Daily Web Dose

Picnik online photo editing

2007-02-15T07:55:00.000-04:00

Online photo editing can be both easy and fun. With Picnik - a neat and fast web application - you can quickly edit all your online photos from one place. It's the easiest way on the Web to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, or apply effects to your photos.

You can fixing your photos with just one-click or do even more tweaking. Picnik manages your pics with several functions like: crop, rotate, and resize - all in in real-time!
You can also add many special effects.
Picnik runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and supports and works directly with many photo sharing sites, and you do not need to download and install anything!

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Gaim encrypts your IM conversations

2007-02-14T08:39:00.000-04:00

If you want to encrypt your IM conversations you can install and use Gaim. This open source application uses public/private key pairs to scramble each message that it sends to your recipient, as well as it will then de-scrambles that message and display it for you. If the recipient does not have the Gaim plugin installed, he/she will receive a message explaining that the text is encrypted.

Naturally all these routines work in background and do not require any kind of effort on your part - save of course the initial encrypting (just click on the lock icon).
Gaim works on Windows/Mac/Linux/OS portable, its latest stable version is 1.5. Be warned that Gaim IM security is not 100% foolproof, albeit it is certainly an easy way to obscure your sensitive conversations.

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Easily create Photo Album with J Album 7

2007-02-13T13:33:00.000-04:00

JAlbum is a fantastic gallery software that produces a web-album directly from your own digital pictures. J stands for Java as JAlbum runs on both Windows and Mac.It is fast and easy to use and supports up to 30 languages - and it is free!

JAlbum features a personalization, so that you can choose each look of each album you creat. For instance you can have several combinations of themes, layouts, picture, thumbnail, background music, etc.
JAlbum allows you to share your photo albums anywhere, this because your pictures are not linked to one site: so you can publish your albums on any web page as well as you can share directly from your computer.

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Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1 Suite

2007-02-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1 is a suite derived from the application formerly known as "Mozilla Application Suite".

SeaMonkey 1.1 includes:

Navigator

Tabbed browsing gives you a better way to surf the net. You no longer have to open one page at a time. With tabbed browsing, open several pages at once with one click. Plus, your homepage can be multiple pages, in tabs.
Popup blocker lets you surf the web without interruption from annoying ads.
Image Manager lets you block images to remove offensive images or speed up the rendering of web sites.
Find as you type gives you another way to navigate a page. Just start typing to jump from link to link or to find a word or phrase within a page.
Plus all the features a modern browser should have including: Advanced security settings; Password, Download, and Cookie managers; Themes; multi-language and multi-platform support; and, the latest in Web Standards.

Mail & Newsgroups

Junk mail controls helps you take back control of your e-mail from spammers. SeaMonkey's adaptive junk mail control gets smarter with use and is personalized to the e-mail that you receive. Manage your mail with customizable Labels and Mail Views. Color code your e-mail to help you prioritize. Sort your mail with views to help you through your e-mail much faster.
Multiple Accounts support helps you manage all your mail through one interface.
SeaMonkey Messenger includes Enterprise ready features such as S/MIME, return receipts, Address Books, LDAP support, and digital signing.

Composer

SeaMonkey's powerful yet simple HTML editor keeps getting better with dynamic image and table resizing, quick insert and delete of table cells, improved CSS support, and support for positioned layers.

SeaMonkey 1.1 is powered by the same engine as Firefox 2 and the upcoming Thunderbird 2, and includes numerous enhancements including more visible security indicators in the browser and enhanced phishing detection for e-mail, a new tagging system for e-mail that supersedes labels, support for multi-line tooltips in web pages, and previews images in tab tooltips. Other changes include inline spell checking in the browser, an updated version of ChatZilla, and a significantly improved startup script on Linux.

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Newest release from Zoho: Notebook

2007-02-11T07:54:00.000-04:00

People at Zoho have in preparation a new release; Notebook! This online application is already successful, With Notebook you can gather and create multiple types of content that can easily be shared (You will be able to opt for sharing an a part or the whole notebook) with others.

As usual its interface is very simple, and Zoho Notebook will solve all your problems in managing multiple sources of information (desktop, e-mail, websites, applications etc.).
Thanks to Zoho Notebook you will only have one single environment in order to access and share all those information that are important for you. You can quickly use “add” buttons in order to add any text, graphics, photos, audio, video, RSS feeds and documents
Zoho Notebook is a sort of midway between Google Notebook and Microsoft OneNote enriched with web 2.0 collaborative approach. Clearly you can import/export Notebook pages from other applications such as Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet.
Zoho Notebook is perfectly Skype-integrated for instant chat and IP telephony and has a Firefox and IE plug-in.

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LAN chatting made easy with BORGChat

2007-02-10T08:45:00.000-04:00

BORGChat is a very interesting application that allows you to chat within your LAN Network. This is a time and cost saving software that, by setting a room and channel based chat (private and/or open) on a LAN, simplifies communication among colleagues and coworkers within different cubicle, floor and building locations.

Other features include message board and picture and/or file sending. You can also view the status of other computers (here, busy or away) and share files within your network. As to safety it also has functionality like "Ignore private messages/ all messages" and "Add to block list" (filtered messaging).
BORGChat is free and supports almost any language.

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Optimise your desktop with Win Tabber

2007-02-09T12:52:00.000-04:00

Win Tabber is probably the swiftest way to make space on your Taskbar. This tiny and neat application allows you to identify and single out some of your open windows and put them into a simple tabbed interface.

You can multi-tab your windows in a few seconds, besides a shell with tabs works better and faster. When you start using Win Tabber multiple tabs will take place of windows and you will get a better view of your windows tasks. Win Tabber is free to download.

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Share your pics with Pikeo

2007-02-08T09:51:00.000-04:00

Pikeo is a fast and reliable Flex photo sharing website. Pikeo also has a fast uploading function that does not require any desktop application. One you sign up you can upload even whole folders directly from the site working in the background. This means that the application continues uploading while you keep browsing your pictures.

Pikeo grants you full mobility as no matter where you are you can send photos from your camera phone to Pikeo. Plus, another tiny feature allows you to keep track of your travels by pinning your photos to an online map.
Pikeo is free and gives you up to 1 Gigabyte storage!

