The Weekly Tech

Funny Comic Friday!

2008-12-05T14:37:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! Thought I'd give you all some IT humor...

Pownce gets eaten by SixApart!

2008-12-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

Well to be honest, I kind of saw this coming; not so much being bought by SixApart, but Pownce being a failure, albeit a cool one. For those of you who don't even know what Pownce is, its pretty similar to Twitter except with more features. I believe that there was a set limit to what you could type, but you could post videos, images, text, files and events. A pretty neat concept, no question about it, but it seems as though people do not want that. I had a Pownce account (didn't use it much) and I thought it would evolve to be something, but the major thing for me was that it did not have mobile texting updates. I use Twitter primarily on my phone and on my laptop, so take one of those things out of the equation and there's one client gone.

Co-creator Leah Culver had a "bittersweet" post on the Pownce blog about the acquisition:

We have some very big news today at Pownce. We will be closing the service and Mike and I, along with the Pownce technology, have joined Six Apart, the company behind such great blogging software as Movable Type, TypePad and Vox. We’re bittersweet about shutting down the service but we believe we’ll come back with something much better in 2009. We love the Pownce community and we will miss you all.

A sad day indeed for all Powncers, but I'm sure SixApart (creators of TypePad, Vox and Moveable Type) will do something cool with it. Our friends over at TechCrunch posted this growth trend chart (thanks Google) showing the growth of Twitter vs Pownce:

Taking a moment to check out Konqueror

2008-11-30T19:26:00.001-08:00

Here at Allegheny College, the Linux/Fedora computer labs in the Computer Science department have, at the moment, two browsers: the obvious Firefox and the lesser known Konqueror.

Konqueror? What is that?

Konqueror is an Open Source browser for the Linux platform. Actually, I take that back, it is more than simply a web browser; Konqueror can read files on its browser (like PDFs, Word Documents, heck I've even viewed Java code on it). It also acts as a file manager, depending how you set it up, it can organize even the largest filesystems. If you run Linux, I highly recommend Konqueror.

...Though I'm still a huge Firefox/Thunderbird guy.

(For Linux environment only...KDE required)

MIT OpenCourseWare

2008-11-30T19:17:00.001-08:00

Recently, while attending my collegiate level classes, something came up that provided me with great interest: MIT OpenCourseWare. For those who have always wanted to see what class material is like at MIT, this is perfect for you. They outline the course in a pretty detailed manner. Not only that, they also upload the lecture notes as well as the homework or in-class assignments for each class (I am currently looking at the Computer Science intro class, they focus on Python...awesome). Pretty cool stuff, so if you ever want to learn about a topic in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or even Literature, check out MIT OpenCourseWare, you won't regret it!

Stumbled Upon This....

2008-11-24T19:54:00.000-08:00

This is just a personal thing for future reference, people where I work always want to know how to convert PDF files to word, well here's the site to do it at...Enjoy!

http://convertpdftoword.net/

WideScreen YouTube!

2008-11-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

From TechCrunch

YouTube has apparently changed all videos on its site to play in widescreen format. Because most videos on the site were originally uploaded in a ratio closer to 4:3 (the standard size used on non-HD televisions), it seems that most videos are playing with horizontal black bars on the side.

It seems that Google is either doing A/B testing or that the changes haven’t propogated to all servers (if that’s even possible) - hard refreshing on videos seems to alternate between the standard video player and the widescreen one.

-------

Nice!

Check it out here

Just a humorous little comic....

2008-11-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

Koornk - A Simple Twitter

2008-11-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago I discovered a pretty cool service known as Koornk. Koornk is pretty much like Twitter, but it has a cleaner interface, less users, and is not that well known. Personally, I like Koornk, almost better than Twitter, but alas the popularity of Koornk isn't quite there yet. One thing that I love about Twitter is the ability to text your updates from your mobile phone (as a participant of unlimited texting, this is most useful). Koornk does however, allow you to post on Koornk and have it send it over to Twitter. It seems as if it is powered by JavaScript, but I'm not sure on that (someone let me know if you find out). This Twitter-lookalike also has a user suggestion board, hinting that both text messaging service and direct message and IM is coming! If IM hits Koornk, goodbye Twitter!

But what is with the name Koornk? Well apparently it was created by a group of Slovenians and in their words:

The name “koornk” comes from Slovenian language and is a geeky way to write the word meaning henhouse – where the chickens just can’t shut their peepholes.

You can get the full story on Koornk's website.

