Onderwerp — internet

De voorbije dagen heb ik ieder uur behalve rechtstaan en even rondlopen ook telkens een nieuwe tweet aangemaakt. Eens testen wat er zou gebeuren moest ik die hier allemaal dumpen. Mensen die vaak Firefox gebruiken kunnen veel plezier beleven aan TwitterFox. Ook bijzonder fijn is de combinatie Adobe Air plus Snitter. Fijne geluidjes. Meneer Snook heeft dat goed gedaan.

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-26

• Bij savethedevelopers.org een klein JS dat ondertussen al een dag op het log staat. ‘t Is toch echt wel tijd om IE6 te upgraden. Wie nog? #
• Een nieuwe manier om websites te bouwen. http://tinyurl.com/2len4n Knappe animatie, maar waarschijnlijk wel érg duur. #
• Some of the contestants and champions you will meet at the World Beard and Moustache Championships are shown here. http://tinyurl.com/r7i8 #
• @theonehitwonder In Brussel geraken is één ding. Er daarna nog buiten raken is een heel andere zaak… In de tunnel vooral links aanhouden! #
• @clopin TwitterTools kan dit toch al. En een dagelijkse compilatie van al je tweets samenstellen gaat ook. Of dat nut heeft, is iets anders. #
• @premier Yves Leterme. De nieuwe week is ondertussen alweer half. Komt er nog wat van? Uw verlengd weekend duurde nu wel lang genoeg! #
• Adobe Air + Snitter van @snookca is zalig speelgoed! Alhoewel het nog in zijn kinderschoenen staat is dit project zeker een echte aanrader. #
• @Inferis Een bekend gevoel. Al dagen (lees: weken) probeer ik een aantal artikeltjes af te werken. Maar eens thuis is het fut precies zoek. #

Twitter Updates for 2008-03-25

• FeedBurner is weer eens tilt geslagen. “Feed Subscribers: 0 subscribers.” Al mijn statistieken om zeep. Dikke s#*! sinds de Google-overname. #
• Iets voor na de interim? http://tinyurl.com/3dkbxw #
• @netsensei Al maanden geruchten, en dan is ze ze eindelijk klaar om te switchen. #
• Van een laat kerstcadeau gesproken: de middagpauze just got a little more entertaining. (: http://tinyurl.com/tnd #
• Voor het eerst sinds lange tijd nog eens enkele widgets in de zijbalk gedumpt. Ik zal nog wel evalueren of twitter en wakoopa mogen blijven. #
• Niet iedereen is blij met dit winters weer. http://urlthat.com/5316bf3 lulz #
• @lamazone Helemaal mee eens. Het lijkt wel een grote online Flair. En mijn mening over de Flair zal niet gauw veranderen vrees ik. Voorstel? #
• FeedBurner werkt weer. En ondertussen staan alles feeds ook onder één account. Dank u, feed transfer. Terug aan het werk nu! Dag @sjee #
• Vandaag al een heel rolletje King muntjes opgefret. O jee… @mschenk: Opnieuw sneeuw hier. Tijd om nog eens naar uw webcam te linken? ;) #
• @vuur Congrats! #

Wist je dat je automatisch op de hoogte kan blijven van de laatste nieuwtjes op dit log? Heel eenvoudig: kies of je de nieuwste berichten wil ontvangen in je e-mail of via de RSS feed. In ieder geval bedankt voor je bezoek en nog veel leesplezier!

With over 1 billion users globally, the internet theoretically forms the third largest country in the world. My guess is only a very small percentage of those users ever look beyond the default settings their computer comes delivered with. In this article, I’d like to share with you five ways in which I have personalised my own internet experience over the years. Please keep in mind I’m talking about my own personal experiences here, and am in no way trying to make you purchase anything — everything I’m linking to in this article is available for free anyway.

1. Mozilla Firefox

Although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the most used browser around, Mozilla’s Firefox has been able to gain a market-share of up to around 20 percent nowadays.¹ Firefox has quite a number of advantageous features: fast page construction, very good security, tabbed browsing, themes, etc.

These days, innovative features like tabbed browsing have become a standard for most other browsers as well, but because of it’s level of customization, I chose Firefox for my online endeavours. With a few simple clicks you can add extra search engines like YouTube, Wikipedia (in your own language or any of the 250 other ones), Flickr, Google Images, or even the BSG wiki. Firefox also allows the installation of extensions, which can greatly enhance your user experience and are kept up-to-date almost automatically. More on this later.