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Check your Web designs with Web Accessibility Toolbar

2007-02-07T08:30:00.000-04:00

Web Accessibility Toolbar is a neat application provided by the Accessible Information Solutions (AIS) team of Vision Australia developed to aid manual examination of web pages for a variety of aspects of accessibility. This application installs as an Internet Explorer toolbar and helps web designers and developers to examine the structure, components and accessibility features of any given web page. and offers several integrated tools to inspect style sheets, tables, frames, images and more. System requirements are:

Microsoft Windows - Tested on Windows 98 & 2000, NT & XP
Internet Explorer 5+ with Javascript enabled (for most functions except IE Options)

Web Accessibility Toolbar consists of a range of functions that:

identify components of a web page
facilitate the use of 3rd party online applications
simulate user experiences
provide links to references and additional resources

You can also carry out several tests like link checks, HTML validation, page download speed, color simulations, page resolutions and much more. There are other languages supported than English (French, Portuguese, Korean etc.). Toolbar functionality is an ongoing development process. However Toolbar has an update function the tools/references available, so that it can be updated without any user intervention: some toolbar functionality are based on Javascript and CSS files that are hosted on the Vision Australia server. These files may can undergo modifications and change in the way the associated Toolbar function works.
You should download it and give it a try it!

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Create personalised menus with FileMenu Tools

2007-02-06T07:56:00.000-04:00

FileMenu Tools a new application allows you to customise your shortcut Windows right-click menu. Context menus are normally very useful especially when you have your current archive organised in several thematic folders. Additionally you can also set numerous custom shortcut/context menus.

FileMenu Tools includes a lot of built-in functionality such as run Command Line From Here, Move To, Copy To, Copy Path, and a whole lot more. An interesting feature is the Synchronisation of two folders: it is possible configure the synchronization type (unidirectional, bidirectional, etc.) and the file types which must be synchronized. Moreover you can also deletes recursively specific file types from a folder, and these file types can be specified with wild cards, for example: *.txt, *.t??
FileMenu Tools is free to download and use.

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Blog and News with Gobits Reader

2007-02-05T08:24:00.000-04:00

Gobits Reader is a free and fastweb-based news reader. Based on advanced Ajax interface, it makes easy to find and organise feeds Gobits Reader tracks your favorite news, websites, blogs and allows you to be updated, create your blog and share your blogroll.

Publishing is very easy, drag and drop features allow you to annotate contents of your favorite articles and broadcasting of your own RSS feeds so that the world can subscribe to your news. Gobits Reader also has a built-in email service (including a free email account) so that you can send articles and news sources to your network members.

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Master all your videos with Any Video Converter

2007-02-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

Any Video Converter! 1.21 was released Thursday. This great free all-in-one video converting application performs every format video conversion with a friendly graphic interface.

Any Video Converter can manage and convert video files from various formats fast and with good video quality Formats supported include DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 for iPod/PSP/portable video device, MP4 player/smart phone.
Thanks to Any Video Converter even beginners can arrange their files in any format video and watch them with iPod, PSP, mobile phone or MP4 player.
Any Video Converter can also perform batch file conversion, by simply creating a batch list of file of any format and convert them all to a single selected format.

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Restore stuck LCD pixels with JScreenFix

2007-02-03T17:13:00.000-04:00

JScreenFix is a useful application that can fix your PC, PDA and Mobile Phone LCD screen stuck pixels. Stuck pixels - brilliant point of colour (green, red, etc.)visible while the whole display is black – sometimes happen on LCD screens and they may function again. In case they look black on a white background, they are considered instead dead pixels.

JScreenFix acts on each colour component independently and un-coordinatedly, by random on-off cycles at up to 60/tps, so pixels are repaired via resonance and reiteration. The process takes less than 20 minutes, is very much effective and not too demanding on the screen's power supply circuitry. The final outcome is an increase in contrast and normalisation of colour levels in plasma and LCD screens.
JScreenFix has several different versions available for LCD, TV and more, but it does not work on CRT screens. JScreenFix is free, and by the by viewing the screen while running JScreenFix is not recommended.

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Draw and produce mechanical parts with eMachineShop

2007-02-02T08:16:00.000-04:00

I was very much impressed by eMachineShop an e-business where at the click of a mouse you can order custom machine parts! This is a extraordinary new web-service that allows users to create mechanical custom parts. eMachineShop solves the problem of getting mechanical parts by providing free CAD downloadable software so that the customers can draw or import from an existing file from their CAD program and also budget the price and order the part they have designed via the Internet.

Ordered parts can be for cars, bikes, aircraft, musical instruments, watercraft, optical devices, sensors, models, nameplates, electronic devices, enclosures, clocks, machinery, engines, furniture, games, jewellery, jigs, telecom, lighting, medical devices, photographic devices, robots, sculptures, sound equipment, sporting equipment, tooling, toys, and more.
eMachineShop is an online alternative to a machine shop: your parts will be machined and delivered from 1 to 1 million units.
At eMachineShop they do not review designs; however they encourage users to download their free software in order to determine whether eMachineShop can meet their needs. A list of productable machines is available and users can also specify special requirements using "Comments to the Machinist", and in case they are unsure about the feasibility of the required job eMachineShop will not accept a job we can't properly manufactured and/or require the customer authorization for a price adjustment.

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Animated presentations with Pie & Donut charts

2007-02-01T09:40:00.001-04:00

Statistics charts are widely used in any presentation, memo and report. Whatever is your profession or trade, most likely you will have to arrange figures and statements and make them accessible and understandable. Pie & Donut charts is very interesting and useful fully configurable Adobe Flash Player charting application. It will allow you to produce professional looking 3D or 2D animated pies charts on your blog and web page/site.

Building the chart with Pie & Donut is easy since you can import data from Excel (XML or CSV fromat are supported) and the charts will not slow down your web page upload as the files seldom reach 20 Kb. Plus you can dynamicly generate data file with PHP, ASP, .NET or other programming language.
Obviously you can configure every detail of your Pie & Donut chart such as all colours, size of a flash movie, pie radius and lean angle, put labels and legenda. You can also insert a background image in JPG or an animated flash (SWF format).
You can download and use Pie & Donut chart for free. The only limitation of free version is that a small link to this web site will be displayed in top left corner of your pies.

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Hey!Watch converts on line your videos

2007-01-31T11:19:00.000-04:00

Hey!Watch produced by a French software house is a new free fully web based video converter application rich in tools that can allow developers via a REST API to integrate it into their web functionality.

With Hey!Watch you can upload video files to the service from a hard drive or just writing their URL, as well as using a RSS feed. Hey!Watch has also produced several bookmarklets and includes a Firefox plugin so that you can import a video directly from the web page you are reading.
The uploaded files can be converted to numerous video formats, so that when ready you can downloaded them on your PC. An interesting feature consists in a smart-RSS use: whenever you watch an online video you wish to store you just bookmarklet it and afterwards you will collect the file from the RSS feed (MPEG, iPod, or DVD format).
Definitely a must try!

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Stop Spam and Phishing with SPAMfighter

2007-01-30T08:16:00.000-04:00

SPAMfighter is a free application that works with Outlook and Outlook Express and that immediately filters spam and phishing messages.