Nifty Little Color Tool

2008-11-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

A lot of the time, when creating a website, one finds that they cannot think of a clever enough color scheme. Though the word "clever" doesn't apply in this fashion, nonetheless it is still difficult to come up with a unique look that is not already popular. It is clear Microsoft has taken the soft Blues, Reds ,and Yellows and Apple has taken the slick glossy/brushed-metal coloring. This little tool from WellStyled allows you to pick the main color you want to have, then complements it with a variety of other possible color combos. Pretty nifty really. Check it here.

Oh yeah, new look....

2008-11-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, just a quick update here, we've moved to Blogger, instead of Wordpress! Wordpress was too limited and we needed some more space, so we've moved here instead. You can still access the old site at theweeklytech.wordpress.com!

Thanks for the continued support!

Don't like Emacs or Vi? Try Out Programmer's Notepad

2008-11-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

Though I never have actually programmed in Windows, spare maybe some HTML, I found this little program on the web called Programmer's Notepad. Now I am positive that all of you programmers at one point or another have used Notepad for editing little things (if you forgot something, etc) and have quickly opened the code with notepad and fixed it up. Though it does not have a built-in hex editor, some features include:

Syntax highlighting for many languages through “schemes”.
Tabbed MDI interface
Text Clips
Unlimited number of schemes supported, powerful syntax
highlighting supporting both user-defined and built-in schemes
User-defined schemes (XML)
Word-wrapping

Overall a pretty cool little tool that is free and easy to use. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Twitter Expanding Horizons; well in Japan anyway.

2008-11-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

Now, I'm not positive as to what this will trickle down to in terms of Twitter everywhere else, but today they released a site called Twicco which allows a Twitter user to follow (or create) a Twitter group, rather than just a single user/person. Although Twitter Japan is already different using ads, hopefully the group option comes to the universal site, and not the ugly advertising.
The benefits of following a group are seemingly cool, and have quite a lot of potential. Even though Yammer is for businesses, Twitter could replace this, using the group feature to implement tweets for each department of work. Also, gamers could follow a group of updates that they choose to: for example if I like EA's NHL09 and FIFA09. EA could create a group for Twitter that would allow you to effectively "choose" what part of the group you would want to follow. Also, one could group people into "people I know" and "creepers on Twitter who somehow got my name." I would use those groups...no really.

Need Something Defined? Check Out MetaGlossary.

2008-11-06T20:30:00.001-08:00

A very definitive source of info.

Though still in the beta stage, MetaGlossary is a pretty great tool. As the title suggests, MetaGlossary defines pretty much anything you can think of (my first submission was "life"), it gave me almost every definition possible. Pretty impressive. It is kind of like Google, except it actually gives you results right there from the metadata of various sites; speaking of Google, this is something they should look into or even buy! There's even a FireFox plugin for it, so go check it out! Nothing like an advanced Web 2.0 dictionary to whet the virtual appetite.

This is Real and Not for Play...

2008-11-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Senator-- President Obama.

If you're happy and you know it...

2008-11-04T07:09:00.001-08:00

Phong.com - Useful Photoshop Tutorials.

2008-11-03T21:22:00.001-08:00

While surfing the web via StumbleUpon, I "stumbled" across this little website called Phong.com. While the name isn't quite to my personal liking, its tutorials are quite detailed and right on the mark. Its great because I am not that skilled at Photoshop (I can do some stuff, but not without direction), but with Phong, I don't have to be! Flash tutorials are also offered on Phong, and while I am not a big fan of Flash, some people do know how to use it in the right context! With the rise of AJAX, it gets harder and harder to tolerate Flash, but until that time, check out Phong.com for cool PS tutorials!

..and with the release of Adobe Photoshop CS4, what better way to celebrate than to use your (purchased) edition of CS4 and make some sweet graphics!

A Humorous Thursday

2008-10-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I was a little down today, so I decided to cheer myself up. At first I watched The Office, but after dinner I was thinking about Computer Science, so I remembered that I had a little stockpile of humorous Programmer jokes! Well, I suppose it it your lucky day, I've decided to post a few (and link to the sources of course). None of these are mine, but I hope they brighten your day :D.

We don't really understand it, so we'll give it to the programmers.

Programming is a lot like sex. One mistake and you could have to support it the rest of your life.

You never finish a program, you just stop working on it.

many more here

After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.

Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.

If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious.

Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.

It is never wise to let a piece of electronic equipment know that you are in a hurry.

Any tool dropped will fall where it can cause the most damage.

full list here!

