Month: February 2008

Yahoo have been in news a lot recently, especially concerning their potential takeover after an audacious bid by Microsoft. They’re also hitting the headlines again for their new TV project Y! Live. Apart from sounding like it was named by a Geordie, what does it have to offer that other internet TV apps such as Joost, Sopcast, TVUPlayer etc don’t?

Well, it’s hard to say at the moment because the company claims that due to heavy traffic on it’s launch, they’re taking timeout to “tune it up” a bit. According to their blog however, the one big difference is that it consists of completely Live programming. The trailer for the application, which is on the blog, consists of an introduction by JT the “Bigga Figga” and then some hip-hop music with images describing how you can create your own live streaming channels and invite your friends to watch. In which case, it’s completely different to Joost, which consists of pre-programmed content that’s not generated by users. So the question is, how can it improve on user generated P2P TV apps such as Sopcast and TVUPlayer?

Well, certainly the problem for me with existing P2P TV apps is that the channels are usually a jumbled mess. Because there’s no real rules and organisation to the way users can broadcast content, and because they’re coming from absolutely every part of the globe, you end up with garbled channel names that often don’t show what they claim to be showing on channels that are not in English. Yahoo can certainly improve the market in this respect if they can implement a more structured interface – such as that employed by YouTube – which makes the whole thing more usable. They seem to have taken a step in the right direction by issuing a standard API and tutorial for developers anyway.

The question is whether Y! Live will allow the broadcasting of Live streaming TV channels from around the globe or whether it will focus only on content generated by users. It would do well to concentrate on the latter because there’s already plenty of aforementioned P2P apps that broadcast TV channels. However, there are few broadcasting applications that are user generated in real time. Video sites such as YouTube are obviously user generated but you have to wait for the footage to be uploaded – Y! Live is promising to allow you to broadcast your footage immediately.

Y! Live could go one of two ways. It could be a well structured user generated TV site with lots of interesting content if filtered correctly. Otherwise, it could be just load of people dancing around in their bedroom to music saying “Look at me”. Until Yahoo have sorted out their “tuning” problems with the project, we’ll have to wait and see although if current technical problems are anything to go by – albeit it’s in experimental stage – I have a funny feeling this may be a short-lived project.

It was 170 years ago today that Jules Verne was born, author of one of my favourite books, Around The World in 80 Days. Verne actually started out life as a lawyer and it took encouragement from the likes of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas for him to succeed with his writing. There’s little chance of you meeting either of them to inspire you, not least because they’re dead, but there is software out there to help get the ink, or more accurately the keyboard, going.

The biggest problem many writers have when starting out is not a lack of words but a lack of structure. It’s therefore wise to use a few tools to help you order your thoughts and writing before embarking on a project. yWriter is dedicated to helping aspiring novelists to get their structure right so they can concentrate on the writing. yWriter includes helpful tools like a word count (including break-downs by individual words and how many times they are used), a time line, story outline, and scene summaries. If you’re one of those people who constantly writes down ideas on scraps of paper or text files as they come to you whilst you are writing, then a better way to keep track of them is with Text Block Writer.

If ideas are constantly coming to you thick and fast and you jump from one writing project to another, then SuperNotecard can help out. It’s designed to help you separate fiction and non fiction projects as well as define character and plots before you go too far. Finally, if it’s just aesthetics you’re looking for, one of the coolest writing programs you’ll find is Visual Typewriter. If you can remember when writing a page of text involved bashing away on a typewriter, then you’ll love this. It doesn’t come with many formatting options but it does come with a spell checker and of course, authentic key tapping sounds and carriage return effects. It will even read out what you’ve written!

Of course, none of this software can make you a good writer. That part is entirely down to you although if you’re looking for a bit of advice about essential ingredients that you’ll need, these top ten tips are a good start.

There are many ways to spice up a relationship – have an affair, wear some sexy underwear, have a massive argument about nothing etc. You probably dismiss your PC when it comes to setting off the romantic fireworks but you’d be wrong. You might think, “How can my PC possibly save my relationship?”. Well believe it or not, there is software out there dedicated to bringing out the Casanova in you and of course, with a bit of imagination, you can use other software in romantic ways. Still not convinced? Then check this out.