It works in a very simple way: anytime a e-mail reaches you, SPAMfighter will automatically test it and should the message be considered spam, this be instantly moved to your spam folder. In case you receive a non detected spam message that you will have to tag it and the application will remove it from your "in Box" and from any other SPAMfighter user. Considering that over 2,5 million users have already installed SPAMfighter, thank to this community report system the software learns continuously and enhances this united spam-fighting...

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Re-installing Operating System made easy with Driver Collector

2007-01-29T09:19:00.000-04:00

Driver Collector is an incredibly useful tool that searches and collects all currently installed drivers on your computer. This means that whatever hardware you have installed on your machine its driver will be copied into a folder which will be of capital importance if and when you want/need/must reinstall windows.

I hope you will never have to re-install an operating systems as this is a very delicate and painstaking process that also implies you searching through all those old floppys, CDs and DVDs that were in the box of each piece of hardware you initially and from time to time bought. Video card, mother-board, sound-card, modem etc. - you will have to search for them all and consequently you will have to browse through the internet for their newest version. Ultimately Driver Collector will help you to re-install Windows on your computer and even though I usually make a copy of each latest drivers I install, I feel safer with this application; you never know...

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On Net decadence

2007-01-28T08:11:00.000-04:00

Sunday Editorial

Two weeks ago, an Australian young man has created a breakthrough in this century shopping and lifestyle when put his life for sale on e-Bay. Yes his entire life is auctioned, including:

Name
Phone number
All my possessions which includes the following
Clothes,
Roughly 300 CDs
Surfboard
Laptop (minus certain information with my discretion),
Pushbike (Has wonky handlebars, may need some work)
Books,
Bed
CD player
Backpack
Tennis racquets
Golf Clubs (which you will have no idea how to use)
Childhood photos
Skateboard
Nice lamp which your ex-girlfriend bought you.

In addition the winner will get instructions and training in order to get this new identity including Surfing, Climbing, Skateboarding etc. and 2 more months of assistance after the actual transfer will take place.

What is amazing is that the he has obtained 48 bids reaching 7,500 AUS$! The winner is some “ridderstrade” who is now entitled to collect in Wollongong, New South Wales Nicael’s life package – which includes two enemies and some credits to be collected.

According to Nicael he is carrying out a social experiment. Nicael promises do donate 30% of the revenues to ARAFMI, an Australian association assisting mental disorders victims, and is planning to make a documentary on his experiment.

“I did this because i was a little intrigued as to what exactly constitutes a life, a little intrigued as to what people want that they aren't receiving from their current life, a little bit because I’m a socialist and was hoping to make a point that the amount and type of things that are for sale in this world is insane and wasteful, a bit because I was a little intrigued as to what makes me who I am and at exactly what point in this experiment will I lose it, if ever. Finally I think I did it because I think it will be such a strange, interesting, unprecedented, quirky and hilarious social experiment. How random is this, it's ruling! Everyone who's got behind it is ruling!”

Frankly I deem this is just a provocation, or worse probably a cheap way to reach notoriety. As a matter of fact this is another confirmation of the actual decadence of our Western culture in these days which is perfectly reflected – if not amplified – by the Internet community: side effects of a major phenomenon probably unstoppable.

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Self extracting PDF files with PDF2EXE

2007-01-27T08:40:00.000-04:00

PDF2EXE is an incredibly useful application recently developed by a Spanish company. PDF2EXE swiftly converts PDF to EXE, making PDF documents readable even on PCs that have neither Adobe Reader nor Adobe Acrobat software installed. This means that using PDF2EXE you can share/send Adobe PDF files with/to anyone and not worry as whether they can read it or not.

The transition from PDF to EXE keeps all the features and characteristics of the original document.You can also compress and/or encrypt PDF documents by inserting a password for the converted EXE file. You can also prevent any changes on the EXE generated file and disable conversion from PDF to TXT, EXE to TXT.
The same company has also issued Cool PDF Reader a very tiny and immediately running (just 685 kb) PDF viewer/reader to view, print, and convert PDF files to TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, EPS. This application can be useful too, considering the weight and slowness of Acrobat 7 and 8...

Both software are free to download and use

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Stickies: the best Post it reminder

2007-01-26T08:04:00.000-04:00

Stickies is a very useful free PC utility that will eliminate your Post-It notes you usually leave everywhere on your desk and monitor, being actually their a computer version.
You write it, you stick it on your desktop and they stay there until you erase them. When a Stickies comes up, if you wish to have a reminder, you can associate it to a sound as a reminder. Stickies is tiny and easy and will not interfere with your system and running programs. No fancy: just yellow little windows where you can write down your text notes. Of course if you wish you can customise their size, fonts, colours and buttons.

A good Stickies feature is the possibility to attach a message to a document or a web site or a folder and the message will come out when this is open. Once more interesting feature is the possibility to move the Stickies over a TCP/IP network connection or SMTP mail server or MAPI client (groups and mailing lists are supported) as well as to and from your Palm or PPC PDA.
The last version of Stickies (release 6.0a) can be downloaded for free, I would give it a try if I were you!

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Zoho and Omnidrive enhance your mobility and freedom

2007-01-25T09:51:00.000-04:00

I wrote already a glowing repor t on web based office suite Zoho, and my favour towards this application is growing not only because of Zoho’s newly updated API, but chiefly since they have recently announced a very interesting partnership with the online storage company Omnidrive. This is another initiative carried out by Zoho after a 2006 dense of events.

The two companies, thanks to this intelligent move will expand their functionality and success. The main idea is based on the consideration that if your documents are stored online, you have to firstly download them and then you can view and/or edit them. This is in plain contrast with mobility work and confines online storage simply to a backup utility. This new solution corresponds to an enlargement of your HD and archives as users can store all of their Zoho Office suite files within Omnidrive - i.e. a safe and huge virtual storeroom - from which they will be able to easily retrieve any document by simply clicking it. Actually Omnidrive will immediately open the document with Zoho for editing.
Sharing and collaborative Zoho use is another feature which will be provided by the sharing features of Omnidrive. Moreover Omnidrive - that has recently released its new API - will offer a complete set of tools as to making and editing files both offline and online with perfect synchronisation feature you will be able to perform updates between desktop and/or Zoho and/or other locations - which is amazingly useful for mobile and team workers.
I compliment this partnership project - as many others in course at Zoho - as I deem any step towards mobility and portability very much welcomed, because it means more freedom and ability to follow your inspiration and creativity.

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More screen space with WinArranger

2007-01-24T09:16:00.000-04:00

Space on PCscreens is never enough, no matter how large is your monitor: I possess a 19" LCD, keep many windows open and regardless I always wish for more space...
WinArranger is a interesting application that allows you to optimise your screen space by rearranging your open windows in accordance with your needs. Its modest system requirements allow its use practically on every PC. Furthermore, it has neat and easy-to-use interface, customisable hotkeys and features several peculiar screen layouts which can not be normally satisfied.