2. Web-based Applications?

One of the most obvious trends in recent years is the emergence of web-based applications. Things as simple as a calender, and as impressive as online radio stations or advanced image editors are now accessible from any connected computer. Ever since Google launched its Calendar last year, I’ve been eagerly using it to keep track of all my appointments. GCal makes it really easy to manage my schedule of all those promising job interviews. And the free sms service that sends you a free sms reminder when you have a new upcoming event is a nice touch.

More or less the same applies to Gmail: after it’s introduction in 2004, I switched over from Hotmail (2 MB inbox) to Gmail (2 GB inbox) and haven’t looked back since. Of course, e-mail has been available online for a relatively long time already, so to some people this service may not seem so innovative anymore.

One service that holds somewhat of a middle ground is the Google Reader, a web-based RSS reader that allows you to keep track of your feeds without too much problems, but also provides sharing functions and readership trends. I still know a lot of people who like to keep track of their news with “offline”, installed software. But personally, I feel that if you’re away from home for a couple of days each week, having your feeds available and up-to-date wherever you go is much more convenient.

Now before you all start branding me a Google Evangelist, I’d better mention some other good applications as well: the online radio stations Pandora (unfortunately terminated outside US/UK, but you can proxy² ) and Last.fm (if you love to share), online television station Joost, and online image editor Picnik. Those are all great services, and they only need an internet connection to work. No software to install equals more free space on my harddrive.

3. Firefox Extensions

Now that the groundworks for my explanation have been laid, I can continue discussing those Firefox extensions I mentioned earlier without confusing anyone. Mozilla makes it easy for anyone to install extensions: you just go to their website, select the add-on you would like to have and click install. Downloads automatically. Did I already mention you never have to pay for these expansions? So why hesitate…? Well, the hardest part is actually figuring out which extensions you actually need.

For me, using the internet without such extensions as Fasterfox or Customize Google, and the many notifiers for services like Gmail and GReader, we cost me a lot time I could be spending on other topics. No more clicking and checking all the time, just sit back and your notifier will automatically inform you when a new e-mail is waiting for you. Since I’m an avid user of Gmail, I greatly enjoy Better GMail which provides loads of extra possibilities for managing your e-mail: coloured labels, attachment icons, skinning, etc. Another great find was Stylish, especially in combination with the GReader theme by Hicks Design — I warmly recommend this one (try it, Joke).

And last but not least, there is Greasemonkey.³

4. Greasemonkey

According to the description on their website, Greasemonkey “allows you to customize the way web pages look and function” by using small bits of JavaScript. Hundreds of scripts are already available for free at Userscript.org. And if you’re the tinkerer sort, you can also write your own userscript.

One of the most useful scripts I use is a little Ads Remover that has been installed nearly 17 000 times and hands you back more of that precious on-screen real estate by removing ads from the pages you view. Another scripts that proves itself useful to me on a daily basis is Download Video (installed 50k times) which provides an easy link for downloading videos from most big video websites such as YouTube for example, and Protect Textarea which protects you from closing a tab/window when there is still unsubmitted text that could be lost. Very handy for people who don’t want to lose that excellent post they just wrote by mistakenly clicking the wrong button. ()

5. Internet television

My fifth and final item of this top five concerns something completely different: television. Although I hardly ever watch it anymore, it still surprises me how little original and interesting content they are showing these days.⁴ No wonder I almost never watch it. Especially since I discovered what the internet has to offer.

Earlier, at number two, I mentioned Joost tv, but there are a lot of other good stations out there. My two most favourite examples are Tv-links and Alluc (thanks Charlotte). Not only do these communities contain most of my favourite tv series and new films, I don’t have to download anything in order to start watching. In other words: you only have to wait a minute or two for the buffer to load, and then you can lean back and enjoy the show. In two weeks I was able to watch all three seasons of ‘Battlestar Galactica’, which was a hugely better experience than tv could ever provide. I also remember watching ‘Happy Feet’ weeks before it was premièred in Belgium.

Some sites have specialised in particular content. There’s iFilm, which provides daily updates of Comedy Central. ‘The Colbert Report’ is hilarious if you follow US politics a little. If you are into ‘South Park’, then I recommend AllSP.com, which has all 11 seasons of the satirical cartoon, and usually features the newest episode only a couple of hours after it’s been shown on regular television. No hours of waiting, accesible anywhere, … me likes! No wonder the global bandwith is almost monopolised by video content.

