Category: Internet Sites

Google Gears

The web development or web engineering space has been pretty quiet as late with nothing really new being developed by anyone or any amazing ideas being put into action, until now. The Google guys have done it again with their release of Google Gears. Google Gears is an API for web developers to allow their applications to be run in an offiline mode and therefore accessible while their user's computer is not connected to the Internet. Google Gears supports both Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows, OSX and Linux therefore supporting 99% of the Internet population. Google gears consists of three components, Local Server that stores the web application resources, and local database to store the content for the application and a WorkerPool that allows your applications to be more responsive (somehow).

If you want to see it in action head on over to Google Reader as it has been enabled with Google Gears support or if you are a web developer head on over to the Google Gears Developer page.

Links
Google Gears Home
Google Gears Developer Page
Google Reader

Stikkit -The smart sticky note

Stikkit is a new Web 2.0 application available which provides an interesting spin on web-based sticky notes. Unlike normal electronic sticky notes that simply allow you to create little yellow squares to capture mainly textural data Stikkit takes this one step further by trying to understand the content of the sticky note. For example is you start typing out the details for a meeting then it will actually create a meeting request and automatically name the note with the subject of the meeting. The best way to understand is to watch the videos on the home page.

Links
Stikkit.com

OmniGraffle Stencil for FFBD

After looking around the Internet for an OmniGraffle stencil for creating Functional Flow Block Diagrams (FFBD) without any luck I decided to just create my own, which you can download from here. This stencil contains all the major components of a Functional Flow Block Diagram which is used to outline the control of flow between functions within a functional architecture. FFBD are extremely helpful to try and describe the behavior of a system while being solution agnostic.

Links
Download Functional Flow Block Diagram (FFBD) Stencil
OmniGraffle Home Page

Google Calendar and Apple iSync/iCal Synchronisation

A new application is currently in development called SpanningSync, which will allow two-way synchronisation between Google Calendars and Apple's iSync. This means that all you Apple Calendar Synchronisation applications including Microsoft Entourage, Apple iCal, iSync Compatible Mobile Phones and iSync Compatible PDAs can all be synchronised with Google Calendars. There is a video demonstration of the application being used on the application's blog.

Links
SpanningSync Home page

Cool OSX Apps Site

I have been subscribed to the RSS feed from the Cool OSX Apps site for quite some time now. It is a great little site that points out all the well developed OSX applications for the mac. In addition the site is well designed and has regular updates. The archive is also something else as it provides a live view of the articles against a timeline.

Links
CoolOSXapps.net

NeoBinaries: Listing of Web 2.0 Applications

More and more Web 2.0 (AJAX enabled applications) are appearing on the Internet, sometimes providing quite advanced functionality normally only found in Desktop applications. NeoBinaries is cataloging these Web-based applications to make it easy to find and select an application that meets your needs.

Links
NeoBinaries

BumpTop Prototype

There is some really interesting research happening in the area of user interface metaphors. With the advent of really powerful computers and very fast video cards it is becoming easier and easier to use these expensive resources for more basic things like general graphical user interfaces. We are already seeing this with full graphics accelerated desktops as used in Apple's OSX and Microsoft's soon to be release Windows Vista. But these user interfaces are still based primarily on the standard windows metaphor. BumpTop is different as it uses the more physical piles metaphors. This is based on the concept that in people's offices normally piles of documents are created and physical location and orientation become the primary cues for finding things. BumpTop uses these same metaphors in a pen based user interface. What results is a very clean and interesting user interface which makes lots of sense for tablet PCs or some of the newer displays that are either using large touch screens that support multiple user inputs or screens that use cameras to track gestures for inputs.

The best way to understand is to have a look at the video that shows the possibilities of the BumpTop interface.

Links
BumpTop Page

File Sharing: The Slow Way

Quite often I need to share large files with friends and colleagues but where I work it is too hard to setup an FTP server, which would be my preferred option. Here comes dropload.com to the rescue, this site allows you to upload a file, which is less than 100Mb in size and allow someone else to download the file. The only stipulation is that the receiver must have an email address. The site will delete files uploaded after 7 days even if the file has not been downloaded by the recipient, which is both good and bad. This is pretty good but my problems is that there is no real security on the files that you are sharing other than the email address and 100Mb is not necessarily large enough for some of the files that I share. Nonetheless it is still a great site that solves the problem of sharing semi-large files between people.

Links
DropLoad.com

Google Browser Sync

Google has created another Firefox plugin that allows you to synchronise your browser's bookmarks, history, persistent cookies and saved passwords across multiple computers. This is great if you use multiple computers; however, Google warns that this plugin currently slows down the startup of firefox due to it synchronising the browser settings.

Links
Google Browser Sync

Colormixers

This is a cool little page that allows you to select a primary colour and then the page will select secondary colours that compliment the first based on standard colour matching rules from art and graphic design. The page even gives you a preview of the colour choice if you were to use it in a web page. If that was not good enough you can also export the colour selection for use within Photoshop, Illustrator or as a text file (web development). Great for new to graphic design or web development

Links
Colormixers

AjaxLoad: Activity Image Generator

If you are developing Ajax-based web applications then you are no doubt needing to display activity to the user when they click on a button or page widget. This is because without this feedback there is nothing to indicate to the user that anything is actually happening. For example you could have a button called “Save” that uses an Ajax message to save the current data back to the server and waits of a confirmation from the server. If no visual feedback is provided then the user has no idea if anything is happening until the browser receives the final response from the server. Therefore we need some sort of animation to indicate that the browser has not crashed and that something has happened, hello AjaxLoad. AjaxLoad is a simple web application that given a foreground and background colour will create an animated GIF image that you can display to a user (such as the image below).

There is a reasonable number of different styles to choose from so you should find something that will meet your needs

Links
AjaxLoad Site

MacTF-EPG Currently Not Working

As I am a Topfield PVR and Mac owner I really like the software produced by Nathan Oates to support both platforms. My favourite program of his is the MacTF-EPG program that allows you to easily download an electronic program guide from the Internet and upload it to the EPG. The program works great (although intel version is buggy) except in the last couple of days it has stopped working. I have contacted Nathan and it seems that there is some problem with the EPG feed that is being downloaded, and hopefully it will be fixed in the next couple of days. Lets all hope because I really miss the complete EPG on my Topfield.

Keep up the great work Nathan.

Links
MacTF-EPG Home

Topfield Australia

Google Maps Pedometer

Google exposes the Maps as a web API so that anyone can use their web mapping functionality and add extensions. There are a number of sites doing just this, one such site is Gmap Pedometer. This site allows you to browse the familiar Google Maps interface but in addition it allows you to record a path over the map. This path represents where you travel and the site can figure out how far you have traveled, the elevation along the route and if you enter your weight it can even figure out the amount of calories you will burn if you walk the route. It is quite easy to us. Routes are started by clicking the record button and then it is just a matter of double clicking on the map to mark a route point and magically a line is drawn on the map. Just continue to double click to extend the route and soon you have a complete walking route along with elevation and distance.

Links
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

Pandora: Customised Music Playlists

Pandora is a great website that utilises the Music Genome Project (MGP) to create customised music playlists based on the music that you like. It starts by first asking you the name of your favourite music artist. I entered “Moby” and it then went away and created a playlist of music that has similar characteristics to the music created by Moby. Some of the artists it came up with was Kosheen, Juno Reactor, Prodigy and Kascade. The best thing is that it streams the music from the web page. This is a great web application to expand your music knowledge and discover other bands that you will like but would never have found without someone else recommending it.

Links
Pandora Home

Javascript WYSIWYG DHTML Editors

There are a number of JavaScript based code libraries becoming available on the Internet to allow developers to easily add WYSIWYG editor capabilities to their web pages. These editors work pretty much the same as a normal desktop editor like Word but they operate completely within the web browser and purely use JavaScript to provide the required functionality. In addition they support multiple browsers. The latest one I have seen is TinyMCE that provides support for all major browsers and is pretty easy use. So if you are a developer and require users to enter formatted text then stop forcing your users to learn either HTML or a Wiki-style syntax and use a JavaScript based editor.

