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Pretty Search - Snap.com
New Yahoo! Front Page
Yahoo! has posted a preview of their new home page and it’s looking good. I’ve been frustrated for a long time that there are so many do-it-all pages like Yahoo!, Google, Lycos and even newer options like pageflakes and netvibes and yet for the most part they are not pretty to look at. This new version of Yahoo! is one of the first that I have seen that makes good use of screen real-estate, is very customizable and is actually something that I would consider making my home page. Between Yahoo being the default search engine in Flock, Yahoo’s new mail client, their ownership of both Flickr and the old Konfabulator (now Yahoo Widget Engine) and now this sharp new page, they are winning me. I just wish that their search results were better as I still find myself using Google simply because I find what I want much faster when I search there.
technorati tags: Yahoo
User-Agent Extension for Firefox / Flock
The User Agent Switcher Extension is useful to those that use browsers such as Flock that are often looked-over by sites that do browser filtering to ensure that those that visit the site have the browser necessary to properly do so. Adding this extension to Flock allows it to tell the server that it is Firefox (which it really is) and thus to access the site.
technorati tags: flock, user-agent, extension
We don't want to take the time to learn to manage it, so let's block it
Congress targets social network sites | CNET News.com
A bill will propose that social networking sites like MySpace be blocked. I'm all for the rights of schools to block access to anything that they feel detracts from the mission of education, but anything handed down by congress is likely to just be a distraction in itself. How broad would this be? Many of these sites are offer some of the best content on the web today.
Will the delivered-internet in K-12 environments be limited to established news and content providers. Isn't the greatest value of the internet it's ability to allow everyone's ideas to be voiced, read, listened to, shared? If the government blocks what it may consider the 'wild-west' parts of the web, how is this different than the very thing that we criticize China for when it comes to the way that they deliver the internet. The internet is the ultimate forum for ideas and even propoganda of all ideologies and our schools offer a perfect environment for students to encounter these ideas with an opportunity to discuss them.
Of course I know that the reason people want these blocked is that students are not using these services in productive ways. They are bullying other students, being stalked by online predators, and sharing things online that are not responsible. Schools and their teachers do not have the resources to be sitting next to each student while they are on the web to guide them. SO - somebody ran to mommy and is asking them to just turn it off for everyone.
As with many bills, perhaps I can be glad that it has been proposed while I hope that it does not pass. The discussions have been happening, but must continue. The threats and distractions of the internet will continue to change and require that legislation be continually rewritten if we are to chase the issue this way. A much better use of everyone's time and money would be to get serious about teaching kids early and often about the internet and how to behave responsibly on it.
IE Developer Responds to Vitamin Article
Don't Forget the Premium Plan
A post on 37signals reminds web application creators to not forget to not only charge what a service is worth, but to offer a premium service for more money. It is amazing, according to the article, the number of people that are generally willing to fork out the dough for a service that is worth it.
technorati tags: 37signals
Will People PLEASE Stop Writing About Rocketboom?
I am tired of hearing about Rocketboom. Rocketboom is a terrible video blog. It's host, Amanda, is annoying. It is not well produced. It says nothing about nothing. It's a waste of bandwidth -- and yet everyone seems to want to hold it up as the best example of video blogging. WHY?! Personally, as a person that wants to see more people catch on to video blogs, it's an embarrasment. But it seems like every time that I open NetNewsWire, turn on my TiVo or even listen to the radio (Amanda was on NPR yesterday), Rocketboom is there.
As a bit of personal protest, I will not provide links or tags to it here. If you are one of those people that likes to stare at a wreck when you see one, you can find rocketboom easy enough. I will provide links to some vlogs that I enjoy that are very good IMHO.
Halo 3 Trailer
Only one more game-related post this morning -- promise. I just discovered what a sucker I am. I was so with the previously referenced article that the game play is what matters and that these console makers, while exploring the current limits of gaming graphics, are not creating great games. Down with beautifully rendered 3D worlds! Up with fun!
...Until I saw the trailer that Bungie showed at E3 for Halo 3. Droooooooooooolllllll...