The End

So, that was that. Took me a while to write but it was a rewarding experience nonetheless. And if this post was helpful to you, a short message in the comments is always welcome. Thank you for reading.

This post was written in English because it’s my entry for the “Top 5 Group WritingProject,” organised by problogger Darren Rowse. I figured that since I was making the effort to compile a top 5 about something, I might as well write the entire thing in English so more people could benefit from it. My only fear is that my submission may or may not be late, since Darren lives in Melbourne, Australia. I’ll just keep believing and hope for the best. The rest is up to the FSM to decide.

Noten:

1. W3Schools claims 30 percent, Wikipedia says it’s only 15 percent, and according to my own stats it’s somewhere around 25 percent. [↩]
2. Frantic Industries has a great post on “How to: access Pandora from outside the US“. [↩]
3. I actually do use more extensions then the ones listed here. Right now I’m counting 49, of which 30 are enabled. I’m not going to list all of these here, but if you’re interested I’d be happy to add a list to the comments. [↩]
4. Example: I took a look at what tv1 is broadcasting today and nearly 30 percent of what’s on are reruns. And most of what’s shown on the news was taken from earlier bulletins anyway. [↩]

• 
  US ‘Iran attack plans’ revealed
  US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country’s military infrastructure. It is understood that any attack would target air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.
  (tags: BBC news USA politics propaganda war Iran)
• UN envoy hits Israel ‘apartheid’
  A UN human rights envoy has compared Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories to elements of apartheid. The report says Israeli practices are discriminatory against Palestinians. Israel has dismissed Mr Dugard’s report as being one-sided.
  (tags: BBC news israel politics)
• Articles of Impeachment against Bush and Cheney
  Here are the following 14 possible articles of impeachment against the President and Vice President. If we are to impeach, we must impeach both Bush and Cheney. It will not do any good for us to impeach Bush and have Cheney take the Oval Office and pick s
  (tags: Bush justice politics)
• Retro Keyboard
  A retro keyboard that is fully functional and of a sufficient quality that it can be used everyday by a touch typist. Result: a venerable keyboard retro-fitted with glass and nickel keys and mounted in a polished brass frame.
  (tags: design keyboard hardware art retro computers)
• 52 Proven Stress Reducers
  Prepare for the morning the evening before. Set the breakfast table, make lunches, put out the clothes you plan to wear, etc. Don’t rely on your memory. Write down appointment times, when to pick up the laundry, when library books are due, etc.
  (tags: productivity health life)
• Worlds First Wheelchair Backflip
  Footage of Aaron Fotherinham doing some pretty sweet tricks in his wheelchair. He also performs the worlds first wheelchair backflip. Napoleon D. comments: “Dude, thats is flipping sweet!”
  (tags: video wheelchair stunt)
• Digg Styled WordPress Admin Theme
  Teddy Hwang customized the wp dashboard using only CSS. It really shows the power and flexibility of CSS since he didn’t change any of the html markup for the admin pages. The current double menu design that Digg has was perfect for the WordPress admin.
  (tags: Wordpress blogging CSS/HTML)
• Dynamic Einstein picture
  Your own dynamic Einstein picture. You can change the text on this image to whatever you like. Change the text in the form below, then click on “preview image”. The text in the image will change accordingly. You can align the text with spaces and enters.
  (tags: generator humor Einstein)

Sinds een maand ongeveer gebruik ik de Google Reader om mijn feeds te beheren. Voordien werden mijn feeds opgeslagen bij Bloglines, maar daar had ik de laatste tijd niet meer zo’n goede ervaringen mee. Dan maar alle feeds exporteren en elders opnieuw importeren — fluitje van een cent.

Vandaag merk ik dat er een nieuwe feature beschikbaar is: Google Reader Trends. Voor mensen die iedere dag zo’n feedreader gebruiken is dit een bijzonder handige tool. Zo zie je bijvoorbeeld meteen welke RSS feeds je het vaakst leest. De drie hoofdonderdelen van Google Reader Trends zijn:

1. een staafgrafiek met je gelezen items per maand, week, of uur van de dag;
2. “reading trends” voor de laatste 30 dagen, net als “starred” en “shared” berichten;
3. “subscription trends” die je leestrends en inactieve feeds opsomt.