Links
TinyMCE Home Page

EasyEclipse: The easy way to develop using eclipse

Are you interested in developing using Eclipse but have found there are too many different plugins and you are not sure what you need? Well the folks at EasyEclipse are trying to make your life that one little bit easier by including all the plugins in an easy to install version of eclipse or readily packaged plugin bundles. Although you can actually do this all yourself I am all for making things a little easier and quicker to use so go and check it out.

Links
EasyEclipse Home Page

I love Firefox

Ok so I am a complete convert and am using firefox for everything (home and work) and have also converted both my wife and mum (sort of). Well this is a great little video that summarises the browsers war for me.

Links
Wheee! Video

Matt's Blog

One of my friends from IBM has a great blog and if you are really into anything geeky then this is the place for you. One of the reasons why I have been looking at it lately is due to some of the great links to VOIP (Voice over IP) providers and additional information. If you are interested in using VOIP (like me) and are lost where to start have a look at Matt's blog.

Links
Matt's Blog

DHTML Goodies

Here is a great website for all of your DHTML needs. If you are developing a website and want to add some dynamic capabilities to your client side web pages you are going to have to start playing around with DHTML, which is essentially the use of JavaScript (or other client scripting language) to manipulate the browser's Document Object Model (DOM) of your HTML page. If you have done this before you know how much of a pain it is especially if you are trying to support multiple web browsers due the slight differences between DOM objects and HTML rendering engines. DHTML Goodies is a cool little sight that will help you get a head start by providing lots of good little DHTML scripts that you can plug into your pages and customise for your needs.

Links
DHTMLGoodies Site

AJAX Frameworks and Toolkits

After reading about the IBM AJAX toolkit that i just posted I thought that I would have a longer look around the web and see how many different AJAX development frameworks and toolkits were available. What I found is the following:

AJAX Frameworks:
Dojo
Zimbra AJAX Toolkit
SAJAX
Rialto
Microsoft Atlas (codename for part of ASP.NET 2.0)

Other Information:
Ajaxian Blog (All things about Ajax)
Ajax Toolkit and Framework Roundup from June 2005

IBM Releases AJAX Toolkit

IBM has released a toolkit to help developers create web applications that use the AJAX connection technique to allow web pages to open a connection back to the originating server and request more data. AJAX therefore allows developers to create web pages that can provide more dynamic page behaviour with additional data controls without having to continuously reload the page, which takes time and bandwidth. The IBM toolkit is available from the alphaWorks site as part of the Emerging Technologies Toolkit (ETTK) and has been proposed as an Eclipse Incubation Project.

Links
IBM AJAX Toolkit Framework

Online Editing of Pictures - Pixoh

Here is a great little site that allows you to edit pictures using interactive editing tools within your own browser. This is great for people who want to quickly edit an image but do not have any graphics tools installed or are working in an Internet Café.

Link
Pixoh

People Love Lego Too Much

Here an article on the top 10 strangest lego creations. The image to the right is just a taste of the different creations, it is also my favourite of them all.

Links
Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations

New Site Link Images

One of my friends wanted to link to my new site so wanted some images to link to so I have created a few. They are shown below with the URL to the original image if you want to link to it as well.

http://www.egg-tech.com/images/egg_site_link_small_banner.png

http://www.egg-tech.com/images/egg_site_link_centre_banner.png

http://www.egg-tech.com/images/egg_site_link_tiny.png

egg-tech Site now up and running

Well I have been able to move everything over to the new egg-tech.com site and it seems to be working perfectly again. All that remains is for me to put in the redirects from the old site for all those out there who are to slack to make the updates in their RSS clients and web browsers :) .

Links
egg-tech Homepage
egg-tech Blog

Monitor for Sale

Ok so I am a geek and this is the first time that I am actually selling something on eBay. I just put it down to being slack. Well anyway if there is any of you out there who wants to get a great deal on a 19“ CRT monitor, which is in perfect condition then end on over to my eBay listing. The listing is nothing flash and really I just want the monitor out of my house as it does not look good around all my other LCDs and shiny gadgets :). I am not doing postage on this item because it is too big and heavy so local pickup only in Adelaide (Australia), sorry to all the interstate and international readers. Heck you might even see me start selling some of my other gadgets that I no longer require or have upgraded.

Links
eBay Monitor Listing

Impressive Computer Graphics

This has to some of the most impressive computer graphic animations I have seen. It is not because they are interesting or really all that good to look at, it is because they are all calculated rather than the traditional hand animated. This means that all the water, fire or material interactions are all being calculated by the computer. This allows for a much easier job for the animator and results in realistic animations. Have a look for yourself as it really is quite impressive as water is one of the hardest things to calculate.

Links
Ron Fedkiw's Computer Graphics

Spam filter using Gmail

Recently I started automatically forwarding my email from my original email server on labf.org to my google account so that when I am not at home I can read my email on Gmail as it has a wonderful web interface. This way when I am not at home my email client will not download emails (because the computer is not on) and therefore all my emails are left in my Gmail account for online viewing. If I am at home then I use the POP download feature of Gmail to get my mail and automatically remove it from the Gmail server. Now I receive a very large amount of spam, like most of us with a web presence. Both my labf.org and Gmail server have spam filters and I also use the Apple Mail junk filter. Since redirecting my email through Gmail I have noticed that the spam filter on labf.org that only marks emails as potential spam are then filtered by Gmail so that when I actually download my email to my email client I only receive the very occasional spam message which is easily handled by Apple Mail. The upshot is that I now do not have to download large amounts of spam just to get a few messages.

Therefore, if you want to reduce the amount of spam you are downloading I would recommend to either use Gmail directly and use the POP access feature to download you email to your computer or forward you existing email account to your Gmail account and then download it through POP. By doing this you will drastically reduce the amount of spam that actually needs to be downloaded. A word of warning though, this does mean that you need to check both the Apple Mail junk filter folder and also the Gmail spam folder to make sure that no legitimate emails are deleted.

Links
Gmail

Optimus Mini Three Keyboard

A while ago I blogged about a keyboard design that contains mini OLED displays in the keys of the keyboard. This allowed for the keys to be remapped or even display the full colour icons the key's function. However at the time the keyboard was not available and was only a mock up. Well now it has all changed, no the full keyboard is still not available but it does have a delivery timeframe of late 2006. What is available (in the next month, may) is the optimus mini three keyboard (pictured on the right). Rather than a full keyboard the mini three is just that, three buttons with OLED displays. Have a look at the website as it shows examples of the types of uses, although the real power will be the plugins that others will write for the keyboard. I would really love to see one of these in real life.

Links
Optimus Mini Three Keyboard site

Overland Trail: Photo Gallery

As I have mentioned earlier Beck and I have recently come back from a holiday where we walked the Tasmanian Overland Trail (4-6 day hike) in the middle of the wilderness. While on the hike we met up with lots of wonderful people. One of these people gave me a link to their photo site where they will place the photos they took from the trip. Currently the site only has some photos that he took earlier of cradle mountain but if you wait a while there should be some of his photos from his recent hike on the trail. I will be placing my photos online along with other information on the Overland tail in the next few days.

Links
Morsla Photo Site

World Land Satellite Images

Found a great NASA site that contains links to all the land satellite images. You can browse and view the images online or download them onto your hard drive for later

Links
NASA Landsat Site

Online 1980 Arcade Games

Ever want to play all the old 1980 arcade games online? You can from this site:

Links
1980 Games Site

iRoster: Bonjour services made easy

I have lots of macs running on the office and have recently found this little application called iRoster that allows you to register applescripts as Bonjour services. In addition the application can display other available services and quickly launch them. This allows me to expose an applescript to start a VNC server that I can then launch remotely via Bonjour.

Links
iRoster

Mac OSX GPS Software

I have a Garmin Venture GPS and am I am looking around for OSX software for mapping and uploading of waypoints. While searching around the Internet I found this great site that has a good list of commercial and in development OSX GPS software.

