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Jan 09

Yahoo Puts Food On The Table…Kind Of

This article was written on November 07, 2006 by CyberNet.

Yahoo Food

It was only a matter of time before some Web portal released a food section and it looks like Yahoo decided to step forward. The cleverly named Yahoo Food will walk you through doing about anything from cooking a great meal all the way to finding a great restaurant that will cook the great meal for you.

I am actually really impressed with how nicely everything is laid out and it looks like they are catering (no pun intended) to the people who are preparing holiday meals in a few weeks. If you’re not sure what you want to cook then just go to their Recipe section and you can find recipes by the main ingredient that they use, the meal they’re intended for, cooking method, taste and texture, or even by the type of cuisine.

While it may be fun and useful to view the cooking ideas I don’t recommend you go to this site if you’re hungry because it only makes things worse.

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Jan 08

CyberNotes: How to Convert your Files for Free (PDF, DOC, etc…)

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

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

Tutorial Thursday

Every time you try to use a file in a program it always seems like it needs some obscure file format that you have never even heard about. Or maybe you are trying to post a video to your website but you want a file format that works well in all browsers. There are all kinds of file conversion websites and applications that you can use for free…and they put the power at your fingertips.

Here I will cover 3 online solutions and 2 applications that are all completely free for you to use. All of them support conversions into multiple formats meaning you’ll probably be able to find a lot of use for them.

Remember: With online solutions you will have to upload the file first which can take a considerable amount of time if the file needing to be converted is large.

–Online: Zamzar–

Zamzar This is probably one of the most popular online conversion services that is on the Internet. It can input a file from a list of supported filetypes and have it converted to another format much like you would expect. The list of filetypes is simply astounding and you can even convert things like PowerPoint presentations to an OpenDocument presentation format (compatible with OpenOffice.org).

You’ll also need to enter in an email address after you select the file and conversion format. This is so that Zamzar can email you the link to download the file. There is a 100MB filesize restriction and the link in the email will remain active for a 24-hour period. The 100MB limit can either be for a single file or up to 5 files. If you “bulk” upload files to the service for conversion (which is limited to 5 at a time) they will email you a download link with all of the converted files zipped into a single file.

–Online: Media Convert–

Media Convert is another online conversion solution that is sure to wow you with the different filetypes they have available. It is slightly different than Zamzar with the more unique feature being that you can provide a URL for the input file. This means that you can provide a URL to an image file, for example, and have that image converted to another image format. There are even some “advanced” options depending on the file type you are inputting, and when the file is an image you can have it resized as well.

The fun doesn’t stop there either. You should take full advantage of being able to enter in URL’s because Media Convert will offer the option to save a website as an image file, which also serves the purpose of creating a screenshot. I have had it shoot back some errors while trying to do this but it works fine most of the time . If you really want to go out on a limb maybe you should try and convert some text to Morse Code.

The other great thing about Media Convert is that the downloads are available within minutes whereas Zamzar has taken up to an 30-minutes to email me my resulting file. There is, however, a small countdown timer that you will have to wait out before being able to actually download your file.

–Online: PDF Online–

PDF Online This online site doesn’t offer much that makes it unique since its only purpose is to create PDF files. The reason that I do like it, however, is that it seems to do a better job of creating PDF files. The resulting PDF looks a lot more like it should compared to the other two services who sometimes mess up the layout of the document that I am trying to convert.

Here is a list of filetypes that can be converted to PDF’s:

Documents: DOC, RTF, PPT, PPS, PUB, XLS, MHT, TXT
Images: JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, WMF, EMF, GIF

After selecting the file to be uploaded you are required to enter in a valid email address (like Zamzar) for them to send the PDF to. Yes, this does seem like some blatant attempt for them acquire a database of email addresses to sell, but rest assured that their privacy policy does say that the email addresses will not be given to a 3rd party.

Now if only they would allow users to upload files larger than 2MB.

–Application: Super–

Now onto the applications that you can install on your PC…starting with the ever popular Super! Personally I prefer to use software that I have installed on my own PC to convert files because the process is tremendously quicker. After you jump through the hoops that the online services require you have to sit there and wait for them to convert your file, and there is really no telling how long that can be. Of course, the worst part about the online services is probably the length of time that it takes for you to upload the file…which is completely bypassed when using your own computer for the conversion.