Waar ik tot nu toe het meeste voordeel uit haalde was de lijst met inactieve feeds. Blijkbaar zat die nog vol vervallen rommel, want ondertussen zijn al een stuk of tien feeds eruit gevlogen. Wat ik wel spijtig vind is dat je de tabellen niet kan hersorteren, zodat je bijvoorbeeld een overzicht krijgt van het % gelezen feeds in plaats van het aantal. Dat lijkt imho een betere manier om zo’n statistieken weer te geven.

Tot slot nog even de samenvatting van mijn eigen feedlezer meegeven: “From your 115 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 2.763 items, starred 20 items, and shared 1 items.” Bijna drieduizend gelezen artikels per maand, dat lijkt me meer dan genoeg. :)

You are The Lovers: Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse. The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that’s actually more apt than “Lovers.” Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can’t understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You? Take the Test to Find Out. #

• Everybody loves a math joke
  Judging by the facebook group “I Wish I Were Your Derivative So I Could Lie Tangent To Your Curves!” with 42,000 members, everybody loves a math joke.
  (tags: mathematics humor geek)
• 100 things we didn’t know last year
  Each week, the Magazine chronicles interesting and sometimes downright unexpected facts from the news, through its strand 10 things we didn’t know last week. Here, to round off the year, are some of the best from the past 12 months.
  (tags: 2006 interesting news)
• Scientists Launch “Planet Hunter”
  The COROT project sent into orbit a telescope capable of detecting planets smaller than is currently known; some maybe just a few times the size of Earth and rocky, rather than the larger, gaseous types.
  (tags: astronomy science technology)
• Parrot’s oratory stuns scientists
  The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.
  (tags: biology language animals science)
• iPod vending machines
  A single iPod vending machine sold thousand dollars worth of iPods in one month. “We’ve done about $55,000 in a month in gross sales just for the one on Concourse A.”
  (tags: Apple iPod commercial business)
• Using coffee to trick your brain
  By being in a state of physiological arousal while being interviewed (due to the hight of the bridge), it was predicted that subjects would misattribute their physiological response as an attraction to the female experimenter.
  (tags: lifehacks coffee work biology)
• Time magazines 50 Coolest Websites (2006)
  A look at the 50 Coolest Websites of 2006, with links to all of them. Many of this year’s choices are shining examples of Web 2.0.
  (tags: 2006 internet links weblog lists web2.0)
• Russian Wooden Skyscraper
  A twelve stored wooden tower, more than 38 metres high, in Arkhangelsk city. All surrounding houses in the town usually have two or three stories. A vodka-fire just waiting to happen…
  (tags: architecture russia)
• Counting on Christmas Statistics
  From 25-year-old fruitcake to the new PlayStation 3, Americans celebrate the holidays in their own way. Here’s a yuletide yardstick of the 2006 season. $93.2 billion given to religious organizations, $38.6 billion to education.
  (tags: Christmas USA statistics commercial government)
• Hacking a GTD Moleskine
  Student and blogger Eston Bond describes in detail his methods for Getting Things Done with a Moleskine.
  (tags: lifehacks productivity work moleskine)
• Aurora Borealis from Space
  The picture above is of the Aurora Borealis photographed from the recent space shuttle mission. City lights and stars are also visible in this image from space because of the long camera exposure.
  (tags: nature astronomy earth photography)
• Prince Harry sent to Iraq next year
  Prince Harry is to be sent to Iraq next year as a troop commander and is likely to patrol the hazardous border with Iran, defence sources have disclosed.
  (tags: iraq news royalty war england)
• Saddam Hussein farewell letter
  “I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” said the letter, and then it goes on to say: “Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.”
  (tags: iraq justice politics writing letters news)
• One Result Of Trusting A Child To Learn
  Eighteen-year-old Abby Stewart got word this month that she won early admission to elite Princeton University, even though she has never set foot in a high school classroom.
  (tags: education children learning parenting teaching)

• How Belgium was made
  An epic story of love, romance, and fries. (Ytmnd.)
  (tags: Belgium history humor flash animation)