Links
OSX GPS Software List

JavaScript Editor for Eclipse

Here is a great plugin for the Eclipse development environment for all those creating JavaScript applications for their websites. This especially good for using the AJAX concepts to develop interactive web-based applications that I have mentioned in earlier posts. Installation is easy by either downloading the plugin and manually installing or adding a new remote site to the update manager of Eclipse itself. Downloads, screenshots and flash presentations of the plugin in use are available from the link below.

Links

JS Eclipse

Stuff On My Cat

This site is sooo cool. I know that I have had fun sticking things in my parents pet cat's mouth when it is sleeping and can not be bothered with the rest of the world. It truly is amazing what cats will take when they are fast asleep. This site is a testament to this fact. People have even be able to balance quite a lot of crap ontop of the cat and keep it there long enough to take a photo. Have a look for yourself, quite funny.

Links
Stuff On My Cat

C/C++/Java Board Game

Finally a way to teach kids how to program at an early age. I have a few friends who have kids and I have been threatening that they should teach them how to program so that I can get them to come and work for me. This is generally in retort to them pronouncing that they have the smartest kid on the block. Well now with the C-Jump board game you can teach your kids how to program in a fun and learning environment.

Links:

C/C++/Java Board game

VisionStation

I soooo need to get one of these for work :) It is called a VisionStation from a company called elumens. It would go nicely alongside my 2x 19“, 1x 23” and 15“ laptop LCD screens. We have a much larger version called FOCAL at work that uses 6 polarised projectors on a large 4m concave screen that looks pretty good but these VisionStations look much more practical to have around the place as FOCAL requires special hardware and a whole room. Imagine using these as video conference facilities or attached to a robot on the other end, the possibilities are endless.

Links:
VisionStation Product Page

360˚Views of Swiss mountains

Do I need to say more. Click on the image. (This one is for my dad)

Monket Calendar

Ok I already know about phpiCalendar which is a great web application that quickly and easily displays calendars, but that is all it does, display. Monket Calendar does the displaying but also allows for calendars to be edited. Monket still uses the ICS (Internet Calendaring System) calendaring format for the storing calendars but provides great client side editing which includes drag and drop capabilities.

Links
Monket Webpage

RoundCube: Web-based IMAP email client

Like my previous post RoundCube is a web application project that is using the AJAX communication model to allow the browser based interface to communicate with the server without having to refresh the whole page. What this application provides ontop of Webnote is also the ability to use drag and drop like a normal desktop application. RoundCube is a web-based IMAP email client probably one of the best I have seen so far.

Links:
RoundCube Website

Webnote - Online Post-it Notes

Here is an cure little web application that allows you to place notes on a web page. The software can be run on your own website or even on you local machine for personal notes. The web-based interface allows you to drag around the notes and even resize the notes right from within the browser. As an added bonus it uses the increasingly common AJAX communication model to save changes back to the web server.

Links
Webnote Site

Swarmcast

So you know Podcasts and you have been using Bittorrent, now get ready for Swarmcast. Swarmcast uses the concept bittorrent to spread the network load of viewing and downloading large content (such as video or software files) by enabling all clients to connect to each other to create adhoc download networks. Unlike Bittorrent that downloads parts of files randomly Swarmcast ensures that the files is downloaded contiguously so that video files can be streamed and watched while the download is still continuing.

Links
Swarmcast Homepage
FAQ on What Swarming is

World of Warcraft Virus

Wired has an interesting article about a virtual virus that killed numerous virtual characters in the World of Warcraft game made by blizzard. The virus started as a spell that was created for a new area of the virtual world and was created to spread to nearby players. However when the characters who visited this new area returned to the normal game map the spell hitched a ride and started to spread like a virus throughout the game until Blizzard released a counter-spell to remove the original spell.

This virtual computer virus does create for some very interesting thinking as it means that even virtual worlds have a type of balance that if tipped in the wrong direction can have serious repercussions. What happens if these virtual worlds become more real and we start to create the bridges between virtual and reality via some undefined hardware in the future. Will this be the complete downfall for the human race... got you thinking now.

Anyway World of Warcraft is still a really fun game and stories like these just make it even more interesting.

Links
Wired: World of Warcraft Virus

Mozilla Development Centre

Mozilla foundation has released a beta of their Mozilla Development Centre site. This site contains documentation and links for everything to do with the Mozilla platform and includes such core features as Documentation Wikis, Developer News and a Webwatch weblog. If you are interested in the Mozilla Platform of products (Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, etc) then get on over to the Mozilla Development Centre.

Links
Mozilla Developer Center (MDC) Beta

Completely flat Cables

This is a great idea, flat cables. These cables are completely flat so that you can stick them to surfaces and they do not get in the way or place them under carpet without having a bump in the way. One of my friends would have loved this as instead of spending days and days cutting channels into his brick walls to lay cable conduits he could have just run this cable around the place and then simply paint over the top.

Links
DeCorp FlatWire Products

VideoCasts: The next craze

So we have PodCasts, which has not become mainstream with the introduction of iTunes' inbuilt podcasting feature which makes it extremely easy to subscribe, download and transfer PodCasts to your iPod. The next craze are VideoCasts, which instead of MP3 files the RSS feeds contain videos. This allows people to subscribe to a VideoCast RSS feed and download videos. There are some people out there calling this Internet TV where you are essentially watching video on demand over the Internet, in some ways this is true.

If you are using a Mac, and I know most of the people who read my blog do, then you can download an open source program called DTV. DTV allows you to quickly and easily subscribe to VideoCast feeds, download and play the video files. The software is still Beta and they have warnings all over the application but I have not had any problems using the application. Give it a go and be one of the first in the VideoCast craze.

Links
Download DTV

Complexification - Gallery of Computation

Here is a brilliant site that uses mathematics and programming to create some of the most interesting pieces of “art”. It is even possible to run Java Applets to generate the art work yourself. If you are really keen you can also download the sourcecode used to create the artifacts.

Links
Complexification - Gallery of Computation

TokyoPlastic

This is a great site with lots of flash animations with sound to delight you. Essentially it is just a collection of short animation showing off the skills and capabilities of the design house but for us mere mortals on the Internet it creates for one entertaining site. An audio visual spectacular.

Links
TokyoPlastic

Rich Internet Applications: OpenLaszlo

It looks like IBM is getting involved with OpenLaszlo to compete with Macromedia in the Rich Internet Application environment. If you have been reading this blog for a while you would know that I am a big proponent for this enhanced method of delivering applications to users rather than the traditional HTML sites that do not provide much client interaction expected in standard desktop applications. Unlike Macromedia's offering of Flex OpenLaszlo seems to be an open source and freely available platform; however, you will require a J2EE platform to run the server's Java Servlet.

If you are interested in the new way of delivering applications to users then have a closer look at OpenLaszlo.

Links
Article about IBM and Laszlo Connection
Macromedia Flex
OpenLaszlo.org

XMLTV for Adelaide, Australia

I have been using a program called TVxb to download TV Guides and create XMLTV compatible XML files for use in a number of other programs. Until recently this has been working although my source provider changed so I have to recreate the settings file. This new file can be found here and works for all free to air TV channels for Adelaide, Australia.

Links
TVxb.ini - TVxb INI file for Adelaide, Australia
TVxb Home Page

Aerial Photos.... on a carpet

Ok this is really cool, an Artist has decided to create a carpet with Aerial photos as the pattern for a Sacramento Airport. Probably not the best place to have it as I know I would be walking slower than normal looking at the floor, which would slow pedestrian traffic flow and create the hazard of walking into things. This is still sooo cool.

Links
Artist prints “flying carpet” for airport

Experimental Flash Animations

If you think that Flash can not do anything interesting or that is can only be used for the millions of animations out there well you should have a look at this site. This guy has used the embedded programming language in Flash called Action Script to create some amazing examples of what can be done. Includes real time warping of images, bezier curves that react to the mouse and much more.