The list of files that Super converts is essentially unmatched compared to any other application and online service. Now I haven’t sat there and counted the number of file formats it can actually convert but lets just say that it leaves me speechless.

Super doesn’t just do a conversion, instead, it lets you customize the whole conversion process allowing you to tweak things like the bitrate and number of frames per second. These are all things that advanced users love to have control over but it might look a little intimidating for anyone unfamiliar with the lingo.

This free software also has an option to save Internet Media Streams (such as mms://, rtsp://, and http://) so that you can listen to them whenever you feel like it. Maybe that doesn’t sound too useful right now but I have had several instances where I have wanted to save a Media Stream, but at the time I did not know about this great tool.

–Application: MediaCoder–

Lastly, the open source MediaCoder application. Its claim-to-fame is being able to transcode audio and video files into a wide range of formats. Here is a list of the various filetypes that are supported:

MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+V2, MusePack, WMA, RealAudio
FLAC, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio, OptimFrog, AAC Lossless, WMA Lossless, WAV
H.264, Xvid, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, H.263, Flash Video, 3ivx*, RealVideo*, Windows Media
AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, RealMedia*, ASF/WMV*, Quicktime*, OGM*
CD, VCD, DVD, CUE Sheet

* supported as input only

You can use MediaCoder for all sorts of things related to audio/video files. If you really want you can extract audio files from a video file or even rip an audio/video disc. This can all be done without needing to have a media player installed since it has the necessary codecs built-in.

–Overview–

This post was inspired by everyone who emailed me with tips regarding online conversion utilities. Lewis pointed out Media Convert and Josh pointed out MediaCoder, both of which are excellent conversion tools. I thought it was time to share these recommendations with everyone, but if you know of a better solution feel free to let us know in the comments below. Thanks again for the tips!

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Jan 08

StumbleUpon Redesigns With More Focus on “Social”

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

One of my favorite ways to discover new sites is by using StumbleUpon. I’ve been a fan for a while now, and just recently they redesigned their homepage. It looks like they’ve pulled bits and pieces of ideas from other big social networking/bookmarking services like Del.icio.us or Digg — yet they still made it their own.

Besides the new design, and new colors, one of the biggest changes is the addition of “recently popular websites” (much like Del.icio.us). It displays websites that were recently rated by StumbleUpon users, and the format of it reminds me of Digg with a small explanation of what it’s about, when it was reviewed, how many reviews it received, and what topic it fits under.

And because it’s “social”, they also display “Recent Stumblers.” Within that section, you can click “show me more” to see who’s online and view the top stumblers along with their profiles.

Now when you visit the site, you get a good idea of what they’re all about from just looking at it. I think the new look and design fits them well and shows that they have a focus on social networking/bookmarking. It has always been, and still remains one of the friendliest social sites that I’ve come across where you can find great sites around the web.

Source: Mashable

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Jan 03

SlimTimer Makes It Easy To Keep Track Of Your Time

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on July 21, 2006 by CyberNet.

Do you ever wonder how much time you have spent on a project? You will not have to wonder any longer because SlimTimer makes it easy to keep track of where your time has gone (no, this is not an infomercial ). Once you signup for your account you will be ready to go.

All you have to do is login and select the “Open Timer” link on the right-side of the screen. Then you should see a popup window similar to the one pictured here. After you have added a task or two (or more) you can click on it to activate the timer. That’s it!

If you head back to the administration screen you can run some reports or manage your current tasks. The reports are quite handy because you can customize the report and select which tasks you want it to include. This could be really useful for jobs like Web design where you sometimes get paid depending on how much you work on the site.

News Source: TechCrunch

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Dec 30

Quickly Save Jot Down A Reminder Using Webnotes

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 21, 2006 by CyberNet.

Webnotes

Looking for some place to quickly store a few notes? Webnote is just the right thing for that purpose. You can create your own notes page without ever having to register for an account. Once you are on the Webnote homepage you’ll notice the “Load” box towards the upper-right corner. Just type any name in there and it will load a fresh notes page for you…unless someone else has already used that page.