• Jesus versus Terminator: The greatest action story ever told.
  You cannot go arround killing people. Why? Because it’s one of god’s comandmenst, you shall not kill. Why? Because it is a sin. Why? Because it’s not nice! Why? Forgive him father, he is a robot from the future.
  (tags: parody religion Christmas Christianity)
• Wallet 2.0
  This item claims it’s “the wallet from the future”, the Web 2.0 future it appears. Made of soft silicone so it can easily bend, it contains organizer/planner-like “refill sheets”: bill, coins, ID, credit cards and “other”.
  (tags: clothing gadgets money design)
• Laser Stars
  The Laser Stars projector will fill any dark space with a super sharp spectacle of animated stars and cloud formations. It will even surprise you with the occasional shooting star.
  (tags: astronomy Shopping star)
• Addictive little online games
  Stop pretending you’re trying to get any work done today. Here’s a list of some addictive online games, easy to play but hard to master. Have hours of fun. Go on, you deserve it.
  (tags: games free)
• Flying spaghetti monster: the game
  As the flying spaghetti monster, you must convert as many people into Pastafarians as you can before time runs out!
  (tags: games humor free)
• Life in the Googleplex: Photo Essay
  The Googleplex is the Google company headquarters, located in Mountain View, California.
  (tags: photography google googleplex Culture Time architecture)
• Map for a new Middle East, reflecting ethnic/religious identities
  If the borders of the greater Middle East could be amended to reflect the natural ties of blood and faith, it could look something like this.
  (tags: cartography Arabia politics religion world future)
• Foods that heal
  A very comprehensive chart of foods and their specific medical benefits. Eat well!
  (tags: health eating lifestyle recipes food)

• Zawahiri Christmas Greeting
  A satirical new video from al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, about the true meaning of Christmas.
  (tags: video youtube religion humor satire Christmas terrorism)
• Minimize distractions on your Mac
  How to make your Mac less of a giant distraction machine and more of a lean, mean, focused GTD machine. Watch the video of Backdrop, MenuShade and PathFinder that subdue the Mac’s eye candy and clutter so you can concentrate on the task at hand.
  (tags: Apple computer lifehacks productivity Mac video software)
• 50 Greatest Cartoons
  A cool list of The 50 Greatest Cartoons as voted on by the animation industry in 1994, with a link to an online video for each one. Enjoy!
  (tags: GoogleVideo video comics Cartoons list)
• How to build a cardboard castle
  Kids will love this! You need 8 refrigerator boxes to build this design (don’t panic). This plan is easily adapted for fewer boxes or a smaller space.
  (tags: kids architecture birthday toys DIY construction)
• Gizmoz
  The world of animated avatars, buddy icons, Talking Heads and user generated Talking Heads Videos.
  (tags: video Christmas animation free generator avatar cool)
• Title of Harry Potter 7 revealed
  Author JK Rowling has revealed the title of the seventh and final Harry Potter book. It will be called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The announcement was made on the writer’s official website.
  (tags: literature BBC HarryPotter JKRowling)
• 24 ways (to impress your friends)
  A Christmas calendar for web geeks. Each day reveals another set of tips and secrets of web development, from JavaScript shininess right the way through to web accessibility and semantics.
  (tags: webdesign CSS/HTML javascript ajax Christmas tutorials typography photography gallery)
• Hidden message in american clothing sold in France
  Well that explains why every time the President of France Jacques Chirac is always smirking when you see him around or talking to President Bush.
  (tags: humor USA France)
• What’s up with the new Photoshop icon & branding?
  The crisp, simple imagery of the Photoshop CS3 Beta icon and splash screen has drawn both rants and raves on the Labs forum.
  (tags: photoshop adobe software Branding)
• A Special Christmas Box
  The uncensored version of the Digital Short that aired on SNL over the weekend featuring Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake. Something special for your girlfriend this Christmas. XD
  (tags: youtube Christmas humor parody sex video)

Voorlopig enkel beschikbaar in MSN/Live Messenger van Micro$oft. Eventjes northpole at live dot com toevoegen aan uw contactpersonen en je bent vertrokken. Brave mensjes hebben niets te vrezen van de bebaarde poolpiloot. Vraag dus gerust hoe het nu ook weer zat met die Ferrari P4/5.

Stijn: Hello hello Santa!
Santa Claus: Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas, Stijn! I’m Santa Claus! Tell me, are you a boy or a girl?
Stijn zegt: I’m a boy.
Santa Claus: And what do you want for Christmas, Stijn?
Stijn zegt: I want a job, please.
Santa Claus: Okay, I’ll see what I can do with that. Anything else?
Stijn: Peace on Earth would be nice.
Santa: My elves will get right on that.
Stijn: Thank you, Santa. Goodnight.
Santa Claus: No prob!