Links
Lifaros Experimental Flash Gallery

Wiki in a Browser Page

I find wiki's a really cool idea. If you are not familiar with them they are essentially a way of creating web pages using a very simple markup language, so simple that anyone can edit a wiki page, even if you know nothing about HTML. The whole idea behind wiki's is to make it easier for people to create and edit web pages. The other benefit of wikis that creating links between pages is all based on creating a wiki link with the name of the new page, that is it. Well now on the meat of this article, enter GTDTiddlyWiki. GTDTiddlyWiki is an implementation of TiddlyWiki that allows you to create and edit a web page that is stored completely in your browser. Yes that is right none of the information is stored on the server, which allows you to edit a TiddlyWiki page even without a connection to a server. In fact it does not work by connecting to a server at all. TiddlyWiki works by using CSS and Javascript to save and manipulate the page contents and then save them in the file for future reference. The GTDTiddlyWiki implements the “Getting Things Done” concept a personal productivity method by David Allen. Have a go for yourself.

Links
GTD Tiddlywiki
TiddlyWiki
Getting Things Done Book

XML Cover Pages: SOA Links

The XML Cover Pages has a great links pages for all things about Service Oriented Architectures (SOA). SOA is the newest framework/architecture/concept on the block and is being pushed by all the big middleware software providers. SOA is nothing new, the concepts have been around for many years; however, with the advent of web services and XML the true ubiquitous service environment is actually possible. What makes this possible is the lowest common denominator, web services, not the most elegant or best performing option for system communication but it does provide a common communication mechanism for ALL systems.

Links
SOA Links Page

Customise Google News

I have just noticed that Google News is allowing users to customise the news displayed on the page. They have previously allowed users to select news pages that are for different regions but this new page allows users to customise each section on the main page with the location, number of stories and which section to display. Have a go for yourself. There is even a share your customised page via a link at the bottom of the page.

Links
Google News

HD DVD DRM Article

One of my friends has put together this article that discusses the problems behind HD DVD, the new standard for High Definition DVD video discs. The article is reasonably long but does provide a good overview of the issues and links to relevant articles. As I am a developer and wish to sell the products that I create I can understand why DRM exists but from the sounds of it the new DRM on HD DVD will make HD DVD less accessible, which is less than favourable. If HD DVD will not be available on computers, as suggested in the article, it will severely hamper the distribution of HD DVD and a majority of content producers and users will stick with the original DVD format. The other big problem that I can see if DRM gets in the way of using the product flexibly (ie on a large variety of devices that currently exist or are developed in the future) then users will start to turn more to other means (ie illegal downloads) and therefore resulting in the incorrect effect of forcing users towards illegal means.

Links
HD DVD DRM Article

Delicious Library 1.5 Announced

Delicious Library 1.5 will be released at the same time as Apple's new operating system OSX Tiger (10.4). This new version will leverage upon some of the new technologies available in OSX Tiger, including Spotlight and Dashboard. For a quick movie of a component in Delicious Library click the links below.

Links
Delicious Library 1.5 Article
Delicious Library Home Page

Hitachi Microdrive Technology Explained

Hitachi have tried to explain how they are able to get the extremely large hard drive sizes on their new microdrives. However, there is a twist, they have done the explanation as a flash animation and a song. Funny to watch while still slightly informative.

Links
Hitachi Storage Animation

How To Kiss

Here is a great short animation about the art of kissing. Quite Funny.

Links
Hot To Kiss (Atom Films)

Free Madman Anime DVD

Madman Australia are giving away free DVDs with 4 episodes of a recently released Anime series. All you have to do is answer a quick (and short) survey. Sorry only open to Australians. Limited to the first 20,000 respondents and before 31/3/05 so hurry.

Links
Madman Survey for Free DVD (Australian's Only)

Stretchy Cat Animation

I am a big fan of Japanese Anime and this short flash animation reminds me of a few movies that I have seen, although this one has a twist.

Links
Stretch Cat Animation

The Almighty Shreder

SSI really, really like their shredders, they are so impressed with their own shredders that they have actually created videos of them shredding all sorts of materials. The videos include the shredding of cans, carpets, cd's, washing machines and yes even boats.

Links
SSI Shredding Videos

RFID Dart

Here is cool little toy that fires small darts that have an RFID tag in the head of the dart. The ID number contained in the dart can be read by a normal RFID tag and is associated to a file in a shared file system. This is one great way to share files! Go to the site as there is also a video of it in action.

Links
RFID Dart

Another example of XUL

Conor Dowling has sent me a link to another application called 325 Factlog implemented using Mozilla's XUL interface definition language. This application uses RDF to store its database of facts and shows us another way of creating applications. The goal of the “325 Project” is to comprehensively document the year 325 when the west became Christian.

Have a play at http://www.the325project.org

If you are interested in the technical background or knowledge of some of the issues that have been encountered creating this XUL application then have a look at the technical blog.

Links
The 325 Project home page
Technical Blog
Direct Link to the XUL Application (requires either Mozilla or Firefox)

The Ultimate Office Chair

I have used a few different office chairs over my career including kneel chairs but this has got to be the ultimate.

Links
Ambience Dore Office Chair

Street Level Photos of Businesses in the US Yellow Pages

A9 has implemented a very cool feature in their online yellow pages directory, street level photos. They have attached cameras and GPS units to cars and then driving around the streets of the US so that they can put street level photos of all the businesses listed in the directory. This allows users to browse through a street of businesses so that you can easily find the business when you actually go there. This is the type of feature that I love as I like to know all the details before I get there so with this I could actually get the address information, GPS location, street map to get there and now a photo of the street. What is next virtually walk up and down the streets using VRML or other virtual reality technology?

Links
Page that Describes how A9 Did it
Sample Search Page

XForms Beta Release

Mozilla Foundation has announced the beta release of XForms 1.0 Recommendation. XForms is a new XML standard being developed by the members of the Mozilla Foundation to define web forms that are mode extensible and greater functionality than the current HTML forms.

Links

XForms 1.0 Beta Press Release
Mozilla XForms Home Page
W3C XForms 1.0 Recommendation
W3C XForms Test Suite

Rainbow: Old Childrens TV Show

This is absolutely wonderful. Rainbow is an old TV Show for kids. Apparently according this this website this video is from the original script. However, it is completely full of innuendo and completely hilarious to any adult out there who understands the references. Please note although not explicit the content may offend some sensitive people out there.

Links

Rainbow Video

Search Engines Against Spammers

Some of the largest search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search) are getting together to combat spammers. The aim is to combat spammers who use forum and blog commenting features by allowing site owners to add “rel=”nofollow“” to your links. This additional HTML attribute will identify to the search engines not to follow the link hopefully meaning that the spammers can not automatically find site's comment forms via the search engine reducing the amount of spam.

If you want to enable this on your own blog, forum or online form then just add “rel=”nofollow“” to your <a> tags. For example, change this:

<a href=“the link to comment page”>link text</a>

to:

<a rel=“nofollow” href=“the link to comment page”>link text</a>

As you can see it is very simple.

Links
New Scientist Article

The Mac Lounge

Are you one of those either using a laptop on a lounge or wishing to be more comfortable while using your computer? Welcome to Bluebroc, the iMac inspired lounge setup that integrates an Apple iMac so that you can use the computer in comfort on your specially designed lounge.

Links
Bluebroc Site

Counter Strike and KFC

Are you a Counter Strike (Half-life game mod)? If you are then you will love this movie.

Links
Counter Strike and KFC
Counter Strike Home Page

4 Stage Button - Geekness All the Way Through

Here is a 4 stage button for the ultimate geek in you.

Link

Source Article

TouchGraph: Mapping the Internet

Ever since I entered my own site into Googles search field to see what it came up with and noticing the related sites link I have been interested in what you could do. I have always thought that you could easily use this google feature to create a network map of sites that are linked to each other. Then along comes TouchGraph Google Browser, which as suggested creates and network map of sites related to each other using the Google search engine. Have a play for yourself, it even animates the network map creation.

Links
TouchGraph Google Browser

SD and USB Memory Card In One

SanDisk is showing off a new SD/USB memory card at the CES 2005 electronics and gadgets show. The Register has an article about the card.

