Recently in Internet Category

Fun with words, wordle.net let you use any text or pull it from your blog (like I did last night - see it below) to create a fun word clouds.
You can created your own here.

After many years of being a faithful member of the audience watching each and every night G4TechTV, following many icons like Leo Laporte, Chris Pirillo, Kevin Rose, Amber MacArthur - the likes of old crew from The Screen Savers and Call for Help with its latest incarnation: Lab with Leo, it is time to cut the cord now. Most of them have been forced off the air over the years, most recent casualty was Leo, when Rogers in Canada cancelled his latest show and there is really nothing left to watch on this channel. I have been watching on and off for a while Attack of the Show with Kevin Pereira and Olivia Mann but their show has got so bad in recent months I got bored of it as well. Amber MacArthur who left Call for Help last year to work for CityTV which was recently bought by Rogers has been let go or left the station after just a few months of working there. It seems like all the real tech gurus are no longer welcome on TV near you. But not all is lost! The future lays with small independent content productions online and that's where you will find them from now on. Another proof of the new trend - Internet TV is here.

Adobe has added a few new features to their web based Photoshop® Express today, they include the following:

One of the Flickr users remixed BBC footage when the news anchors just look at each other and camera with relief and sit silently waiting for the fade-out calling it: The Day There Was No News. Looks pretty frightening... and in a way refreshing! But we all know that would never, ever happened in reality, because as even there are many days where nothing is newsworthy, the media manage to make something out nothing. 

It is not a secret that I love walking, all my friends know and sometimes hate me for saying: "No worries it is within a walking distance from here". Five years ago I have moved back right downtown - in the heart of the city so I can sell my car and have everything within a walking distance. There is something liberating about the idea of being right in the middle of things, being able to take a short stroll to store, movie theater or a local bar/club. Even the shopping centre, hundreds and hundreds of other shops, parks, cafes is literally around the corner from where I live now. I walk to the post office and to the library, local pharmacy and the bank is a block away! I love it and I would not want to live anywhere else in the city. 

How do you know if where you live or planning to move to is a walking friendly barrio? You can check it out now using a web site called Walk Score. I can proudly say that my neighbourhood is very walkable and my Walk Score is 90! Looking back right now, it makes a lot of sense to me that I made the right choice picking the place I am at moment. No matter if you are a renter or home buyer, before you move somewhere, you should truly take under serious consideration how walkable the area is for you and how much long term impact it will have on your lifestyle and overall costs. Especially in today's uncertain world of gas prices... As a added bonus - living in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment. What's your walk score? 

MoveOn.org has posted a petition for media outlets regarding Fox (News) Noise smear campaign about Barack Obama, it reads the following:  MoveOn letter explains it in more detail:

According to a new study recently done by researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne who were looking into the psychological benefits of blogging came out with results that bloggers tend to feel more connected with a particular community. They also feel that they have a larger social support system behind them compared with those who do not blog. The same applies to social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face, new Australian research has found. They were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping. Could blogging be used as a form therapy for those who feel isolated, misunderstood or lonely? It is possible, those who do blog frequently seem to have high sense of self worth and higher self esteem. I guess it is not all about ego, or is it? 

It's not a secret I am a big fan of Twitter, I try to use it daily as a form of moblogging onto my web site and Facebook profile all at the same time. Evan Williams the founder and creator of Twitter (as well as Blogger.com) posted on his blog a great video explanation about what Twitter is and how it works. So if you have not got to use it yet, it may help you to get a better understanding of the concept and why it has been such a huge success. There are close a million users of Twitter already and the popularity of it grows really fast. This video was created by the Common Craft.

It has been a few days now since I have joined and used Buzzfuse* which is a content marketing system. Their web site is a perfect choice for any content creator to better market their works online. If you are keep a regular blog Buzzfuse* enables you to get your stuff out there and reach more people around the world. It allows others to comment, review and score your content at the same time while steadily increasing number of visitors to your site. I think it is a great concept and it will be a very popular once more and more people discover its value. If you have not joined them yet, you should seriously consider it. It is free for the basic account. Plus they offer a more premium features for a small monthly or yearly fee as well. No matter which type of account suits you the best, you will benefit from being part of Buzzfuse*!

I noticed this morning that Gadling (one of my favorite blogs) has picked up one of my photographs as a Photo of the day (02/04/08). What can I say... thank you! 

Over 200 people freeze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York City.