WinArranger can work also on a multi-monitor basis, and can customise several windows and their layout per each monitor. This re-arrangement can be performed following three ordering modes: manual, by process, by title. WinArranger is endowed with shortcuts keys and can be set in order to flexibly follow your instructions by “Arranging” and/or “Re-arranging” and/or delete one or more of the windows from the screen.
WinArranger allows you to use your workspace in a more efficient way by arranging windows on your PC monitor in optimal way; you can download ad use it for free

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Revive your deleted files with Recuva

2007-01-23T08:21:00.000-04:00

A new piece of software that restores deleted documents has been recently issued, I am talking about Recuva (slang transliteration for "recover") a free utility able to restore files that have been unwillingly erased from your PC. I already have lately written on a little application able to recover files accidentally deleted; however Recuva has favourably impressed me.

I addition to those files erased when you normally empty your Recycle Bin you can restore with Recuva images as well as other files that have been mistakenly deleted from digital music players (MP3), pen drives and digital cameras SD, XD, Compact Flash and other removable media. Recuva is powerful as it allows you to revive files and documents deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses.

At the moment Recuva is in Beta release, runs in Win 2000 and XP and can be freely downloaded.

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Habari: the newest blogging platform

2007-01-22T08:31:00.000-04:00

Habari embodies a bright opening to the world of blogs. Its structure is swift, simple and customisable so more expert users will enjoy tuning Habari, as well as beginners will easily be introduced to the world of blogging. Habari – it means news in Swahili - is developed in PHP5 completely object oriented (with PHP Data Objects - PDO), full ATOM protocol and AJAX support. You can choose your SQL database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite).

Habari allows users to produce plug-ins in order to perform any routine. From the graphic standpoint Habari is endowed with a versatile theme management system that allows compatibility with the most diffused template options.
If you want to deepen your knowledge about Habari I suggest you to join its discussion group, you will also be able receive assistance and to follow up its development and make suggestions. #habari on irc.freenode.net is an open channel for general Habari discussions. In case you wish to participate in the development process, you will be welcomed at the development group as Habari is a community-driven project inspired at the Apache Software Foundation's meritocratic approach based on quality i.e. contribution is compensated by amplifying your opportunities within the project.

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Children's Internet safety is also a parents' responsibility

2007-01-21T10:46:00.000-04:00

Sunday Editorial

A big uproar has been recently raised within the entire Web community when last Wednesday the law firms, Barry & Loewy LLP of Austin, Texas, and Arnold & Itkin LLP of Houston, representing four families from New York State, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have filed in Los Angeles Superior Court four separate suits against News Corp. and MySpace social-networking site alleging negligence, recklessness, fraud and negligent misrepresentation by the companies after their teen-daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on the site. Namely they refer to a 15-year-old girl from Texas who was drugged and assaulted in 2006 by an adult MySpace user; a 15-year-old girl from Pennsylvania, a 14-year-old from upstate New York and two South Carolina sisters, ages 14 and 15.

"In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users…Hopefully these lawsuits can spur MySpace into action and prevent this from happening to another child somewhere… The families are seeking monetary damages in the millions of dollars" said Jason A. Itkin, an Arnold & Itkin lawyer.

By chance last Sunday I wrote my editorial on PEW Survey results on social networking and the diffusion of MySpace usage among teenagers, and under this new circumstance I am back on the subject.
MySpace is a web based social network where mostly – but not exclusively - young visitors can keep in touch and augment their entourage of friends using several free communication and sharing tools and personal profile pages. Profile settings and safety are declared of capital importance for MySpace:

“MySpace serves as an industry leader on Internet safety and we take proactive measures to protect our members e provide users with a range of tools to enable a safer online experience" said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security office

Consequent to this lawsuit it occurs to me, we should wonder why the parents believe that a web business company – in addition to envisage some preset control procedures - should be controlling what their children are doing, whereas this is institutionally their main responsibility. And I wonder if this is just an occasion for these families, advised by some aggressive law firms, to get some easy money out of a successful business.

On a wider perspective - that interests me the most - I believe that Internet safety is a major issue as the world wide web has become a literally another virtual world and a sort of parallel reality. I am sure that both parents and children are well aware of this, since the use of PC and of some net tools has nowadays become something as common as a TV remote control, a microwave or a VCR. Moreover I have reason to believe that at least one of the two teenager’s parents is in his mid-40s (if not younger) and much likely an Internet user (if not even an expert), and therefore he/she or both parents ought to know what net-surfing experience is all about. On the other hand it may sound like a common place but kids nowadays are very smart.
The core of the matter instead relies on the following main considerations:

the huge amount of users enhances the probability of misuse (law of big numbers)
these online stalkers are really shrewd in taking advantage of weaknesses and occasions
many teenagers are more lonesome than even themselves may believe
many parents have no idea what their children do, dream, hope…

Now as to the first and second considerations, these questions must be solved by the combination of legal, technical and educational actions that should try to ensure a safer environment where the children can meet friends undisturbed.
Nonetheless I am keener on the social issue that emerges, the loneliness of teenagers and the lack of communication between children and parents. Clearly I am fully aware that the latter is something that has always been and will always be: confrontation between generations is a leitmotiv of human progress, civilisation and growth. However I deem that the Internet and the use of all these new technologies/electronics in general could be a good point of contact between parents and children, who might have more to share and talk about instead of just school scores and plans for future college admission…
I tend to believe instead that parents have no – or worse, find no– time for their children to share their actual interests and aims, and too often confine their conversations to just uninterested, formal and immaterial matters, thus encouraging their children to smoothly drift away and seek elsewhere comprehension or at least consideration.
While personally I believe that technically there is no solution, since any barrier, checkpoint, control can be overridden by insincere profile settings and deceitful net- behaviours from both sides i.e. children/user and predator/user.

The real key is a wider and deeper education on the subject and its implications and especially more parent-children true communication.

Guy Mc Paul

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Generate PDF with pure PHP

2007-01-20T07:58:00.000-04:00

FPDF is a very useful PHP class that allows you to to create PDF files from your web site. This means that your readers can download PDF files from your web pages. FPDF is freeware, there is no usage restriction, meaning that you may embed it freely in your application (commercial or not), with or without modification.
FPDF is friendly to use and set up. Follow its 7 detailed tutorials and you will become accustomed with its potentiality and start using it. You can also benefit of its scripts library that will give you some useful extensions (such as bookmarks, rotations, tables, barcodes...). An interesting forum will also provide you some hints, suggestions and ideas on how to improve its use.