Links
The Register Article

Google Suggest Ripped Apart

Since Google Suggest first appeared on the Internet everyone in the web development community has been beside themselves in how well it works. I have always been a big advocate of developing “light weight” user interfaces (ie not using applets or plugins and just using JavaScript and DOM) to create interactive and fast user interfaces to sights and web tools. Google is achieving these light weight web interface more often now, first with GMail and now with their Google Suggest feature.

For all you developers out there Chris Justus has extracted the JavaScript from Google Suggest and has gone through and commented everything so it is easy to understand. This will allow many others to use similar functionality in their own web development projects. Have a read here.

Links
Google Suggest
Google Suggest Dissected Blog Article
Google Suggest Dissected JavaScript (for the impatient people)
Previous Google Suggest Blog

iPod Flash Rumor Getting Out of Hand

Ok it seems that the rumor about Apple releasing a new flash based iPod early in 2005 is getting kinda out of hand. I have seen numerous articles on the web with people talking about this so called iPod Micro. iPodLounge even have a gallery of mockup designs created by Apple fans.

I am very interested to know if Apple does bring out something like this as I would along with others be very interested in purchasing such a device. I am especially interested in the mockup designs that use SD cards for memory, which would allow you to expand the memory capacity and create different selections of music on different SD cards.

Links
iPodLounge iPod Micro Photo Gallery

Pierced Nose Glasses

Like many of my friends I wear glasses and without them I am as blind as a bat. To start with I do not have any piercing but if I happened to have one through the nose or willing to go through the pain to get one (which I am not) then I too could have a pair of piercing glasses. No I am not kidding, some guy has thought up and actually made a pair of glasses that don't have arms and stay on your face by being attached to a piercing through the nose. The site has a complete transcript of an interview with the maker and lots of photos.

Links
Pierced Eyeglasses

PalmOS to go Linux

In this TheFeature article PalmOS announces that it will change direction with the development of its operating system for organisers and other mobile devices. This is a very interesting move and could either spell the death of PalmSource (organisation in charge of developing PalmOS) or its rebirth. The key is to develop this new operating system so that existing applications can either be run directly on the new platform or are easily recompiled.

I am very interested in seeing PalmOS stay alive as it is a more elegant operating system for mobile devices than Microsoft PocketPC that requires a great deal more processing power and memory just to run. Also being a mac fan I have always like PalmOS as it fits cleaner in my whole computer ethos.

Links
PalmOS to become Linux based Article
PalmSource Site

JBoss Formally Enters Middleware Market

JBoss is formally announcing its move to expand its capabilities into the middleware market. By expanding its capabilities JBoss will start to compete against the BEA and IBM giants. One capability that interests me is support for a Business Process Engine developed by Tom Baeyens called jBpm (Java Business Process Management). This expands JBoss' components to include:

• JBoss Application Server
• EJB 3.0
• Hibernate (Object/Relational Java Persistence and Query Service)
• Javassist (Java class library for editing Java bytecode in Java)
• JBoss AOP (Aspect Oriented Framework)
• JBoss Cache (Replicated and transactional Cache)
• JBoss IDE (Development Environment built inside Eclipse)
• JBoss jBPM (Process Engine)
• JBoss Mail (email server)
• JBoss Portal (Portal implementation)
• JGroups (Reliable multicast communication)
• Tomcat (JSP and Servlet Engine)

It will be interesting to see how tight a package is created and whether it works easily without too much hair pulling.

Links
ComputerWorld Article
JBoss Site
JBpm Site

Google Suggest

Google has released its new Google Suggest capability that tries to automatically complete your search string based on what others have previously searched for. The suggest happens quickly with it updating suggestions in realtime as you type in your search string. It also works on any browser (above screen capture was on Camino). I love google and the new stuff that they keep coming up with, keep up the good work google.

Links
Google Suggest

Searching for Open Source CMS Implementations by Feature

If you are looking for an open source content management system you might have been confused by the sheer number of choices out there. I have previously blogged the opensourcecms.com site that contains running demos of most open source CMS implementations. However this needs you to browse through each CMS one by one looking for the implementation that meets you needs. CMS Matrix is another site that keeps track of the open source CMS implementations but provides search facilities to find the right solution based on required features.

Links
CMS Matrix Site

Digital Sundial

This is absolutely amazing. Someone has successfully designed a sundial that displays the time in digital (ie. with actual changing numbers). The only way to really understand is go to the website and have a read.

Links
Digital Sundial

Advanced Configuration in Firefox

Want to be able to configure everything in Firefox 1.0? Well from reading the Wikipedia page on Firefox I have found that if you go to the page “about:config” a special configuration page is displayed. This page contains all the variables used within firefox and filter text box so you can easily find the variable you need to change.

An example use of this configuration page is to change the Firefox behaviour to display an alert box and display an error page, similar to that used by Microsoft Internet Explorer. First open the “about:config” page by typing the text (without quotes) into the address text box at the top of your browse and type enter. This will display the configuration page. Next type error in the filter text box, this will automatically filter the list to only display the “browser.xul.error_pages.enabled” preference. Double click the value to change it to “true” and that is it. You can test it by opening another window and entering a bogus address, an error page should be displayed rather than the common alert box.

Links
Firefox Wikipedia Page
Firefox Home Page

Australian Toilet Map

This may have been one of the saddest or most useful things (depending how you look at it ) the Australian government has ever done. They have created a complete web site that maps all the public toilets around Australia. On the site you can find the location of public toilets at any location. You can even plan your trip with the toilet stops along the way using the functions on the site.

Links
Australian Toilet Map Site

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 RC2 Available

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Full Version has been released. This is the final 1.0 release of firefox ready for primetime.

Links
Download Firefox 1.0
Firefox Home Page

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 RC2 Available

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Release Candidate 2 is now available on their FTP server. The developers believe they have fixed the bugs with the software update feature and are requesting users to test heavily the site authentication features and extension installs from update.mozilla.org. Download it today and support Firefox's spread around the Internet and overthrow the badly implemented Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Links
Download Firefox 1.0 RC2
Firefox Home Page

Actual Example of a “Rich” Web Client

One of my friends and colleagues (Matthew Phillips) has sent me a link to a page about an application that has been written using Mozilla's XUL. As I have previously written XUL is the XML markup language used by the Mozilla-based Browsers (Mozilla and Firefox) to render the user interface. This site talks about using XUL to develop a “rich” web application to search for products on Amazon.com. You can run the rich client as either an extension or online (like a web page). I believe this type of rich client is the future for all web-based applications that require a centrally managed application repository while retaining highly interactive client-side capabilities.

Have a go for yourself. (You will need to install Firefox or Mozilla)

Links
MAB Rich Client
Download Firefox
Download Mozilla

Scrollable CSS Table with Fixed Header

Found this good CSS table that keeps the header roll fixed while the rest of the table can scroll within the page. The table itself is defined in HTML using the table, tr and td tags and then uses Cascading Style Sheets to make the rows scroll while the header does not move. The author has even be able to make it all work on basically all browsers.

Links
CSS Scrollable Table with Fixed Header Example

Photoshop Tutorials

I am currently creating the icon for my new TV Guide Program (still to be named, ideas anyone?). While looking around for a few photoshop tutorials on how to do something specific I came across this great site. This site contains lots of great quick photoshop tutorials that shows you how to create numerous visually appealing effects. For all you budding graphic design people out there remember that less can be more.

Links
WebDogPro Site

Gmail Address Import from Apple Address Book

Want to import your Apple Address book into Google's Gmail service? Here is a great blog article that contains a simple Perl script that converts VCard files (what Address book exports) into a CSV list with the name and email of your contacts. It is extremely easy to use:

1. Download the script from here.
2. Open Apple Address Book.
3. Select all your contacts.
4. Drag contacts to your desktop. This will create a file called “vCards.vcf”.
5. Open the Apple Terminal application (found in /Applications/Utilities directory).
6. Change the directory to your desktop (“cd Desktop”).
7. Type “perl parsevcf ./vCards.vcf ./gmail.csv” (this assumes that the script you downloaded in step 1 and the Address Book vCards file are in the same directory).
8. This will create a new file called gmail.csv on your Desktop that you can now upload to Gmail.

