Want to be seen on your favorite blog? Video comments!

Posted March 17 2008 1:47 am by zero
Tags: bloggging, video, wordpress

Who says the internet, and particularly blogging, has to be a one way medium? There’s always been commenting, but Viddler has raised the bar. The video-streaming company has developed a WordPress plug-in that allows blog readers to comment by video. You can see a sample post on their website. This looks promising, but seriously, who wants to make sure their hair is just right before commenting?

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We’re baaaack…

Posted March 17 2008 1:34 am by zero
Tags: general stuff

 Sorry for the more than month-long hiatus, but you’ll be happy to know we’re officially back. Life gets in the way of blogging sometimes, but we thank for your continued support and hope to provide a few quality posts every week from now on. Look for a little website design tweaking as well. Without further ado, to blogging!

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Yahoo to shoot down the Microsoft offer

Posted February 9 2008 1:28 pm by zero
Tags: advertising, Internet, Microsoft, search, Yahoo

Looks like the two-headed monster won’t be created after all. The Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo will be rejecting Microsoft’s offer of a mega-merger on Monday. Yahoo believes that any offer less than $40/share is undervaluing its worth. Well, Microsoft, the good thing is that that’s $44.6 billion for you to keep. You know, in case, you ever feel like buying another mega-company.

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Microsoft makes Yahoo an offer

Posted February 1 2008 11:26 am by zero
Tags: advertising, Internet, Microsoft, search, technology, Yahoo

Microsoft announced today that it is offering to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion cash + stock. This is an incredibly big move and an interesting one because Yahoo essentially replicates a lot of Microsoft’s Live platform. It’s definitely going to be a change in the search and online advertising market. Welcome to the era of the two-headed monster (if the deal goes through).

Microsoft interested in Yahoo! [Reuters]

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Make your Internet connection faster (and do other cool things) with OpenDNS

Posted January 31 2008 3:59 am by zero
Tags: Internet, open source, tips

Whenever I see a random “make your Internet faster” hack, I just ignore it and move on because it, more likely than not, is garbage. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when this gem turned up from MakeUseOf: OpenDNS actually does seem to make your Internet connection faster!

OpenDNS has positioned servers at strategic Internet crossroads that allows them to be retrieve your site more quickly than just about any standard ISP’s DNS server. A very large DNS cache also helps grease the tubes. The bottom line is that I got my Internet connection to go faster than it ever has before, with just a few easy setup steps. In addition to just speed, OpenDNS also provides quite a few other useful features such as:

• Phishing Protection, in case you fall for that spammy looking e-mail. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us.
• Domain Blocking, including a special Adult Site Blocking feature (useful to the parents out there!)
• Usage statistics, to help you figure out just how bad your Internet addiction is.
• Typo correction. For example: google.cmo automatically gets redirected to google.com

You can find out how to best use all the great features from another fantastic MakeUseOf article. So far, this product has been seriously impressive for me. Share how well it works for you below!

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Accurately track Domino’s pizza online

Posted January 31 2008 12:30 am by kobewan
Tags: pizza, security, service

The internet today has further crossed the debatable line into too much information: Domino’s is rolling out a new tracking system to 3,400 outlets, allowing customers to track their pizza delivery’s - accurate to within 40 seconds. The person who takes your order’s first name will also be available online, presumably to motivate them to work more efficiently. To make matters even worse, the tracking website makes you promise to “agree to use the Domino’s Pizza Tracker to only track your own Domino’s Pizza orders.”

Now, some of you might be wondering how that’s worse. And the answer is that it means that it may be possible to track other people’s orders using the same service. With privacy concerns these days, a flaw like that could very well blow up in Domino’s face. Is this another case of not showing enough concern about security over supposedly “private” information, or just another useful aspect of the internet?

[USAToday via Consumerist]

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(P)review of Google’s experimental search features

Posted January 30 2008 2:53 pm by kobewan
Tags: Google, innovation, search

Google has been shaking things up these past few weeks, tweaking the interfaces and functionality of almost all their current services. The most recent has been the five experimental features they’ve been trying out, aimed at improving your “search experience”. The features are: Alternate view for search results, Keyword suggestions, Keyboard shortcuts, Left-hand search navigation, and Right-hand contextual search navigation. Users are currently restricted to opting into only one of the five, so you need to know which you prefer the most. Unfortunately, the little five line description on Google’s page probably won’t give you any deep insights into the new mechanisms. Enter ArsTechnica’s in-depth tour of all changes made by each one, and how they might affect you.

I’m liking all of them, although Alternate Views has quickly become the personal favorite. It seems breathe some fresh air into Google’s somewhat stale list of results. Google’s simplistic result page might be what made them popular in the first place, but it can get kind of boring sometimes and may be overdue for an (optional) overhaul. In the meantime, let us know: which one do you like best and why?

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Mozilla announces code freeze, new feature for Firefox 3

Posted January 30 2008 12:09 pm by kobewan
Tags: add-ons, beta, browser, firefox, mozilla, windows

Mozilla announced that they were freezing the Firefox 3 Beta 3 code last night, in anticipation of rolling out RC1 soon. There will be only one more beta before they move on to the Release Candidate stage.

The new Beta will finally include the much anticipated default Windows XP theme, although there is no word right now on the Vista theme. However, more exciting than that is the new feature which is in place in Beta 3: you can now search for new extensions through Firefox’s Add-On manager, without actually firing up the Mozilla Add-ons website. It (currently, at least) only shows a few hits for your search, with a link that points you to the extensions site to complete your quest.

Get the latest Firefox nightly build [via Cybernet]

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More than meets the eye with new magnetic bots

Posted January 29 2008 11:01 pm by kobewan
Tags: hardware, innovation, research, technology, transformers

As unreal and futuristic as it sounds, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are in the early stages of being able to create a mass of microscopic, reconfigurable electromagnetic robots. If the project succeeds, the team will be able to put together hundreds or thousands of such tiny robots and program them to take any shape they want (hopefully, they won’t get out of control and try to mechanize Earth). There are many practical applications of such technology, including being able to easily update and rapidly redeploy complex machinery. The team is, as mentioned earlier, still far from their goal but they have shared an early development video (included inside). [via Engadget]
Read the rest of this entry »

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Parody: Truly wireless Macbook Air

Posted January 29 2008 3:37 pm by kobewan
Tags: apple, macbook air, parody

Gadget Lab’s Rob Beschizza has created a short parody of the Macbook Air, showcasing a product that features the biggest attraction of the Air without its largest problem. [Youtube via Gizmodo]

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