A look at Twitter, FriendFeed and Pownce

2008-10-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

For awhile now, I have made an effort to expose my friends and colleagues to Twitter, a popular microblogging tool used by the majority of the "tech/web" community. Personally, I love using Twitter, its ever so convenient and addictive! However, whenever I use Twitter, I am questioned "what's the point?" I attempt to explain how it works (with too much detail I might add) but to no avail, nobody understands.

popular microblogging tool has more use than initially thought

One of the frustrating parts of this is that I see many opportunities where me and my colleagues COULD and should use Twitter! One of the most frustrating things I see today occurs when I am having lunch with my friends. Someone, one time or another, does not get invited and exclaims "you guys had dinner??" See, this would not happen if everyone used Twitter that I know. One person could tweet "going to dinner at 5" and everyone could get it on their phone/web browser/desktop twitter app. Then everyone shows up!

How convenient.

All in all I suppose I can't argue with these people, as they are college students who are more worried about how much alcohol they are going to buy this weekend than emerging technology! How could this possibly be (sarcasm)!

Anyways, this article is not what I was going to write when I first started. Sites like Twitter, FriendFeed and many others have not reached what I would prefer to call "mainstream." Then one would ask, what would be considered mainstream? I'll sum it up with two websites: Facebook and YouTube.

YouTube

There is not a person I know that doesn't occasionally go on YouTube to check out the latest cool video, or are eager to show their friend "this video," that you "gotta watch!"

Simply put, YouTube is built upon something that anyone can do: make a crappy, low quality video that somehow gets 50,000 views. I'm not going to lie, I'm a fan of YouTube myself (prefer Vimeo), but the quality of the videos on YouTube is much to be desired. It seems that quality takes a backseat to content when it comes to mainstream video sites, although I can't tell you how many times I've heard casual gamers complain that "the graphics aren't good enough." The need for high quality video is lower on the Web than it is "in real life." For example, anyone will watch crappy football highlights via YouTube, but who would watch an entire game like that? Nobody.

On the other hand, let's look at this: who would watch football on a 60'' hi-def television?

EVERYBODY.

This list of everybody includes people such as myself, who is not a football fan at all! Even my mom who can't tell the difference between 5.1 Surround and Mono enjoys a nice HD screen. Oh, and yes I realize that sound and video are two different things, just making a point.

Anyway, my point is that everyone loves videos that are funny or interesting, regardless of quality. This is typical "mainstream" internet culture.

Facebook

Going onto the main hub on the web for keeping in touch, Facebook is no doubt something that everyone I know uses. Its the most used way of communication in college, perhaps only second to cell phones. Now, I admit that I use Facebook frequently, I check it every morning along with my email and my news websites. I suppose I should include Myspace and Orkut in this, as these are the three most globally used social networks. These websites are the easiest way to keep in touch with people about what's going on. Everything from pictures to stupid and useless apps are included in this free package deal about what is going on in your entire life (insert older generation outrage about identity theft here). Not that there is anything at all wrong with using these networks, it just makes life a bit more impersonal than, say in the 1950s. Times change, so does technology and that old corded phone is pretty much useless.

Summary/Conclusion

It disappoints me greatly that sites like Twitter and FriendFeed aren't used more. Although its slowly catching on, and since my first tweet I have gained many followers (some I know, many I don't), it still isn't a mainstream tool used by, dare I say "normal" people? Anyway, my point is that micro-blogging tools are very useful, but have not matured to their fruitation quite yet. My prediction is that they will in the near future, and we can hope to count on that.

Stack Overflow: Ask a question without getting grilled.

2008-10-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

As a very amatuer programmer, I find myself looking for answers all the time. Most of the time I have to ask a professor or another student when I need help. However, other times I find myself going online, on Sun’s Java forums, or some other java site. It seems to me that every time I look something up, I see posts asking for help. Though there are many helpful people, a lot of them can be not so nice- okay they can be downright nasty. So far, Stack Overflow is quite the opposite of this. One can freely ask programming questions in a fairly “Web 2.0-like” fashion.

One can freely ask programming questions in a fairly “Web 2.0-like” fashion.

It is a lot like Digg, where those with the most popular questions/answers are voted up or down, based on the answers and quality of the question. Another cool feature is that one needs to earn “reputation points” in order to vote questions up/down. One gets this “rep” by answering someone’s question with a helpful answer (much like the “best answer” option on Yahoo! Answers). The site is really informative, and can be quite humorous as well. For example, this question asks “What’s your favorite programming joke?” Helpful and Humorous, Stack Overflow is a great site for both amatuer and experienced programmers, of any language!