Links
Gmail Perl Script Conversion Blog

“Rich” Web Clients

I am a keen advocate for “Rich” internet clients. By “Rich” I do not mean Java Applets, but web pages that provide a more complete user experience without having to request new pages from the server whenever the user clicks a button or link. There are few different approaches that provide this type of functionality including XUL (Mozilla Platform), Macromedia Flex and traditional JavaScript and DOM. Many web developers do not exploit the powerful capabilities provided with JavaScript and DOM. A recent example of this type of “Rich” client is Google's new Gmail capability that uses JavaScript and DOM to create a very quick and snappy user interface. By using JavaScript Google has been able to only send the basic requests and data transfers rather sending whole page changes back to the client. This of course takes quite a lot more client-side JavaScript development but does create a very powerful user interface. If you are interested in more information about the Gmail Agent API have a look here.

The Mozilla Platform is a more developer friendly approach as you define your application's interface in XUL and then link it together with JavaScript. However this approach requires your users to use a Mozilla-based browser (Mozilla or Firefox).

For the most interactive “Rich” client experience that will work on any browser Macromedia Flex is your product. Flex is based around a similar concept of Mozilla by defining your interface using XML documents and then linking it together with a scripting languages (Macromedia ActionScript). The difference is that Flex's client is built inside the Macromedia Flash player (available on almost every platform and browser), which allows for highly dynamic and pretty user interfaces. Flex is deployed using a J2EE server and can communicate back to the server by making Web Service calls or exchanging Java objects.

Gmail's approach works on all browsers but is technically much harder to implement. Mozilla's approach works well but requires a Mozilla-based browser. Macromedia's approach provides the best of both worlds but is not free and requires extensive server support. So if you are a web application developer please consider one of these options and provide a more advanced experience for your users.

Links
Mozilla Web Site
Firefox Site
Gmail Agent API Article
Macromedia Flex Site

Power Charging Pad

Splashpower is a new device not on the market yet (hopefully 2005) which allows you to charge your mobile devices by simply placing them onto a mouse mat sized pad. It works by using induction to transfer power between the mat and the thin Splashmodule that is attached to the mobile device. This means that you will need to have a Splashmodule for each of your mobile devices, which I believe could be quite expensive. The other question that I have is how are the manufactures going to support all the different types of connectors mobile devices use nowadays. Splashpower will also allow you to charge multiple devices at the same time. This type of device would seriously clean up my desk space as i would no longer need hundreds of different power cords for each of the different devices.

Links
Splashpower Website

Minature Jet Engines to Power Future Mobile Devices

New Scientist has an interesting article about a mob at Georgia Institute of Technology who have created a mini jet engine that works within silicon wafers. These guys have successfully created a small engine that produces enough electricity to power small mobile devices and this is using the research demonstration version. The key benefit of these microengines is that they take up less space than current fuel cell technology that is starting to appear in commercial applications. I am always for devices that can extend the life of my gadgets but what are the environmental issues of these microengines when compared with conventional batteries even though current batteries also contain highly toxic materials.

Links
New Scientist article on Miniature jet engines

Flash Anim: Dad's Home

Ok so I do not normally post links to flash animations, but this one is kwirky, fun and ticked my funny bone. No point of pictures the best way is to just watch it yourself.

Links
Dad's Home Flash Animation

Podcasting and iPodder

You may or may not have heard about podcasting and the program iPodder. For those who have not, podcasting is the concept of using RSS feeds to subscribe to articles that link to audio files instead of the normal textual information. This creates a list of audio files that users can subscribe to easily by saving the URL of the RSS feed. Then using a program like iPodder you can link these podcasts with your iTunes so that the audio are automatically uploaded to your iPod. That is podcasting in a nutshell, so why is this so interesting? Podcasting is starting a new way of potentially reading/listening to news, articles or sharing music. It has not caught on yet and therefore there are only a few podcasts available. Content developers are also realising just how hard it is to create audio-based news articles when compared to traditional text. I am surprised the no-one has create it yet but why is there not a text to speech converter included in this equation so that any RSS feed can be converted to a podcast feed. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future.

Links
iPodder.org
Podcast.net

Australian Maps and Directions in Apple Address Book

Stephen Withers has released a couple of scripts on VersionTracker that allows Australians to display the mapping location of Australian addresses from directly data contained in Address Book linked to whereis.com.au. There are also scripts for connecting Microsoft Entourage with Whereis. This is a great little script filling a gap for Australians using Address Book, good work. There are two versions of the scripts, one for displaying the map of the selected location and the other to display the directions to the location. The directions script uses your own personal address card to determine the starting location. Check it outside for yourself with the links below.

To install just copy the scripts into your [home directory]/library/Address Book Plug-ins/ and then restart Address Book.

Links
Version Tracker Site
Stephen Withers Script Site

IBM WebSphere 6 Announced

IBM has announced that its new version of WebSphere Application Server Version 6 will be available in December 2004. This is a key release from my point of view as this will be the first release of IBMs J2EE application server to support the J2EE 1.4 standards and of most importance includes Web Services as standard. In the previous J2EE standard Web Services were not included as a core technology, therefore each handled Web Services differently. This created a nightmare when moving code between J2EE servers implemented by different vendors. A pre release of WebSphere Application Server Version 6 has been available to developers for quite some time on the IBM website and is still available if you want to try it out before the official release in December.

Links
IBM Website
The Register Article on WebSphere 6
ZDNet Article on WebSphere 6
CNet Article on WebSphere 6
IBM WebSphere Developer Pre-release Download

Bruce Schneier: New Blog

Bruce Schneier, one of the worlds most respected security expert,s has set up his own blog on security related subjects. This supplements his current email newsletters and an RSS feed that he had been sending out for some time. Now that he has released his blog the RSS feed has changed to contain the information posted in his blog so you can receive his articles as soon as they are created. If you are interested in security (physical and software) or are involved in the development of applications Bruce Schneier is a must read. See the links list at the bottom of this entry for more information about the blog or subscribing to Bruce's RSS feeds.

Links
Bruce Schneier's Blog
Bruce Schneier RSS Feed (Full Articles) - RSS 1.0
Bruce Schneier RSS Feed (Except Only) - RSS 2.0
Bruce Schneier Email Subscription

RFID'ied City

Are you big fan of RFID tags? Well everyone out there seems to be, kind of strange when all RFID tags are small patches that contain a small amount of data that can be accessed via Radio Frequency communication. So why all the excitement of RFID, not sure, I believe it is just one of those fads that people have caught onto. There is nothing really special about RFID technology, what makes RFID interesting though are all the concepts and ideas that people are thinking of to use the RFID technology. One such idea is the sticking of RFID tags all around Kobe, Japan. The idea behind this is that you can walk around the city and using an RFID reader (supposedly in a future mobile phone) and read information about the area that you are in, or sign that you are reading. This is a bit like a mobile tourist guide that is aware of your surroundings. It is ideas like these which makes RFID interesting not the technology itself.

Links
RFID City Article from Engadget

Open Source CMS

From a recent article that I read I found an interesting link to opensourcecms.com that provides trial implementation of many Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) available on the Internet today. This site allows for anyone to play around with the different implementations to see which systems can support you needs without having to go through the pain of installing each software product individually. The site also provides forums and a good set of links to blogs and sites about CMS.

Links
www.opensourcecms.com

Making Better Open Source Systems

Jeffrey Veen has a good article that talks about ways to improve Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) although many of the comments made in this article could actually be applied to many Open Source developments, not just CMS. So if you are one of those Open Source developers this article is a MUST READ and take all these comments on board.

I can not stress that the easy to use installer point that Jeffrey makes is extremely important, because if it is hard to use you will lose half your audience. Do not think that you are too good for installers and that you only want to cater for the elite programmers. Even a hard core programmer likes a good installer that is going to allow them to spend more time working on their core projects.