FPDF allows you to monitor the entire PDF creation from logo to margins, layout, and printing. Moreover the original default template can be customised and changed in order to solve your problems and needs. The class can produce documents in many languages other than the Western European such as Central European, Cyrillic, Greek, Baltic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai, provided that you own TrueType or Type1 fonts with the desired character set.
FPDF requires no extensions (except zlib to activate compression) and works with PHP4 and PHP5: so the only must is a recent version of PHP on your web server.
The entire documentation for the software is rich and available on line, although it is advisable to read its FAQ before starting any use.

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Enhance your WinXP clock with Longhorn Systray Clock

2007-01-19T08:45:00.000-04:00

Longhorn Systray Clock, is a free small utility that can change the look and add some useful features to the clock in runtime. Since Longhorn was announced, may developers have started to release "Longhorn looking" applets, and this one is one of the most successful.

Win XP clock is uneasy to read and has no customising options. Longhorn Systray Clock is pretty customisable via the applet in the Control Panel. You can actually change font and the metrics of the clock, by also setting the AM/PM indicator and weekday names. You can change color and position of numbers and letters, as well as give them some kind of shadows. Longhorn Systray Clock project has been going on since 2004, its developer works together with a rich forum of visitors and all the best suggestions coming from this forum have been time by time included already in the new versions. Useful feature is the timed reminder, as Longhorn Systray Clock also comes with a simple but configurable popup calendar that opens when the systray clock is clicked. In addition you have several skins to set up and that you can easily change.

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WikiSeek the newest search engine

2007-01-18T08:25:00.000-04:00

New searches can be performed now with WikiSeek, a search engine that goes through only Wikipedia sites, meaning also those sites that are linked to from WikiPedia.

Actually WikiPedia also has its own internal search engine, therefore the real news is that WikiSeek allows you to run through Wikipedia's pages and links that have been previously indexed. What is expected is more refined, spam-free quality search results. By the way WikiSeek must not be mistaken for Wikiasari the search engine that was announced by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in December 2006.
From the graphic standpoint the results will give a "tag cloud" so much in fashion in these days, that will show all those Wikipedia categories that refer to the searched word. The tag cloud allows you to filter via these categories. WikiSeek has also a search plugin for FireFox, IE7 and Opera. Moreover it has Firefox extension that adds a WikiSearch button to the search box: once you click that button you will see WikiSeek’s Wikipedia-only results.
It is important to add that SearchMe, the California based company that has developed WikiSeek will donate a fair amount of those revenues generated from advertising on WikiSeek to the Wikimedia Foundation.

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How to choose the right colours for your Web pages

2007-01-17T09:18:00.000-04:00

Tutorial

CHOOSE THE RIGHT COLOURS FOR YOUR WEB PAGES WITH 2 FREE WEB TOOLS

One of the most important things in web design and graphics is building a web site/web blog pretty much readable and possibly by the widest public. Background and text colours play a pivotal role before you start choosing logos and animated gifs...

According to WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 2.2 you must

ensure that foreground and background color combinations provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen.

Moreover according to W3C Techniques For Accessibility Evaluation And Repair Tools

Ideally, images and multimedia object should also be tested for color visibility but algorithms are beyond the scope of this specification.

Color visibility can be determined according to the following algorithm:

Two colors provide good color visibility if the brightness difference and the color difference between the two colors are greater than a set range.

Color brightness is determined by the following formula:

((Red value X 299) + (Green value X 587) + (Blue value X 114))/1000
Note: This algorithm is taken from a formula for converting RGB values to YIQ values. This brightness value gives a perceived brightness for a color.

Color difference is determined by the following formula:
(maximum (Red value 1, Red value 2) - minimum (Red value 1, Red value 2)) + (maximum (Green value 1, Green value 2) - minimum (Green value 1, Green value 2)) + (maximum (Blue value 1, Blue value 2) - minimum (Blue value 1, Blue value 2))

The range for color brightness difference is 125. The range for color difference is 500.

Finally according to WCAG 2.0 Guidelines 1.4.3

Text or diagrams, and their background, have a luminosity contrast ratio of at least 10:1.

Now following these guidelines seems very hard, but fortunately there are some tools that can be very handy when this problem must be solved. Follow these easy steps (click on images to enlarge).

1 - COLOUR CONTRAST

Colour Contrast Check is a very useful web based application that allows to specify a foreground and a background colour and determine if they provide enough of a contrast. First of all go to Colour Contrast Check web page.
You will have to choose Foreground colour by using either the HEX #code (if you are testing a colour you already chose) or simply using the combination of the three Red-Green-Blue indicators to reach the colour you wish to proof.
Now you will have to do the same to choose Background colour; again you can use either the HEX #code or simply play with the combination of the three Red-Green-Blue indicators.
While you set these two boxes the third box on the right will display automatically and in real time will indicate:

YES! - If the colours you are choosing pass the test if both the colour difference and the brightness difference exceed their threshold.

Sort of! - If only one of the two values exceed their threshold.

NO! When both colours will fail to pass in case if neither value exceeds its threshold

2 - GREYSCALE CONTRAST

It is time now to check your contrast on a greyscale basis. Again a web tool will help you to visualise your web site in greyscale and verify its readability. Access to Greybit.com and simply write in the address bar your site's URL, press the "Make it Grey" button, wait a few seconds and you will be able to see your web page in black and white and envisage if any adjustment is required.

Naturally you should carry out these two tests especially in case you are planning some web site/blog building and/or renovation. Good luck!

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Great code editing with Intype

2007-01-16T07:36:00.000-04:00

Intype is a very powerful and yet intuitive code editor for Windows endowed with very fast response. You can easily extend and customise it, thanks to its support for scripting and native plug-ins.

Intype makes development in any programming or scripting language quick and easy. It supports XHTML, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Ruby (both Ruby on Rails and RHTML), Markdown, PHP, Python, C, C++, Objective-C, Latex, Lisp, Lua, Smarty, Textile, Twiki, XML, YAML, as well as their joint use.
Intype file access goes through SVN, CVS, FTP and DAV: it can be used also with CMS. Intype certainly reminds me a lot of Textmate; and this is only its first release (Alpha), and although lacking some basic features, it seems stable and works very well. You can get familiar with it by watching this demo on Parser as well as this other demo on Snippets.
Join and follow any development on its forum, it will keep you posted on release notes and mention new features that will be implemented. You should download it: I deem it is worth trying it.