If you type in “cybernetnews” into the Load box it will pull up the notes that you see in the screenshot above. You can also give direct hyperlinks, such as this one for the example above, that will take people to your notes page. This makes it obvious that there is a lack of security but that is the trade-off that is needed for easy access and collaboration. Of course you could always pick a lot of random characters and then it would be pretty hard for someone to guess the name of the page.

Once in the notes screen you can customize the color or position of all the notes so that it is just the way you like it. You can even get an RSS subscription to your notes page to see if someone adds some new notes. I’ve now got my “personal” Webnote’s page bookmarked so that I can quickly take multiple notes if I need to sometime.

Thanks to Radu for the tip!

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Dec 29

Photobucket Celebrates 50 Million Users!

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

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

Photobucket

It’s been just four years since Photobucket launched, and they’re already celebrating 50 MILLION users! That’s quite the accomplishment, and to help celebrate, they’re offering their users a free gift: 10 free 4×6 prints. That means that if every one of the 50 million members takes advantage of the free photos, Photobucket will have given away over five hundred million photos!

Photobucket has had an interesting year with both ups and downs. You may recall back in April when they found themselves feuding again with MySpace. Shortly after their little fight, they were friends again, and shortly after that, Fox Interactive Media acquired them. As you know, Fox is a subsidiary of News Corp. who also owns MySpace. They ended up getting acquired for $250 million, and they’re valued between $300–$400+ million.

So besides the fact that they just broke 50 million users, they also have an impressive amount of photos uploaded to their site. Right now the number is sitting at over 3.4 billion and just continues to grow! As of June, they ranked #47 in the Top 100 Global Sites per comScore’s Media Metrix.

To take advantage of your 10 free prints, you’ll need to visit their online store. All it takes is selecting your prints and then entering in a coupon code to get the credit. You will be responsible for paying the shipping charges, but they say it should only cost you a couple of bucks to mail.

Congrats Photobucket, and here’s to 50 Million more users!

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Dec 26

CyberNotes: View and Share Panoramic Images at Panoye

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

This article was written on May 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

I’m one of those that tends to go to photo sites like Flickr if I have a minute to spare just to search for the name of a place I’d like to visit someday so that I can see photos that people have taken from there. It sure doesn’t beat actually going there, but if it’s as close as I’ll get to say, The Eiffel Tower, I’ll take it. Recently I stumbled upon a site that can make seeing these various places via photo even better. It’s called Panoye and it’s a site dedicated to panoramic photos. Today we’ll be taking a look at all that Panoye has to offer.

What is Panoramic Photography?

Before we get into Panoye, let’s first go over what panoramic photography is all about. To help with the explanation, I decided to go to Wikipedia to see how they explained it. They say “while there is no formal definition for the point at which “wide-angle” leaves off and “panoramic” begins, truly panoramic images are thought to capture a field of view comparable to, or greater than, that of the human eye – about 160 degrees by 75 degrees – and should do so while maintaining details across the entire picture.”

Panoramic photos offer complete views of an area which is why they’re so cool. Sometimes there are segmented panoramic photos meaning that they were assembled from a collection of multiple overlapping pictures. It’s actually fairly easy to create your own panoramic image which is something Ryan has explained how to do in the past.

What is Panoye?

As mentioned, Panoye is dedicated to panoramic photos. There you can upload, organize, geo-tag and publish your panoramas. As they say on their site, “Help us build a virtual tour all around the Earth.” Another important aspect of the site is going there simply as a viewer to see what people have published.

Navigating…

The easiest way to navigate Panoye is to use the Google Map that they have embedded at the top of the page. Remember, all of the images that people submit are geo-tagged so it’s easy to find a photo from a specific city or place. Another simple way to navigate is to just view the tags. Beaches, castles, parks, and volcanos are all examples of tags available. There are also tags specific to different cities and countries as well.

Panoye map.png

On their homepage, they have two columns of panoramas, one for popular ones and another for those that are new. This is another simple way that you can find great images on the site.

Once you click on an image, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this:

The box that shows your image actually pans so that it looks like a person is standing in a single spot and rotating around in a circle. Some panoramic images are 360 degrees so the images pan around seamlessly. If it’s what they call a “partial” image, it still pans but it moves back and forth from side to side. The owners of the images are also able to add messages that appear at the top of the panorama while it’s scrolling.

