Video of Twitter Broken Down Into Plain English
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 | Twitter, Video | No Comments
Found via one of Chris Brogan’s tweets, this is a shining example of what happens when you realize the need to explain a social trend/community, have a camera handy, and enjoy making collages/paper cut-outs.
Created by the folks over at CommonCraft, this is a great 2.5 minute video explaining Twitter - from it’s beginnings to it’s common usage in today’s society and more importantly, why you should be using it too. Really nicely done, this doesn’t look like it was just thrown together in a few minutes, it even sounds like they put some effort into making the narrator’s voice come out clean and crisp…i.e. actual production values… As far as I’m concerned, this is the new PSA for Twitter.
Nicely done.
You can read more about it and even see some of the great comments left on their original post - CommonCraft Explains Twitter in Plain English
Microsoft Released Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 For Public Download!
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 | Beta, IE8, Microsoft, Software Update, WebApps | No Comments
Microsoft just released their latest version of Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 to the public on their “Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit” site.
On the main page is a message from Chris Wilson, IE Platform Architect: This release contains some great advances in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and layout, programming model, performance, reliability, usability and service integration. We are eager to ensure that the transition to Internet Explorer 8 is seamless for you and your audience, and to give you a head start on using many of the new features with your sites and services. We encourage you to test your sites and services, and our platform implementation, and give us feedback!”
One of the interesting new features they talk about is something called “Activities:”
These activities/services are supposedly going to be available to developers to tweak enabling 3rd parties to offer mini-web-apps to integrate within the browser. There are a few other “features” they highlight on the site, so go check it out if you have any interest.
For direct download links:
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Windows Vista x64 Edition and Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Window XP SP2
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Windows Server 2003 SP2
Domain, IP, and Hosting Tools - Find Out If Your Webhost Is Just A Reseller
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | Site Information, Tools, Utilities, tests | No Comments
Here’s a collection of tools that come in handy when researching domains, hosting providers, or even just checking up on the rank of your own website:
Who Is Hosting This? -
Find out who is hosting your hosting provider! It’s a great tool to see if you’re getting ripped off by going through a re-seller. Why use a middle-man when you can go straight to the source?
MyIPNeighbors.com - Find out what other domains are hosted on your IP. Perfect for seeing who else is on the same shared-hosting server that your account uses.
BustaName.com - Fast domain searching, including the ability to check a bulk list of domains to see what is available!
Popuri.us - A great tool that with one click can tell you the link popularity of any domain based on its ranking (Google Page Rank, Technorati, Alexa, etc..)
BuiltWith.com - Website and SEO analysis. Find out what technology/software a website is using, even what type of server and advertising programs it has in place!
Find out who your neighbors are! You can use the above tools for a variety of purposes, including checking up on your competition as well as making sure your webhost isn’t just a re-seller. Instead go to the source for cheaper rates!
Alltop.com - The New Mac-Daddy of News Portals
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | Marketing, Mashup, New Beginnings, News, Promotion, RSS | 2 Comments
Introducing Alltop.com, the latest venture from Nononina (the same company behind Truemors.com - an increasingly popular source for the latest internet rumors). Alltop.com, which is still in beta form, is an ever-growing collection of RSS feeds broken down into various categories, including everything from “Moms” to “Sports.” They essentially have attempted to categorize the web in what you could consider a one-stop-shop for whatever type of late-breaking-news you might be seeking. The sites featured in each category seem to change as better suited feeds come to light, however the most interesting part of this collection of data is just the sheer number of sources that they pull from. As I said, each set of feeds is based on a particular category, even including an “Ego” (where you’d find Scoble & Mark Cuban’s blog) and “Celebrities” (TMZ, Dlisted, and all other Britney-obsessed tabloids) category thrown in there for those who secretly fiend for celebrity gossip. The idea originally stemming from another multi-source RSS portal, Popurls, and piggy-backed on the success of Truemors, this new venture has already been widely talked about in both press and (obviously), the internet. Nononina is run by infamous mac-evangelist/idea-generator Guy Kawasaki, Will Mayall, and Kathryn Henkens. This trio also were the founders of Fog City Software, producers of the long forgotten (unless you were a mac/apple geek like me) Claris Emailer.
From personal observations, I’ve noticed that only a select crowd use their own custom RSS News Aggregator (a la Google Reader), or even social bookmarking services like del.icio.us. That positions this site as a convenient alternative to having to rely on iGoogle or a “customized” Yahoo! homepage. With those the user would have to already know which feeds he or she was interested in vieweing, whereas here the average internet user would be able to explore not only the sites they typically frequent, but would also be given the opportunity to discover a whole new realm of similar content. With that in mind, I applaud the trio for creating this news-portal, the only catch is whether or not they will be able to create enough “buzz” about the site to draw that targeted user demographic away from their most likely “widgetized” homepage. Hopefully posts like this will help the cause. I look forward to seeing how it evolves over the next year. Good luck guys!
For more information on Alltop, check-out this great post on the evolution blog featuring an interview with Mr. Kawasaki himself, or just go read what they have to say about themselves via their about page - alltop.com/about/
Botanicalls Twitter DIY - Your Plants Are Now Online
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | Mashup, Twitter, Unusual | No Comments
Yes, The title is true, now you can stay updated on the health of your plants via Twitter. From the people who enabled your plant the ability to talk to you on the phone (yes, this is no joke) - Botanicalls, they have now incorporated it with a DIY setup for incorporating Twitter. For those of you thinking this is a joke, being able to actually “hear your plant” talk to you is all done via a DIY setup that incorporates PHP, some light soldering, the open-source Asterisk phone system, and a solid afternoon. For information on how to get your plants talking, first visit their website and read how - www.Botanicalls.com. Then continue on to incorporate Twitter.
Well, if you followed the link above and were successful, it is now time to take it a step further. Why not let your plants automatically twitter you when they need to be watered? They’ve even made it so that you’ll receive insta-gratification after feeding it with a polite thank you, letting you know that your plant appreciates all the work you’ve done setting up the communication system. For instructions on incorporating twitter with the Botanicalls system, go to www.botanicalls.com/twitter/ and follow their instructions (step by step photos are included as well).
Pretty interesting usage of twitter. This is the result of people who have way to much time on their hands, love their plants, and are addicted to twitter…. that aside, it’s pretty cool if you ask me. It could also be considered the ultimate “mash-up” - plants + phone + instant messaging + open-source + twitter.
If you want to see it in action, here’s their flickr page, to add to it just tag your photo with botanicalls or botanicallstwitter.
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