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Quintura for Kids: web searches become easy

2007-01-15T09:45:00.000-04:00

Quintura for Kids is a web based search engine specifically created for children use. Its interface, though a little slow to load, is a completely re-designed version of Quintura See & Find search engine. The children friendly interface uses a sort of cloud environment which helps the little users to carry pout their researches.
Kids can carry out researches in several pre-set fields like music, games, pets, TV by clicking on the drawing-like icons. Or they can just write in the search bar the term they need.
The main results, thank to Ajax development, appear displayed into a sort of cloud that surrounds the principal search word. Quintura has been developing this Ajax based search platform for a while and in fact its other installable search client software Quintura Search offers a visual map of tags and/or hints related to any of your search query. Normally you are allowed to add or reduce tags from the query just clicking. This One-Click-Search function lets you specify the context or meaning of the query.
Now, as to Quintura for Kids searches, this cloud approach can help the spelling/orthographical errors that little kids may commit. When the child clicks any on one of these search results he will be able to refine its search without typing... Kids are likely more expected to use the interactive tag cloud and navigate through the cloud to find information. Actually Quintura for Kids teaches kids mainly how to search within and through the cloud of related tags, words and phrases.
While the search goes on its related web sites/pages will be showed at the bottom in a separated centred window.
Apparently Quintura for Kids does not ensure its researches are protected from inappropriate material, nonetheless it is based on Yahoo Kids, which implies that its search results should be G-rated.

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On Net moderation and Self discipline

2007-01-14T09:45:00.000-04:00

Sunday Editorial

Pew Internet & American Life Project has recently carried out a survey on American youths (age between 12-17) in October-November 2006 focusing on their use of social networking sites and resources.
The principal outcome of the survey is indisputable: social networking is a colossal and real sociological observable fact among American teenagers. These are just some highlights of the statistics:

55% of all online American teenagers use online social networking sites;
My Space is the most popular site with over 120 million personal profiles (including also famous rock bands and other semi-famous people) over the world, overtaking sites like Yahoo! and Google!;
My Space covers almost 85% of the market, followed by Facebook 7% and Xanga 1%;
For girls especially social networking sites are primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships;
Girls are more accurate and precise in filling in their profile, providing all kind of required details;
The most shared material is email, photo, audio, video and lots of music.

But what is technically a social networking site? It is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him/her to other users, these being people he/she already knows, as well as new acquaintances met and added online. Now apparently over two thirds of the profile owners use My Space and similar to share information with persons/friends already part of their entourage. So the most diffused inclination of these social networking users is to form a steady group and stay within the group, making profiles accessible only to known people and friends. This is pretty good for safety reasons, since quite all the interviewed were aware of the risks related of unwanted meetings online. Social networks can be ultimately considered stable virtual meeting places where friends get together online. Naturally for older boys (29%), the networks also – if not exclusively - provide opportunities for flirting and making new female friends. Well so far nothing wrong or new…

In the first place I wish to point out that the sample used for the survey consisted only of 935 people and that the interview was carried out by phone. Both things, though technically acceptable and pretty usual in this kind of researches, still make me wonder about the full adequacy of the inference of this sample’s results to the entire American younger population. Concomitantly I also admit that my remark might likely reveal itself pretty immaterial as it could only lower a little the clear results published.
What is instead remarkable and needs a more accurate attention is to consider besides the width of its diffusion the actual depth of the phenomenon. I mean for those who use it, regardless the number of users:

how much this virtual meeting place is replacing – or it will in the future replace – the usual meeting spots such the bar, the library, the basketball court or the beach?
How much is this affecting the lives and relationship of both popular and shy individuals that have existed and always will in any youths’ community?
How do young people tendency to isolation when feeling misunderstood or unaccepted will be enhanced by these technologies?
Will we also assist to virtual bullying and/or apartheid?
Will this technology reduce, instead of improve, social inclusion?

Well the scenario is not completely clear to me – especially its borders; nevertheless it would silly and surely vain trying to fight against the stream. This phenomenon has gained in this last year gigantic proportions and it is even doomed to augment!
I only fear that this virtual approach to socialisation will probably increase the natural gaps, fractions, frictions that are part of any group’s dynamics and usually magnified among youngsters, reducing what ought to be the natural human inclination to live socially (not virtually) and forgetting that the PC/Internet is a tool, just a tool nothing else but a tool.
Perhaps besides suggesting and spreading the Net Etiquette we should also try to start coaching users Net Moderation and Self discipline.

Guy Mc Paul

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Recover deleted files with Restoration

2007-01-13T08:14:00.000-04:00

Restoration is an easy free software that will help you to find and recover files you have accidentally deleted from your recycle bin as well as those you have deleted using the Shift and Delete key combination.

Restoration is a very tiny executable (163 Kb!) that you do not need to install; you can run it from your Hard drive, floppy or Pen Drive, if and when you need it. It works in Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP. When you run it you will see a list of deleted files, choose and select those you wish to recover and just wait for their restoration.
As you certainly know delete files usually stay on the hard drive until they are overwritten, therefore in order to enhance the probability of restoring files correctly you must have as much free space as possible on your hard disk - since this condition will reduce the chance of overwriting. Clearly the likelihood of success is higher when the restore process is closer to the moment of deletion.
If you wish to restore an entire folder, not always all files or folders will be perfectly retrieved, in this case you ought to try searching and restoring them one by one.
Restoration has also another interesting function that makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted files, which might be useful after deletion of confidential documents.

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No foreign keyboard problems with Gate2Home

2007-01-12T08:41:00.000-04:00

Gate2Home is a very useful online onscreen keyboard emulator that allows you to write in any language wherever you are in the world. This is particularly interesting for people who travel and use PCs in foreign countries' Internet cafe' or similar public places. Now with Gate2Home travellers who have problems in writing or searching the Internet in their own language can easily and immediately type any special character or symbol that cannot be found on a foreign keyboard.

This problem might seem trivial for those who always travel with their laptops, but for tourists and non professional travellers, who normally check their email once a day to stay in touch with their family at home, this is a valuable piece of software.
With Gate2Home you can type anything you want in your language clicking the on-screen keyboard, you can also carry out searches with Google and WikiPedia in your language and also obtain some quick translation. Once you get what you need you just copy and paste it.
Try it you might find it very useful, unless you remember any ASCII code by heart...

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Give a Mac OS look to your Desktop with RocketDock

2007-01-11T07:54:00.000-04:00

RocketDock helps many PC owners who envy Mac OS users for its Mac Os Dock: the famous graphical user interface feature which consists in an ingenious little bar of animated icons at the bottom of each Mac. This is a bar normally found at the edge of the screen with a see-through background and a row of animated zooming fancy looking icons:

So now with RocketDock, also Windows users can tweak their desktop with this very fancy looking application - and for free.
As to its functionality, the dock presents you with applications’ animated shortcuts that you can arrange and customise. To add an item into RocketDock you only have to drag and drop it from anywhere (desktop, Explorer window, Quick Launch Bar, the Start Menu). With RocketDock you also have Docklets that is little routines that can meter your RAM usage as well as the measure of the capability of Recycle Bin. Again to add Docklets you simply drop them in the RocketDock Docklets folder C:\Program Files\RocketDock\Docklets\
As to the style, obviously you can change the theme (and you can add even more skins), plus you can choose how transparent the background is by selecting its opacity. You can also customise font, colour, style and size, plus you can decide the outline/shadow colour and opacity.
RocketDock is released under Creative Commons Public License and runs in Windows 2000/XP/2003, needs at least a 500Mhz CPU and 10MB RAM: as usual fancy stuff are costly in terms of resources.

