Live Thumbnails: Watch 'em Grow
A really cool bit of Javascript wizardry that allows you to create image thumbnails that magically grow to full size when you click on them.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
Google releases Desktop 3.0 Beta
Google Desktop 3.0 Beta
Google has released the beta of Desktop 3.0, which includes the following new features;
- Search for files across all your computers
- Google can upload search information for multiple computers to their servers; this allows them to consolidate the information so that you can search the contents of multiple computers. Note: search information is tranferred securely using SSL.
- Share information with your friends right from the Sidebar
- New feature
I've just installed it on my machine; I'll post an update after I've had a chance to use it for a few days.
Google has released the beta of Desktop 3.0, which includes the following new features;
- Search for files across all your computers
- Google can upload search information for multiple computers to their servers; this allows them to consolidate the information so that you can search the contents of multiple computers. Note: search information is tranferred securely using SSL.
- Share information with your friends right from the Sidebar
- New feature
I've just installed it on my machine; I'll post an update after I've had a chance to use it for a few days.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Mega Mashup: integrating Gmail, Gtalk with Flickr, YouTube
Google and Flickr integration with Gtalkr:
"Gtalkr is a Flash-based web app designed to bring your Google apps (Gmail and Google Talk) together with Flickr, YouTube, and newsfeeds for an all-in-one media and communications mega-package."
A very cool mega-mashup!
"Gtalkr is a Flash-based web app designed to bring your Google apps (Gmail and Google Talk) together with Flickr, YouTube, and newsfeeds for an all-in-one media and communications mega-package."
A very cool mega-mashup!
Monday, February 06, 2006
30 Boxes | it's your life
30 Boxes | free shared online calendar
This must be the day for free Web 2.0 apps! 30 boxes is a free shared calendar app (Ajax based, of course)--looks pretty decent although it's very lean on the synchronization options at present (seems to have some export functionality but very little import options, much less sync). I'm sure that will come--and if they're smart, at a price!
This must be the day for free Web 2.0 apps! 30 boxes is a free shared calendar app (Ajax based, of course)--looks pretty decent although it's very lean on the synchronization options at present (seems to have some export functionality but very little import options, much less sync). I'm sure that will come--and if they're smart, at a price!
LoanBack: Online Promissory Notes
LoanBack: Web 2.0 app with a real business model
I read about LoanBack on Tim O'Reilly's blog; these guys found a business need first, and then used Web 2.0 technology (Ruby on Rails, I believe) to "instantiate" it.
Their service creates custom, legal, promissory notes designed for loans between people that know each other. Great idea--hopefully they'll be able to turn it into a business success.
Speaking of mashups--how about LoanBack mashedup with PayPal? After the agreement has been made, LoanBack could integrate with PayPal to make the payment. You could also mash LoanBack with Blinksale (a Web 2.0 invoicing app) to make sure that the person who is borrowing the money doesn't forget to make regular payments!
I read about LoanBack on Tim O'Reilly's blog; these guys found a business need first, and then used Web 2.0 technology (Ruby on Rails, I believe) to "instantiate" it.
Their service creates custom, legal, promissory notes designed for loans between people that know each other. Great idea--hopefully they'll be able to turn it into a business success.
Speaking of mashups--how about LoanBack mashedup with PayPal? After the agreement has been made, LoanBack could integrate with PayPal to make the payment. You could also mash LoanBack with Blinksale (a Web 2.0 invoicing app) to make sure that the person who is borrowing the money doesn't forget to make regular payments!
Num Sum - web spreadsheet
Num Sum - web spreadsheet
This is the perfect companion to Writely--a Web-based spreadsheet. I found out about this during a conversation with a journalist that is covering Writely for Inc Magazine. Like Writely, NumSum is free. Seems like numsum and Writely ought to combine forces...add web-based database and presentation software, interface them (can you say "mashup?"), and you've got a very interesting alternative to Office--particularly so when paired with OpenOffice or StarOffice, which gives you the "offline" side of the equation, also at low cost.
At first glance, I thought this was another app by the 37signals guys (the same group that brought us Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboard and Ta-da List), but upon further inspection it appears to be a totally new group called TrimPath. It seems that the perceived similarities between all of these new SAAS (software-as-a-service) offerings is that they're all based on Ajax, which tends to give them a similar look-and-feel.
Regardless of who is behind it, Num Sum seems to work well, especially for Beta software (although to be fair, I haven't done anything really difficult with it yet). The biggest ding so far is that NumSum doesn't currently support a direct import from Excel, but you can copy directly from an Excel spreadsheet and paste it into Trimpath's 'import' function (which, as you might guess, copies the contents of the cells but not the underlying formulae). That's OK for simple sheets, but let's hope they add a direct Excel import function soon!