Another big problem with a majority of Open Source software is that the interface designs need some serious work. I am not advocating the Apple creates the best software but everyone should have a hard look and see why apple does do so well, it is all because their software interfaces are simple but still provide incredible power and flexibility. Anyone who has designed software knows that creating a good user interface is probably THE hardest thing and is ignored by many developers out there. Instead of a SpreadFirefox.com site we really should have a site SpreadGoodGUI.com to promote better GUI and design in software applications (ps. Support Firefox download it now).

Links
Jeffrey Veen's article on Open Source CMS

The Big Debate: Are macs faster than PCs

I love it when people start discussing which are better, macs or PCs, but here is another article that discusses which is better based on performance. Overall I believe that there is not much difference between the two platforms and it really comes down to personal preference and what you feel more comfortable with. However trying to find out what you are more comfortable with is hard if you have not used both platforms to make a true comparison. The biggest deciding factor most of the time is what software you currently own and if the applications that you use all the time are also available on the mac (or a good equivalent). Have a read of a previous article that I wrote about the differences.

Links
Article about Mac vs PC performance
Previous article on Mac vs PC

Wikiverse: The faster Wiki Encyclopedia

I really like Wikipedia but the problem is that the dynamic site can be very slow to use, Wikiverse fixes this by providing a static site that is synchronised with the dynamic site. If you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia it is a very large (greater than 1,000,000 articles) open source encyclopedia. Wikipedia works by allowing the Internet community to create and maintain the articles creating a very large editorial community. If you wish to just browse of search the encyclopedia then I recommend using Wikiverse as it is much faster without all the dynamic content.

Links
Wikiverse Site
Wikipedia Site

MC Escher Drawings Come To Life

Here is a site where they have taken the wonderful drawings of MC Escher and tried to turn them into 3D physical representations.

“Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many web sites on the internet.” - from MC Escher Official Site

These physical manifestations are created by using a 3D printer and a 3D computer model.

Links
3D Escher Drawings
Official M.C. Escher Site
Wikipedia Page on Escher

Team OSAKA - Little Robot Movies

Team OSAKA has been around for a while now but they have now posted some videos of their robots going through various actions. These autonomous robots can be bought in Kit form and are programmable. They can even play soccer (seems like it is the favorite past time of juvenile robots). The best part of this site are the videos towards the bottom of the page. I am quite amazed at how flexible this little robot and it paints a brilliant picture of what humanoid robots will be able to do in the future.

Links
Team OSAKA Website

Lamp that reacts to your presence

The Funferde blog has an article about a lamp that reacts to whether you are in the room or not. While you are around it will turn itself on and stand upright but as soon as you leave it will droop over and turn itself off. The is only at concept stage but it a really interesting idea of having funishings that actually move and react to your presence.

Links
Funferde Lamp Article

Wonderful Squares Flash Game

Here is another one of those really addictive flash games. For this one you have to try and get the black squares and miss the orange squares (well I think they are orange as I am colourblind). Have a go for yourself.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/squares2.php

Ski Trip Photos

Now that I have the template created for JAlbum I have been able to create my online photo albums much quicker so I now can announce that I have my recent Ski Trip photos up online also.

My Europe Photos

I have finally gotten off my bum and actually put my photos from the Europe Holiday that I had a year ago. As there were so many photos I ended up using JAlbum to help resize and create all the HTML pages required. JAlbum works by using a set of templates (I created a new one for my site) and then applies this template to a directory of images to create the end site. To see the outcome from my template and to view my Europe holiday photos go here.

Links
My Europe Holiday Photos
My Photo Galleries
JAlbum Home Page

iPodDownload iTunes Plugin: Apple vs Inspiration

A great little plugin for iTunes called iPodDownload has been created that allows users to easily download music from their iPod into iTunes directly from within iTunes. However this program is no longer available from the developers own site as Apple has accused the developer that the program is violation of something (not identified by Apple directly) and was requested to be removed from the Internet. This is most likely due to the Digital Rights Management software apple has incorporated into iTunes and the iPod to stop users from easily sharing music files illegally, however if you are like me where you use multiple machines being apple to use the iPod to move you music between machines is very useful. If you are now reading this thinking that you have missed out then because of the wonderful Internet community it is already being hosted by others here.

Links
iPodDownload web site
iPodDownload mirror site

Detailed map of Springfield

For all those Simpsons fans out there here is a great map of Springfield developed from the many shows. When I first saw this I was amazed at actually how much there was in this map and the creators must be applauded for all the hard work that they have put in. It is great fun to browse through the map and see all the different areas and remember the episodes where the item was first introduced.

Links
Map of Springfield

Deviant Art Website

One of my friends showed me this great site called Deviant Art that contains a multitude of artworks created by people all around the Internet. Unlike similar sites this site contains work of a very high quality and also contains work not just pictures but also interface designs, screen shots, poetry, cell phone art and many other categories. I highly recommend having a look around the site and you can even purchase posters of some of the artwork. (thanks Holger for the link)

Links
Deviant Art website

FOAF: Friend Of A Friend Vocabulary

The Friend Of A Friend (FOAF) project is aiming at creating a language that uses both XML and RDF to define a language that can describe the relationships between people and resources in a machine readable format. This works by individuals defining their own FOAF definitions and the exposing the URL of this FOAF file so that others can access and use the data. Exposing the FOAF files allows for a FOAF aggregator to consume multiple FOAF files from multiple individuals and by merging the data can define a complete community of interest.

For a basic description of how FOAF works have a read of Edd Dumbill's article on the IBM DeveloperWorks site. For more detail go to the FOAF home page.

Links:
FOAF home page
DeveloperWorks Introduction to FOAF article

Paper Mac

Server-side RSS Feed Aggregator

While going through the logs of this site I noticed that someone is connecting up to the RSS feeds produced by a client called FeedOnFeeds. Not knowing this client I decided to find out what it was, to my surprise I found out that it was a RSS reader that ran as a piece of server software rather than a desktop application. The idea behind having a server-side application is that you can use a single RSS reader even if you use multiple computers or work in different locations. By only having one client means that you know exactly which feeds you have and have not read, an idea that has great appeal for me. I have not yet installed the software so I can not comment on the use of the software and how well it works but once I have it up and running I will put up another blog.

Links
FeedOnFeeds RSS Server-side Aggregator Website

New iPod Case

Unlike many of the other iPod cases that I have seen on the Internet this one stands out for me because of the amount of thought that has been put into its design. The Prie Podwallet contains a number of really cool features like:
- storing credit cards
- storing notes and coins
- room for headphones
- special holder to wrap cables around and also acts as a strengthener to to the wallet's spine
- holder for an additional battery that can power the iPod for extended periods
- oh and room to store your iPod safely with a window so that the iPod controls can be accessed externally.

There is a nice gallery of the features on the website.

Stylish Tea Jug

The MocoLoco site has a great new tea pot on review with a few fancy features.
- Strains the tea leaves automatically
- Lid automatically opens when you pour the tea
- Two methods of brewing the tea (with or without tanin)
- Can use as either a strainer or plunger type infusion
- Looks damned sexy.

Have a read of the page, which also has some large close up photos of the tea jug.

The Best Mac OSX News Reader has turned 1.5

Panic the company that has brought you great applications like Transmit (FTP client), Audion (MP3 Player) and CandyBar (icon customisation utility) has released a new version of Unison probably THE BEST OSX news reader available. The best way to see all the features of Unison is to download a trial copy and give it a go. One of the great features of Unison is the ability to cleanly and easily browse news posts by the content (eg images, files, music) rather than just viewing the messages like the more traditional email client type view, which is also possible.

Links
Panic Home Page
Unison Home Page

Oracle on Mac OSX

I was very interested when Oracle first announced that it would be releasing its Oracle 10g Database for OSX. Well now OSX is officially supported by OSX and if you want to install it for yourself here is a helpful guide.

Paper Boats, Thats nothing

Well I can not even make a paper boat properly, I therefore have no hope of creating this paper dragon. This is one of many pieces on show at the Origami Convention on at the moment.