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How to create your Favicon in 3 steps

2007-01-10T07:43:00.000-04:00

Tutorial

Guy Mc Paul - Daily Web Dose © 2006 - 2007 - http://dailywebdose/blogspot.com

HOW TO CREATE YOUR FAVICON IN 3 STEPS

A Favicon is a small logo displayed in the address bar of your browser next to the URL as well as in any tab when you are “tab browsing”. Favicon is also displayed in the bookmark title; this means that when someone bookmarks a website or blog, the icon is used as a reminder image nearby the title.

1 – IMAGE PREPARATION

First of all you, obviously you need an image, this can be a photo, a picture or your web/blog logo. The only limitation is that eventually your favicon must be square and very small (precisely 16x16 pixels). Unless you have already an image of this size, you will have to resize the picture you wish to use as your favicon.GIF. If you have any Image editor like Photo Shop or Paint Shop, the Gimp or even simpler applications like XnView and similar you will easily resize it (16x16 pixels) using the Image Resize function and save it as “favicon.gif”, (or “favicon.ico” in case you upload it via FTP to your server root directory).

If you have none of these image editors, this is not a problem: once you have chosen your square image, just open it using Windows Paint (in Windows folder Accessories) and open your image. Save it as “favicon.gif” – so you do not spoil the original…
Then go to Image - Attributes and read the current size let us assume for instance 400x400 pixels.

Now you need to reduce it to 16x16 pixels. Go to Image - Stretch/Skew:

and Stretch the image to 4% both vertical and horizontal:

automatically the image will be reduced to the desired size:

Before you save it just control its size by going again to Image - Attributes and read the size in pixels.
Save the image on your desktop and close Paint. We have your Favicon.

2 – IMAGE UPLOAD

It is time now to upload your favicon via FTP in your web site root directory, this is as easy as uploading your web pages.
In case you have no personal domain like a blogger2 for example you will have to upload your image in some free hosting pictures sites like Photobucket or similar. Sign up and get an account (it is free) and upload your file “favicon.gif”.

Copy to the Clipboard your favicon URL which will look something like this:

3 – HTML CODE

Next step implies manipulation of your web page/blog Template, therefore I strongly recommend you to save a backup copy of it.
Now open your template and write this easy line of code between the HEAD Tags:

Save your template and start also tab browsing to check if the favicon appears on the address bar and tab bar.

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Faster Windows taskbar with Visual Task Tips

2007-01-09T09:54:00.000-04:00

Visual Task Tips is a free tiny utility for Windows XP that provides a thumbnail preview image in Windows Taskbar for each window you are working on. Its looks and functionality is the same you will be using in Microsoft Windows Vista.

The application itself is a very easy to install and use and is a great substitute of the famous sequential “Alt-Tab” combination when you are looking for the right window. I am sure you know what I mean… You only have to hover your mouse over a taskbar item and you will see a small snapshot of the Window, being this a minimized folder, an application or one/group web page. You can also scroll your mouse wheel up or down on the miniaturised image in order to size it.
However some applications such as Microsoft Word, Windows Media Player, Autodesk 3DS Max, Java applications draw themselves in unusual ways to improve performance; apparently this is not a flaw but they are not harmful for your computer.
Ultimately I find Visual Task Tips useful and light, and after a while you will be wondering how did you do without it in the past..

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MusikCube: The Lightest Music Player

2007-01-08T07:42:00.000-04:00

MusikCube is a very tiny, fast and fully featured media management and playback system supporting Windows 2000 and Windows XP, with ogg, mp3, flac, ape, cd audio and plugins. MusikCube Version 1.0 has been recently released. This light and yet powerful music library and player is based on an embedded SQL database engine known as sqlite, which allows it to be that fast.

Its Dynamic playlists allows fully automatic, randomized playback of songs based on your observed listening habits: practically the more you listen the smarter it gets. It also features browsable, user recordable playlists.
MusikCube also makes transferring audio between home and work very easy with its support for removable storage devices such as flash memory, pen-drives or portable mp3 player that can be used as a hard disk when you plug it in. This is automatically detected and with "drag and drop" feature you can copy anything you wish.
There are also several plugins for MusikCUbe, just browse through them and see if you need/like any...
MusikCube is open source, you can download its code and also participate to his forum for any bug report and/or suggestion.

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Is blogging worthwhile?

2007-01-07T13:29:00.000-04:00

Sunday Editorial

I have read with interest - and some surprise - Guy Kawasaki's year-end statistics and financials (which I am quoting here below), and they gave me enough material to start wondering and meditating on how blogging is worth our (bloggers) while.
Guy summarises his blog "How to Change the World" statistics as follows:

2,436,117 page views for an average of approximately 6,200/day.
262 posts generated 6,961 comments and 1,937 trackbacks. That’s 25 comments/post and 7 trackbacks/post.
21,000 people receive RSS feeds via Feedburner and 1,457 receive emails via FeedBlitz.
Total advertising revenue: approximately $3,350 = $1.39 cpm.
Most linked-to posting (953): The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
( ... )
Ending Technorati ranking: #45. Highest ranking during the year: #35 or so.

Well in the first place I think that Guy's analysis is – in so far as cost/revenues are concerned - incomplete and somewhat too simplified. I deem that he should take into consideration his blogging into a wider perspective i.e. altogether with his other professional activities: principally writing books as well as being a speaker/evangelist, IT consultant, Garage CEO etc. His great success as a professional must be considered as the result of the combination of all his background and experience and these activities; therefore it is pointless trying to enucleate only the costs and revenues of the blogging in order to check its convenience. Moreover, instead, he should ponder that thank to the efforts he puts in blogging - obviously not exclusively, though - he might have sold and probably will sell more books this year, or will be invited to give more speeches than 2006 or, who knows, he might be getting some new professional assignments or corporate appointments. Following this course of thought for example in his tiny “cost/revenues” statement among the revenues he should probably put an “Advertising Savings” item/figure, since his blogging activity most certainly markets him better that any outrageously expensive - and dubious outcome - marketing/image consulting company…

Further on in his post, Guy Kawasaki laments that the duration of his readers' interest about his posts seldom survives one week:

9. Most disappointing realization: After a week, most postings are “gone.” Perhaps people’s expectations of blogs are so low that they don’t consider them reference sources. Hence, I have to write another book. My challenge is that I have three tasks: answering email, blogging, and writing a book, and I can only do two.

