tell you that it is enormous! This is definitely something that deserves a place in your bookmarks.

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May 21

CyberNotes: Discover The World Via Blogs With TravelPod

Posted in: CyberNotes, General, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 14, 2006 by CyberNet.

Weekend Warrior

I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for some good blogs to add to my feed or my list of bookmarks as the not to miss, “must reads.” In fact, sometimes I find that blogs have more accurate or up-to-date information than a newspaper or other online news sources. So in keeping with the weekend traveling theme, I went out to find some of the best travel blogs out there. In the process, I came across TravelPod which is a rather large collection of travel blogs including blogs for just about every country or island possible! It was released in 1997 and is a great way to gather some tips, tricks, and photos of your travel destinations.

One of the first things you will notice when you go to TravelPod after clicking on destinations is the map of the Earth that is clickable. By clicking on a country, state, island, etc., you’re able to view the blogs that have been submitted for that particular location. People post everything from past experiences, maps, photos, thoughts, and some even post live updates while they are on their trip.

After viewing the large map of the Earth, I decided to pick a location to see just how TravelPod works. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, so I clicked on Australia. From there, I was taken to the results page with all of my information. They use tags for things such as popular cities or tourist attractions so that if you’re only interested in a particular place, you can narrow your search results.

The results that it pulls up shows thumbnails of travel blog photos that have an Australia tag to them. It will also pull up a search box so that you can search for deals on airfare, hotels, and cars. Additionally, they include videos and MP3 Podcasts that might be beneficial in planning a trip. Then they give you the list of travel blogs available for the area.For Australia, the list was lengthy so I had a good choice in what I wanted to read. I narrowed my search to Canberra, the nations capital and got equally impressive results. The blogs were all unique and generally gave me a good idea of what to expect, or at least some interesting or funny traveling stories. The smaller countries or less traveled destinations typically have a smaller search results.

There are other features that you can expect from TravelPod such as an active forums that’s updated regularly. There are topics such as travel tips, “how to”, and general travel information. They also provide a tab specifically for finding tours that you might want to take while you’re visiting a certain destinations, as well as a search for hostels, and information on travel insurance (hey, ya never know what can happen while you’re away from home!).

If you’re looking for some great advice, they have a list of top travelers that’s updated daily. This is calculated based upon the number of visitors to their blog, number of forum posts, number of photos, and number of entries to TravelPod.

I always like to know exactly where I’m going and what I’ll be doing while I’m traveling. I like to call it being prepared. TravelPod is a great resource for finding pictures and blogs that pertain to the specific location that you’re traveling to. They receive visitors from those who have travel blogs just as much as they do from people who are looking for some good advice on a destination.

You don’t need a membership to browse the website or the blogs, although a membership is free anyways. They offer unlimited uploads of photos, and will notify up to 500 friends and family members of updates to your blog. They’ve changed a lot since 1997 when it all began! If you’d like to check it out, visit www.travelpod.com Even if you’re not interested in actually visiting some of these locations, you can certainly just look!

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Hasta La Gadget!

Man Tries To Contact Michael Dell To Share His Idea

FotoFlexer Adds More Advanced Features