In the current c´t magazine there´s a good quote on environmental conscious PC usage:
Durchdachte Hardwareauswahl schont außer Nerven und Geldbeutel übrigens auch die Umwelt, wenn man seinen PC nicht schon nach zwei oder drei Jahren ausmustert, sondern erst nach drei oder fünf.
I will wait 5 years - till late 2008. However, I probably will need a new hard bigger drive till then :-)
Run any website as an application in a self-contained window! Of course, this isn´t so useful with my blog site, but quite interesting for Google Reader, Google Docs or Instacalc. Sort of like Internet Explorer in kiosk mode, only with Firefox: thats WebRunner. The additional advantage is that you´ll get an icon by which you launch the website (and the browser).
WebRunner is a simple XULRunner based browser that hosts web applications without the normal web browser user interface. WebRunner is based on a concept called Site Specific Browsers (SSB).
Instacalc lets you do simple calculations - even not so simply one with equations, too - right in your browser and add them to your webpage to share them with others. Here´s an easy example (a bit too easy, of course):
It seems to be easier to type calculations in almost real language that using Excel. I will try this out in the office. Sometimes it feels easier to use a calculator - and a real one, not the Windows calculator - than typing it in in MS Excel. Although: saving product calculations and business models on a third-party, unknown server and especially a public server is a big no-no. Well, simple calculations should - and probably - do only work inside the browser, with some javascript. Still, an interesting application.
Some people are really obsessed with Alexa statistics. Don´t believe all those numbers! Here are a few arguments against those stats:
I like those false Google alerts: A while ago, while finishing working at the magenta-coloured ISP, I´ve set up an email alert to check coverage of the cooperation with UTA - or in other words, a Google alert for "T-Online" UTA. Here´s a recent result:
Helmstedter Bridge-Club plant Werbung um neue Mitglieder ...
newsclick.de - Germany
... telefonisch unter der Nummer (0 53 51) 99 90 mit Uta Schönian-Oehrig oder per E-Mail mit Erika Exner unter der Adresse Exner-Helmstedt@t-online.de aufgenommen ...
Marshall Kirckpatrick has some bookmarklets that let you add technorati or tagcentral tags to your blog posts. I tried it out - and, well, it works, quite easy, but it´s still an additional step - I´d wish Typepad would offer support for tags.
Here are some reasons why you should be doing this.
Technorati Tags: tagging
The new authority feature in Technorati is a neat function - narrowing to blogs with some authority (based on the number of links a blog has). I also like how the box with the explanations is inserted. It helps to narrow a search. Don´t forget to set the language, ´cause in the All Languages setting I also get many results in Chinese and Japanese. And no, I don´t have an iPod yet.
HTML Slidy is another XHTML slides tool - similar to S5 (see here). Actually, both tools are interesting. Although I really would like to use it for a presentation, I think just typing a few words in Powerpoint is easier. Time matters. HTML Slidy has a neat introduction, though.
Even though I´m not a web developer, I´m deeply impressed by the Webdeveloper extension for Firefox. It rather is just a toolbar, but what a toolbar. For me, information about <DIV> areas, frames, pictures, title tags, alt attributes, is worth the download. Many things which, if you don´t have access to the source code, would take days to check - such as finding links without title attributes - is now right at your fingertips. The author, Chris Pederick, has also another great FF extension: User Agent Switcher, which lets your browser pretend-being-Internet-Exploder or whatever browser you choose.
I´ve just edited the Wikipedia entry on Bill Gross to add something that was missing. Let´s see if it survives.
Google Analytics is online. It´s based on Urchin, which was bought by Google. It´s free. And it even uses that orange color used here at ad++ :-)
The site tech.memeorandum is allegedly much better better for a getting a quick overview of what´s currently going on in the blogsphere that digg, delicous or others.
BTW, did you notice my del.ioco.us feed on the right side of the blog page or in the RSS feed?
Worth reading: Steve Rubel explores Technorati hacks.
digg is really cool. They call themselves a "technology news website that employs non-hierarchical editorial control" or in other words, it´s similar to del.icio.us. And according to Alexa, it´s almost as big as /.. They both have current news such as Sony Music getting kicked in the butt. Heck, there´s even a site highlighting crosspostings on these two sites.
It really looks much like a Telekom Austria service - with it´s bring green colour: Tape It Off The Internet. Well, even if there´s nothing yet sure about this service, a global TV guide, it´s sure that it isn´t a TA service. But it spots many other acronyms, like RSS, AJAX, Web 2.0, Ruby on Raily, P2P, VoIP, Social Networking, tagging and torrents. The later makes you feel it´s illegal. Great design and possible illegal content - now that´s a killer application! :-)
Now that Verisign acquired Moreover it´s interesting to read (again) Whatever happened to Moreover? on kottke.org. Or read this interview with the CEO Jim Pitkow from late march.
Here are a few useful Google links: Matt Cutts blog | Inside AdWords blog | Inside AdSense blog | Official Google blog | Google webmaster guidelines - also: to find out when Google last indexed your page (or a particular page), search for that page & click Cached.
Did I miss something? Is Christmas already around the corner? Probably it really is, but then this new Typepad offer is - I guess - rather targeted at Thanksgiving. Anyway, the gift hunting season is coming again to the blogosphere. I should really try to retreat to some distant tropical island till it´s over.
Well, actually I did already buy a Christmas present, or rather something - a DVD - I could use as a Christmas present if I manage to hide it for another 3 months.
Note this - regarding search engines (and classifieds, too!). According to Scott Gatz, Yahoo´s senior director of personalization, interviewed by Heather Green of Business Week:
Yahoo already is integrating RSS into its services, such as Yahoo News and HotJobs, which for instance, allows you to subscribe to a specific job listing.
Cool. I´ve been waiting for Monster.com to do this. Of course, Yahoo keeps a good portion - about 40% - of the users on it´s site by providing their own RSS newsreader called MyYahoo. In other words, re-integrate the competition!
Twingine is a tool to compare query results from Google and Yahoo. Check it out before the lawyers take it down. :-)
Mary Roach: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Very very good!
Scott Berkun: The Art of Project Management
My 2nd project management book.
Hannes Stein: Endlich Nichtdenker
Not a book for idiots, actually!
Kara Knafelc: Tokyo
Japan. Ah. What more should I say?