Well I deem that this is the destiny of any "journal". I do not recall any grief on the faces of journalists, typographers, reporters, photographers, chief and assistant editors that work the whole day and night to issue a newspaper whose pages the very day after will probably be used to wrap fish or greengroceries at the local outdoor market. The only difference is that thank to technology, we can try to create, arrange and manage better and more usable databases, allowing our readers to search easily some subjects that might be of their interest instead of going to the local library and search through microfilmed copies...

In conclusion even though I presume that Guy Kawasaki's eclectic personality would be able to perform and obtain great results in any other adventure, based on my previous considerations I would not terminate blogging, at least if those are the reasons for quitting. From the moral point of view I wish also to add that not everything ought to be done for the sake of money: very many people write - I daresay, probably the majority of the true bloggers do - just for the sake of sharing, some others instead are quite disillusioned with respect to the blogsphere. The greatest revenue may be for some people the personal satisfaction of seen published their articles, for others could be to receive comments and be able to respond, for others is just the graphical/technical embellishment of the blog with (alas!) less attention to content... All these can be considered rewards, because this is the spirit of blogging: it must be rewarding (in the sense I have here mentioned) and not financially worthwhile. Besides if revenues is the aim, well I am certain that there are dozens of more remunerative activities in the IT and Internet field.

Guy Mc Paul

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Fantastic free on line slide shows with Slide!

2007-01-06T09:07:00.000-04:00

Create slide shows using Slide free online service: it is easy and fast. Slide delivers digital content from any source directly to you according to your interests: images, text and video created by you or your friends, the Web's top news and entertainment sources, the blogosphere and the most popular online merchants: almost anything can be watched in Slide.

You can automatically share your latest photos with friends and family and add visual effects to your profile or blog. After you Sign up you go the first step page "Create a Slide Show" and from the everything is so intuitive.... tabs on the left will let you add an unlimited number photos from different sources.

Images from your computer. If you're using Internet Explorer, click on the "Try our easy uploader" link to download an Active X controller that will allow you to upload multiple images from your computer)
Photobucket: you can import your albums.
Flickr: you can select which set you'd like to import from the drop down menu.
Friendster: from your profile URL (works with both groups and profiles) and simply click "Get"
MySpace - from your profile URL just press the "Get" button
Image URL: you can add an image to your Slide simply searching and uploading the URL of a picture

You can edit, delete and rearrange images you have uploaded, changing their size, layout and position in the sequence. You can also customize your slide show by choosing among different themes, change the speed of transition and set the privacy level. You can also obtain a screensaver out of your favourite uploaded pictures.
Once you have completed your slide show you simply save it and you can upload and post it wherever you want (any website that allows you to embed Flash Objects) by selecting the destination URL; or you can copy the code and paste it to your website or blog template.
Slide also supplies some additional optional software to be downloaded and installed. This package contains:
Screensaver, with which you can enjoy your Slide Show in full screen in a variety of styles;
Desktop Player, which allows you to watch your Slide Shows on your Desktop;
Toolbar for Windows, to create a new Slide Show from your web browser;
Image Uploader for Windows, in order to make new Slide Shows from your camera's memory card or a CD-ROM.

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Fast online PDF, Postscript and Word file viewer

2007-01-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

What happens if you are using somebody else's PC which is not equipped with Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Office Word/Open Office Writer and want to open an important attachment you have just received from your office or client? Well there is a solution provided by a Swedish company: a very neat and minimal online viewer for PDF, PostScript files and Word documents
With this SamurajData application you can view PDF, PostScript and Gzipped PostScript as browsable images and Word documents as web pages. You just need to give it a URL on the web or a file resident on the machine you are using and the viewer will retrieve the document and show it to you. You will also be able to rotate the images and browse through multiple pages PDFor PostScript documents.

This application will not affect the PC you are using, since no plug in software is required to be installed and for free. The viewer software is open source; licensed under the GNU Public License and actually, if you wish to, you can get its latest version 0.3.
Another demonstration that you do not need to be fancy to perform a good and useful job!

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Are you HD-DVD ready?

2007-01-04T08:53:00.000-04:00

HD DVD and Blue Ray DVD seem to be the future of home entertainment as they promise true interactive high-definition video, with possibility of bookmarking, zooming, menu customising your HD-DVD titles, and this also thank to HD-DVD high storage a faster technology.
Blue Ray, also known as Blue-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blue-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics. This format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on red laser which has a wavelength of 650nm (red laser) the new format uses a much shorter wavelengths 405nm (a blue-violet laser) - hence the name Blue-ray. This makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision and therefore data can be written more tightly and consequently stored in less space.

Basic HD DVD has a single-layer capacity of 15 GB and a dual-layer capacity of 30 GB. There is also a double-sided hybrid format which can contain standard DVD-Video format video on one side, playable in regular DVD players, and HD DVD video on the other side for playback in high definition on HD DVD players. The HD DVD format also can be applied to current red laser DVDs in 5, 9, 15 and 18 GB capacities which offers a lower-cost option for distributors. HD DVD supports several file systems, like ISO 9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF). Currently, all HD DVD titles use UDF version 2.5 as the file system, the same one used for Blue-ray releases. The HD DVD format supports a wide variety of resolutions, from low-resolution CIF and SDTV, all video resolutions supported by the DVD-Video standard.
Meanwhile other technologies could allow a less shocking transition to the new HD technology for people with DVD drives.

HD/DVD-9 discs is based on a new compression method for red-laser discs. This new method allows high definition data to be stored on discs that can be read by conventional DVD drives. Solutions are already available which allow storage of 8.4GB worth of high-definition data on read only double-layer discs.
In addition another standard - Versatile Multi-layer Disc (VMD) - discs use red-laser technology, but have as may layers that a single MVD disc could reach up to 100GB capacity. Most likely 20 to 30GB MVD discs ought toi be marketed quite soon. Moreover MVD discs use the EVS HD standard which is the only HD standard in China. VMD discs will be much easier to manufacture and VMD drives are standard drives with a modified decoder part.

However, from the hardware standpoint there are several compatibility issues as to the media reader/player which obviously must be capable of reading any of these new formats. A remarkably powerful processor, a high resolution HDCP compliant monitor that can play the Blue-ray or HD DVD title and a high performance graphic card supporting High Definition Content Protection seem all necessary. To this purpose CyberLink BD/HD DVD Advisor has prepared a self-diagnostic tool designed to help users in identifying the capabilities of their system for playing high-definition movies.
CyberLink BD/HD DVD Advisor is still a Beta, I recommend that you contact your hardware specialist to verify the outcome of this check and assist you with upgrading your system.