Links
Origami Tanteidan International Convention 2004
Paper dragon photo

The Next Generation in Computer Games Is Coming - Half-Life 2

At the recent Siggraph conference Viktor Antonov presented a series of Powerpoint slides containing images of the new Half-Life 2 visuals. These have to be seen to be believed as there is incredible detail and lighting effects to make one of the most immersive games I have ever seen. The most incredible thing is that these images are generated realtime using some of the most advanced commercial graphics cards. Many of the images are of such high quality that they rival those created in many computer generated movies where it takes hours to just render a single frame of video. The best way to understand is to view the images for yourself.

Links
Half-Life 2 image slideshow

Australian iTunes Store Rumoured

The new Internet ISP called Unwired has hinted that its newly forged relationship with Apple means that an iTunes music store will open up in Australia. Unwired is a new type of ISP that has started deploying a completely wireless Internet access for users in Sydney (to start with). As part of this wireless rollout Unwired is offering special deals on the Apple Airport Express hub. Unwired plans for more than 100,000 customers in Sydney by August next year. Further wireless network deployments are planned for Melbourne and Brisbane in the near future.

Links
Apple Airport Express
News.com.au Article - Unwired aims for 100,000 in a year
Unwired hints at iTunes link
Unwired Website

Streaming Internet Music

With the advent of larger Internet connections and many users now owning broadband connections we are starting to see home music players that can stream MP3 music straight over your Internet connection as an Internet Radio Stream (Phillips Players). For those of you who do not have one of these streaming Internet players it is possible to listen to the music from your computer with such programs and WinAMP (for windows) or iTunes (windows and mac). iTunes has a number of Internet Radio Stations already defined in the program but there are also a number of websites that contain a list of radio stations. The two largest MP3 Internet Radio stream sites are SHOUTcast and Live365.com. These two sites allow you to browse or search through a VERY large list of Internet Radio streams to find what you are interested in. Live365.com is a commercial site that wishes you to pay for advert free radio streams, however you can still listen to the streams for free and it is the same as listening to normal FM commercial radio. The extra feature that Live365.com has is that it pops up a window in your browser that displays the current song and the past 2 songs.

You may have noticed that I qualify that these streams are MP3 streams, as you can also find Internet Radio streams that use other audio formats. IceCast is a site containing software to create your own Internet Radio stream. IceCast can stream any audio format that it understands which includes OGGVorbis (for more information about OGGVorbis go here) and MP3. The IceCast stream list therefore displays Internet Radio Streams that are either using the MP3 or OGGVorbis formats.

Yes I know that there are other sites out there that offer Internet radio streams but I believe that these are the best and will keep you amused for hours. Happy listening.

Links
NullSoft SHOUTcast
Live 365.com
IceCast Stream List
Vorbis Website
Phillips Broadband Internet Audio Players

Funny Signs, Packages and Instruction Manuals

I have known about the Engrish.com for quite some time. Engrish.com contains a collection of signs, bags, posters all with saying that have been converted to English... badly. Well here is another site that contains some new images of instructions manuals that have gone very wrong and are quite funny. My favorite on this site has to be this instruction manual. If you have any of your own you can also submit them to the site owner to expand the collection.

Links
Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness
Engrish.com

Table Oriented Programming

We have services oriented programming, object oriented programming and now table oriented program. In the browsing through the Internet I have found this interesting site that talks about a programming design based around the use of tables.

Links
Table Oriented Programming (TOP) website

Wooden Swiss Stamp

The swiss have done it again by making a very beautiful wooden stamp. The stamp is 0.7mm thick and made from 100 year old pine trees felled from the north of switzerland.

Links
Swiss Post News Release

Receive RSS feeds by email

If you would like to receive your RSS information via email instead of using your own RSS reader then you can use ERA (Email RSS Aggregator) available at http://era.indecorous.com/

If you are interest to know what the emails look like here is a sample email for the Slashdot RSS feed:

-- START OF EMAIL --

<http://slashdot.org/>

Plans for International Space Station Cut Back
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/23/230240>

Sajma writes “Reuters is reporting: NASA and its space partners on Friday
approved a scaled-down International Space Station with fewer astronauts
and less science so the United States can meet a 2010 deadline for ending
shuttle flights, a top NASA official said. Space agencies in Russia,
Europe, Canada and Japan gave unanimous approval to a NASA plan that
means the orbiting platform, now about half completed, will never become
the beehive of scientific and commercial research once envisaged.”

First seen: 2004-07-24 14:00:00
Last updated: 2004-07-24 14:00:00

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History Of Doom Movie Debuts
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/24/0340252>

Rogerpq3 writes “A G4/Tech TV feature on DOOM 3, offering a history of
the DOOM franchise in the words of the folks at id Software. The clip can
be found on the air on The DOOM Franchise, episode 310 of a series called
'Icons.' The piece offers clips from DOOM 3 and other games, interview
footage, analysis and more, and for those without access to the program.
You can download the movie at: 3DGamers, Doom3HQ, Doom3.de, Doom3maps.de,
and FileShack. It's really worth the download for any Doom and id fans
out there. (Thanks: BluesNews)”

First seen: 2004-07-24 15:00:00
Last updated: 2004-07-24 15:00:00

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Peter Gabriel: Digital Music Downloading's Future
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/24/1336208>

securitas writes “CNN International's Becky Anderson interviews musician
and OD2 online music service co-founder Peter Gabriel about the future of
digital music downloads. The interview covers Gabriel's motivations in
starting OD2, how technology has changed the music industry business
model in the favor of artists and away from the big record labels, and
where the small, independent artist fits in. Gabriel's words have weight
because of his insights as both a musician/artist and a businessman who
guided a digital music on demand distribution (OD2) and download service
to success.”

First seen: 2004-07-24 16:00:00
Last updated: 2004-07-24 16:00:00

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Marian The Robot Librarian
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/24/145208>

nusratt writes “BBC reports on robotics researchers in Spain, who have
developed a prototype which can retrieve books from library shelves while
patrons are present. 'When it receives a request for a book, its voice
recognition software matches the titles with the book's classification
code to identify which bookshelf stack to go to. The robot navigates its
way to the bookshelf, using its infrared and laser guidance system, and
scans books within a four-metre radius. Once the book is located, it has
to grasp it and take it off the bookshelf, which is not a simple as it
might seem. For this, the team had to develop special fingertips like
nails, with one nail longer than the other. 'For me that was the hardest
part. All the other things were current state of the art technology,'
said Professor Pobil.' The article also discusses using robots to assist
in digitizing library materials.”

First seen: 2004-07-24 17:00:00
Last updated: 2004-07-24 17:00:00

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Are You Annoying?
<http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/23/2129250>

cweditor writes “This Computerworld article looks at some habits of
people in general and IT pros in particular that can drive co-workers
crazy.”

First seen: 2004-07-24 18:00:00
Last updated: 2004-07-24 18:00:00

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In using the service you have to first send an email requesting an account and then subscribe to the RSS feeds you would like delivered, it is possible to both of these in the same email. After sending any email with commands a response email is generated to confirm the command which you need to remove a string and respond to, which I found a little annoying as you have to do this ever time you send a command.

The system works well and provides a clean and fairly easy mechanism to receive RSS feeds via email. The makers are also working on a web front end so that you can set up your subscription via an easy to use web page but this has not been released yet.

Links
Email RSS Aggregator

Free Stock Photos

I have found this great site called stock.xchng that allows photographers to share photos between each other without having to pay royalties for the photo's use. I have created my own account and can view my photos here. As I have only just created the account it seems that any new photos uploaded must be vetted so you may not see any photos in my profile just yet.

Links
Stock.xchng Website
My Profile on this site

Optical Illusions

One of my friends sent me this link http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html. Well I looked at the URL and asked myself “what the...” so after clicking on the link and waiting for all the graphics to load I found myself looking at static images that moved, gotta love those optical illusions. This site has one the better collections of optical illusions some that I have seen before but there are some new ones also. It is one of those sites you just have to go and have a look.

Links
Optical Illusions Page