You can get things started with Love Quotes. If you’ve got nothing romantic to say, then let your PC do it for you. You can even set the PC to remind you with something mushy at a set time although a lot of the words seem to be taken from the bible. If you want to convince your lover that your relationship was always destined in the stars, then Stellarium can reveal it for you. Use the powers of astrology and the alignments of the planets to convince your partner that you were meant to be.

If on the other hand romantic words come easily to you, then Unique Gift Maker allows you to write an e-Love letter. Unfortunately you can’t perfume it with your favourite fragrance (unless you print it out of course but that defeats the object). If you’re already married and want to do something romantically commemorative for your partner, then what better than Wedding Album Maker Gold to remind you of your big day and breath new life into your memories of it.

And don’t dismiss other non romantic software. If you can’t afford a romantic break, then you can always huddle around the PC screen and use Google Earth to fly around the world for nothing. And if you’re far apart, then it doesn’t mean you can’t whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ears for free with VoIP calling applications such as Skype and Google Talk.

The effects and threat of climate change are regularly in the news with environmental disasters now seemingly as common as political scandals. While there are still some who will argue until blue in the face that nothing unnatural is occurring, you only have to look at your own country over the past 20 years to see that there have been rapid changes in the climate and bizarre weather patterns. While this is a frightening phenomenon, you can actually use your PC to educate yourself on the dangers and even do your little bit to fight it.

By installing the BBC Climate Change Experiment software, you can contribute your PC’s processing power with other users in a remarkable experiment that attempts to predict Climate Change. The experiment has apparently concluded the first phase although you can still continue to join in with more projects at climateprediction.net. Another similar and continuing project is BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) which attempts to link your PC to other projects such as the BBC’s including those that are looking to cure human diseases. Scientists can also apply to BOINC to have their humanitarian project linked into the network.

You can also contribute to preventing climate change in a much smaller way simply by controlling your PC’s energy usage. LocalCooling optimises your PC’s electricity consumption which consequently means reduced Co2 in the atmosphere. And to remind you of how much this Earth is worth saving, install the 3D Earth Screensaver which even allows you to zoom in and out of locations across the globe.

If you’re trying to improve your web page ranking in Google, one simple way is to optimise the HTML. HyperText Markup Language is the name given to the language that makes up your web page. The problem is that whilst it is written, you can end up with a lot of white space and irrelevant code. This not only slows down the loading of your page but it reduces it’s ranking in search engines due to erroneous data. Of course, there’s nothing more effective than going through your webpage on your own and removing errors but this is a very painstaking and time consuming process.

Fortunately, there are tools that break down web pages into byte sized components and calculate the download speeds at different bandwidths. Amongst other things, they can be used to identify problems as well as validate your code, spellcheck, check for broken links, and even calculate search engine visibility.

If you’re unsure about using one, HTML Optimiser is a good place to start because it allows you to make a duplicate copy of the site before making any changes. You can then see which version runs fastest without touching your original. The program checks for dangling tags (those tags which are not accurate or fully readable), missing attributes and broken links. If you’re comfortable with this, then you’re probably ready to move onto HTML Optimizer Pro. HTML Optimizer Pro is recommended if you manage more than one web site and/or if you need extra features like optimizing JPEG images and PNG images without a mask. It also includes a Smart Handing feature that only applies changes to those pages where it’s really necessary.

A more complete and better presented solution is Wise Optimizer which looks at more than just your HTML. The program includes several tools including a Top Ten Analyser, Density Analyser, HTML Validator, Link Improver and a Keyword Suggestion Tool to ensure that your page contains optimised text to rank highly in search engines.