Internet services have been disrupted in parts of the Middle East following damage to an undersea cable in the Mediterranean, according to reports from major news networks. It appears that there is a disruption to 70% of the nationwide network in Egypt due to a faulty undersea cable which links Palermo, Italy and Alexandria in Egypt. Due to this failure there is huge impact on many other countries in the region like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Even India has lost about 60% of their internet access today. The repairs may take a while so for now they are trying to fix the issues by re-routing the Internet tracking using other routes and satellites. Impact could be huge not only on communications but also on economy if this issue is not resolve as soon as possible.  

The Courchevel Altiport is located on the top of the French Alps, it is world's most difficult airport to land and take off from. The entire runaway is a mere 1,700 feet and has a 18% steepness gradient. It looks like a ski slope covered by a runway and ending with nothing more than cliff so there is no room for any pilot error. Arriving or leaving it is an adventure in itself (besides skiing you can there). 

If you own a personal computer and spend plenty of time on the Internet, you are fully aware of potential issues when it comes to online security. Having a good anti-virus and firewall on your machine is essential nowadays to prevent an unauthorized access to your files and avoid any problems with many viruses which circulate and can be very damaging to your PC.

One of the big Internet security companies called Agnitum which offers high quality security software products for computers came up with a very clever marketing gimmick lately. Agnitum Security Horoscope is an entertaining description of each of the Zodiac signs and their behaviors online, including attitude to Internet security based on surfing habits among others. It is a fun way of figuring out where a person’s security strengths and weaknesses are simply based on their horoscope. Since we are all different, our approach to risk taking and overall behaviors varies quite a bit, with their horoscope you can learn a little more about yourself. Plus if you have a your own web site or a page / profile, they even allow you to grab a small piece of code for it so you can display your personal horoscope. Here is an example of it:

Internet Security Horoscope 2008

If you enjoy horoscopes in general and want to know what to expect in the upcoming New Year, you should definitely check out Agnitum Security Horoscope, it will put a smile on your face and you can easily share it with others when you put it on your own web site.

Time Machine back up in the newest Mac OS X Leopard is one of my favorite features in my new iMac! I do not have to worry about backing up my files anymore as it being done for me in the background every hour onto an external hard drive. Here is the newest Apple Ad for it: 

photophlow is an easy and fun way to talk about and share flickr photos in real time. think of it as the ultimate flickr communicator: invite your friends, search photos together, chat and comment all at once.

As a new Mac owner who has recently switched from a PC, I am pleased to see many alternative sources for all Apple related hardware and software right online. DV Warehouse web site not only offers a huge variety of used Mac computers but also has a great inventory on Apple Parts in general. Besides that, they also have one of the largest selection of Digital Video Solutions for broadcasting, editing and production work. You will find over there many also well known software packages for Mac users from major brands which are highly recognized by the industry. 

When you are buying a product from Apple you know you are getting the best of the best when it comes to quality, but as with all technology you may need add or upgrade some of the components as time passes and you want to maximize your initial investment in the hardware. DV Warehouse is an independent source for all Apple service parts and quality used Mac computers. They also stock a wide selection of hard-to-find Apple parts & discontinued Apple computer models. Through their volume purchasing program they are able to provide you with all necessary items at much lower cost when you compare it many other sources online or directly from Apple web site. Any of their used products come fully refurbished, to ensure excellent quality you would normally expect directly from Apple, plus all parts and used Mac computes come with a 90-day warranty! I have looked closely through the list of all the items they have and I am very impressed with their inventory. 

If you are looking for more RAM for your current Mac, you would like to purchase a used Mac or you need to replace a lost or broken Apple AC power adapter, DV Warehouse has you covered. You can save up to 50% to 75% off of new & used Mac equipment prices with them. Make sure you also check out their Specials section of the web site where you will find many great products far below normal retail prices. Go ahead a bookmark this site for future needs, you just never know when you will need something for your Mac! I know I did...

Bryan Gardiner (wired.com) reports that Google has optimized its popular Picasa photo service for the iPhone. He quotes Google software engineer Joe Walnes as saying: "Today, I'm happy to tell you that we've just released this new iPhone interface for Picasa. After you go to Picasa on your iPhone and log in, you can quickly see all your albums that you've uploaded to Picasa web. If you click on any of the albums, you can get a full view of your picture with comments from your friends." Now if we could get an iPhone in Canada that would be nice, hopefully in 2008 a new 3G iPhone will arrive here.