Nintendo Wii to be around $250...
WeBreakStuff » What we can learn from gaming consoles
WeBreakStuff takes a look at the way that the console makers demonstrated their wares, praising Nintendo for focusing on the game instead of improved graphics. The article takes lessons from this and briefly applies them to site building.
Too Cheap?
Kutaragi on PlayStation3: it’s too cheap
At $600, Sony Computer Entertainment cheif Ken Kutaragi has said that the PlayStation 3 is too cheap. Perhaps, in the effort to put together a console that would be technically superior to anything else available, they have priced themselves out of the game. It is only $100 more than an XBox 360, but by time the PS3 comes out in November, Microsoft may drop the price of the 360 as console makers do after a box has been out for a year. Is the PS3 $200 better than the XBox 360?
technorati tags: playstation, xbox, ps3, xbox360
CSS3 Columns
I can't wait for the column specification in CSS3 to become a standard in browsers. In the meantime, Firefox 1.5+ (and of course Flock), support parts of the column spec through their own stylesheet selectors.
How to build a form that is not annoying
Pete Freitag is in the middle of a series of posts he calls “How to build a form that isn’t annoying”. There isn’t a lot of useful information here, but good things to think about. Steve Krug said “Don’t Make Me Think." Pete here, seems to be saying, “Don’t make me work.” There are a lot of things that we do with forms (pull down menus for example) that could be much easier for a person to fill out if it were presented in a different way.
Mac FTP: A Guided Tour
Let your computer type it for you
If you have words, phrases or code that you find yourself typing over and over, you should take a look at Textpander. I downloaded it this morning and I think that it’s going to be very useful. You can feed it long amounts of text (great for chunks of HTML code) and assign abbreviations to them. For example, I assigned the basic code of a HTML page to “<html” and the opening and closing of a P tag to “<p”. Now I can write a simple HTML page from scratch in seconds using any application on my mac (not just the cocoa ones).
Log Files
For the “I’m sure I’ll need to know this sometime” file: Here’s a post about log file management in JRun.
Preview of Flex Beta 3
Torrent-Like Abilities in OS X Leopard?
Rumor sites are reporting that Leopard (MacOS 10.5) may have peer-to-peer sharing abilities in the OS that would allow the system to share with other computers system and application updates. This would be a opt-in feature that would be rewarded by Apple with free songs or other incentives. Benefits would include faster downloads, less bandwidth for Apple and the ability to more easily update computers in an institutional setting without soaking the incoming bandwidth. Sounds great to me.
ABC.com: Full Episode Streaming
ABC’s new streaming service is amazing. Through their use of Flash they have created a site that is both compatible with many platforms and browsers as well as beautiful. Not a lot of shows there right now, but probably the ones that most want to see: Desperate Housewives, Lost, Alias and Commander in Chief. I hope that this is successful enough to encourage the other networks to follow.
New Apple Ad Campaign
I haven't seen any of these on TV yet but Apple has started a new Mac vs PC ad campaign.
Image Management
Here's an interview at photoshopsupport.com with Scott Bourne about the current landscape of photo management/cataloging applications including lightroom, aperture and iPhoto.
New Version of JRun Coming Soon
I have long wondered what the future of JRun is as it has been a long time since version four came out and you almost never hear about JRun from Macromedia/Adobe. I was surprised and happy this morning to read that the next version of JRun is ready for beta testers.
Firefox Extensions
Yesterday I helped Kristi Peters with her Firefox workshop. Here are some extensions that were referenced during that workshop.
Firefox Two Features and Priorities
McNealy Steps Down at Sun
Yay! I’ve always gotten the feeling with McNealy that he was more wrapped up in being proud of himself than doing good work for Sun. I hope that the new guy can turn Sun around.
Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy has stepped down as chief executive, replaced by President Jonathan Schwartz, the company said Monday.McNealy, who will remain chairman, led the server and software company through the dot-com bubble, but the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company hasn’t returned to consistent growth or profitability.
McNealy steps down at Sun | CNET News.com