Want to add your own Panoramas?

If you’re someone who takes panoramic pictures or assembles your own, you may want to think about sharing your work on Panoye. All you have to do is register for an account, and then you can start adding and sharing your content. You’re even able to organize your content into folders. Registration is free.

Socializing on Panoye

There is a social side to the site – users can leave comments or rate any panorama. There are also forums, although not very active, where you can go if you have any questions or what to discuss panoramic images.

RSS Feeds

Panoye offers three different feeds. If you subscribe to their main feed, you’ll be able to easily keep up with the latest panorama images that have been added. You can also subscribe to the comments or the forum which would be helpful for those of you who decided to register for an account and uploaded panoramic images.

Wrapping it up…

On each image page you’ll see a link that says “show image.” This will allow you to view the full image without any panning, and will probably require scrolling unless you have a dual monitor set-up and are able to stretch the image across two screens. Here’s a quick suggestion – if you find an image that you like and you’re using two monitors, you could easily use it for a background image.

While Panoye doesn’t have thousands upon thousands of images, it is a work in progress and has grown quite a bit since it first launched. Stop and take a minute to look around at some of the panoramas out there because they really are pretty amazing.

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Dec 22

Yahoo Photos Gone- Microsoft in Talks with Yahoo to Acquire?

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Photos, Screenshots, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on May 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Today begins the day that Yahoo will be closing down Yahoo Photos, a process that will occur over several months. When Yahoo photos originally started, Flickr hadn’t yet been acquired. It seems like at this point, there really isn’t a need for Yahoo to maintain two photo services.

Users who have been using Yahoo Photos will be able to move their photos over to Flickr of course, but they will also have the option of moving to Shutterfly or the Kodak Gallery.

News.com called Flickr the black sheep of photo sites because it uses a different organization system, a more technical way to do it that doesn’t exactly appeal to everybody which is why they are giving other options.

Yahoophotosgraph

Yahoo photos has stood its own ground for quite a while, and a graph that TechCrunch posted shows that it wasn’t until recently that Flickr managed to edge out Yahoo Photos in terms of visitors.

If you use Yahoo Photos, definitely give Flickr a try. I love my Flickr account, and the organizational system is great. It takes a little bit to catch on, but not long, and in the end I think you’ll prefer it.

Microsoft/Yahoo Merger?

Microsoftyahoo In other Yahoo news, is a Microsoft/Yahoo merger in the works? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that it appears Microsoft and Yahoo are taking a second look at a merger, one that would be able to compete with Google. A year ago, they started the talks, but nothing came of it.Mashable says that the estimated pricetag for Yahoo would be a whopping $50 billion dollars!

It makes sense, Google is taking on Microsoft with their online applications, and Yahoo and Google have always been competitors with multiple services besides the search services.

Could this be the acquisition of the year?

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Dec 22

April Fools Jokes 2007: ThinkGeek Shipping the iPhone

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

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

The iPhone is one gadget that people don’t like to be fooled about, but ThinkGeek has stepped up to try and frustrate some people. For starters they have 8 gadgets on the homepage that are sure to give you some laughs:

The ThinkGeek WiiHelm ($24.99) Note:video of the WiiHelm is available.
SnuzNLuz – Wifi Donation Alarm Clock ($39.99)
Piranhaz – R/C Battle Fish ($29.99)
The Lonely Guy Dream Vacation Digital Photo Frame ($149.99)
The ThinkGeek 8-bit Tie ($14.99)
The Most Amazing Clever Shirt Ever ($14.99)
SurgeStix – Inhalable Caffeine Stix ($4.99)
Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter ($12.99) Note: more images can be found on the Art Lebedev site which is the creator of the Optimus keyboard.

The best part, as mentioned above, is the ad in the left sidebar…it says that the iPhone is now shipping! Go ahead, you know you want to click on the ad, after all it says “click to order.” The only problem is that the ad isn’t clickable! You know that you’re gonna go to their site and try to click on the iPhone ad.

Stay tuned as we feature a wide array of April Fools Jokes throughout the day!

Visit the ThinkGeek Homepage

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Hasta La Gadget!

Yahoo Puts Food On The Table…Kind Of