Being the loving and caring person she is, Elena recently came up with a collection of sugary software apps to help you schmooze your sweetheart this Valentine’s day. Being the vengeful and hate-ridden person I am, I’ve put together a batch of programs that will help you launch a campaign of terror on your worst enemies on Feb 14th. After all, who can say they’ve experienced true love if they’ve never tasted the bitter bile of pure loathing?

Don’t worry, we’re not going to physically harm your anti-Valentine, we’ll just ruffle them up a bit pyschologically. After choosing your victim (preferably a jobsworth co-worker, annoying sibling or nerdy schoolpal) start installing some software on their machine. My favoured first strike would be MBoX, which lets you create fake Windows error messages to confuse and annoy your victim. Watch in amusement as they seeth with anger when you’ve programmed a message to tell them they’re too brainless to operate their PC.

Another good one for inducing computer rage is Add/Remove, a prank program that makes your despised-one think that all of the software on their computer is being removed using the Windows Add/Remove Program feature. This gag is so real, it will shock even the most experienced user.

OK, so by now your nemesis is getting a bit hot under the collar. Time to up the embarrassment factor by installing Random Burper while they’re away from their desk. Now revel with glee as disgusting noises emit from their speakers with everyone thinking that your victim is the culprit.

Right then, they’ve probably feld to the toilet in tears at this point, so lets hit them with another attack. Load I Hate This Key onto their computer, which allows you to disable certain keys on the keyboard. Pick a common one such as ‘e’or ‘a’ and wait for them to come back and try finishing that report/homework assignment in time.

Finally, I like to compound my enemy’s misery with some classic vandalism. Desktop Graffitist allows you to daub slanderous obscenities across their screen. Remember to keep with the Valentines tradition by not revealing your name when you write, or next year you could be receiving similar gifts of hate.

Spotlight is one of those features that really changed the way you use your Mac. Before you had to look through your Finder and use the limited search box to find files or folders you were looking for. Now with Spotlight all you need to do is press Apple-Space Bar, type in anything and it will find it for you. Search results are displayed at the top right and Spotlight learns as you use it, recording your latest searches and showing more relevant results the more you use it.

With Leopard, it has received a number of significant improvements such as handling dictionary definitions and calculations, advanced searches and searching on shared Macs.

Spotlight isn’t error free though, and if you work with a lot of files, it can have some trouble reindexing. To make it work properly again, follow this simple trick,

Solution: Boot into single user mode (Command-S at startup) and run the file system check by typing /sbin/fsck -fy (this command will be shown on screen in single user mode).

[Via: macosxhints.com]

If you’re always on the move with your laptop, there are no doubt times when you wish you could have a few decent games with you to pass some time. Windows comes preinstalled with a bunch of pretty uninspiring games such as solitaire and pinball, but you can do much better by taking your own puzzle suite with you on the road. Most of these suites consist of mind benders, word games and basic platform games but the good thing is, there’s plenty of choice so if you get bored of one, you’re sure to find something else that you like. Just pop them on a USB stick and off you go!

• Portable Puzzle Collection – 24 games from Sudoku to Mine Sweeper

• MojoPac – Allows you to fit your favourite desktop games on an external device

• WinInizio Pensuite – Everything from Pacman to TicTacToe and Poker

• PokerTH Portable – For all you gambling fans out there – play against opponents online

• Marvel Trading Game – Leave your cards at home and use these based on Marvel comics

Most of us listen to music while surfing the web, so wouldn’t it be nice to control it from the browser itself? If you use Firefox now you can: install the FoxyTunes extension and you’ll be able to manage your favorite player without having to leave the browser’s window. FoxyTunes is highly customizable, supports skins and works with a wide variety of audio players.

If you’re not completely satisfied with the Spotlight search feature in Mac you can always try LaunchBar. This advanced search bar lets you quickly find and act upon any file, folder, application or more. Use abbreviations to quickly find anything and access preference panes from any application in seconds.

It’s great having all this new-fangled mobile phone technology at your fingertips, but what if you’re eyesight is too weak to read the screen properly? You install Font Magnifier, of course. This neat Symbian utility allows you to set the point size of all the fonts on your system, or choose those that you wish to alter.