I'm still wondering about the business model here...but perhaps that's it--build a product on the cheap, get some free publicity, and sell the company to Microsoft for a few million. Not a bad idea.....
This is the perfect companion to Writely--a Web-based spreadsheet. I found out about this during a conversation with a journalist that is covering Writely for Inc Magazine. Like Writely, NumSum is free. Seems like numsum and Writely ought to combine forces...add web-based database and presentation software, interface them (can you say "mashup?"), and you've got a very interesting alternative to Office--particularly so when paired with OpenOffice or StarOffice, which gives you the "offline" side of the equation, also at low cost.
At first glance, I thought this was another app by the 37signals guys (the same group that brought us Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboard and Ta-da List), but upon further inspection it appears to be a totally new group called TrimPath. It seems that the perceived similarities between all of these new SAAS (software-as-a-service) offerings is that they're all based on Ajax, which tends to give them a similar look-and-feel.
Regardless of who is behind it, Num Sum seems to work well, especially for Beta software (although to be fair, I haven't done anything really difficult with it yet). The biggest ding so far is that NumSum doesn't currently support a direct import from Excel, but you can copy directly from an Excel spreadsheet and paste it into Trimpath's 'import' function (which, as you might guess, copies the contents of the cells but not the underlying formulae). That's OK for simple sheets, but let's hope they add a direct Excel import function soon!
I'm still wondering about the business model here...but perhaps that's it--build a product on the cheap, get some free publicity, and sell the company to Microsoft for a few million. Not a bad idea.....
Friday, February 03, 2006
Mashups
I'm seeing an increasing number of "mashups," aka web application hybrids, hit the Web 2.0 scene, and it's really exciting stuff IMHO.
Before I go into some of them, I should probably define mashups, as I've found that many people don't know what they are (you can also find the Wikipedia definition in the hotlink above this paragraph). In a nutshell, if you think about web services as being advertised bits of code that deliver useful functionality (a perfect example is Google maps), then a mashup is taking a web service and combining it with one or more ("mashing them up") in order to create new functionality.
A good example of a mashup would be to combine Google maps with mobile telephone "dead zones" (either provided directly by the cell providers but most likely generated by public contributions--e.g. if you get dropped every day on your way to work, you go to a web site and enter the coordinates of the dead zone). You could then combine this database with Google maps and plot out exactly where you could expect to get poor coverage, even if you've never driven the road.
Other intriguing mashups (which may or may not actually be technically possible) would be combining Yahoo's new Web email client with 37 signal's BaseCamp project management software--a project manager could input tasks and then export them to Yahoo -- a poor man's version of Exchange, with no Microsoft software required.
Another mashup might be to interface various sources of public data, like weather, with a securities trading system to enable investors to make even faster buy/sell decisions based on many different variables.
I read about another intriguing mashup, along the lines of the first example: combining WiFi hotspot information in airports with AC outlet locations--and make it accessible from a wireless phone, so you could determine very quickly the best place to "park" yourself while waiting for a flight.
There is a Mashup Camp taking place February 20-21 in Mountain View, CA, for those hard-core mashup types that would like to cross-pollinate their mashup ideas, and for the record, a couple of the ideas above came from their web site.
Before I go into some of them, I should probably define mashups, as I've found that many people don't know what they are (you can also find the Wikipedia definition in the hotlink above this paragraph). In a nutshell, if you think about web services as being advertised bits of code that deliver useful functionality (a perfect example is Google maps), then a mashup is taking a web service and combining it with one or more ("mashing them up") in order to create new functionality.
A good example of a mashup would be to combine Google maps with mobile telephone "dead zones" (either provided directly by the cell providers but most likely generated by public contributions--e.g. if you get dropped every day on your way to work, you go to a web site and enter the coordinates of the dead zone). You could then combine this database with Google maps and plot out exactly where you could expect to get poor coverage, even if you've never driven the road.
Other intriguing mashups (which may or may not actually be technically possible) would be combining Yahoo's new Web email client with 37 signal's BaseCamp project management software--a project manager could input tasks and then export them to Yahoo -- a poor man's version of Exchange, with no Microsoft software required.
Another mashup might be to interface various sources of public data, like weather, with a securities trading system to enable investors to make even faster buy/sell decisions based on many different variables.
I read about another intriguing mashup, along the lines of the first example: combining WiFi hotspot information in airports with AC outlet locations--and make it accessible from a wireless phone, so you could determine very quickly the best place to "park" yourself while waiting for a flight.
There is a Mashup Camp taking place February 20-21 in Mountain View, CA, for those hard-core mashup types that would like to cross-pollinate their mashup ideas, and for the record, a couple of the ideas above came from their web site.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
SimpleTicket - Open Source Trouble Ticket System for Small & Medium Sized Businesses
SimpleTicket - Open Source Trouble Ticket System for Small & Medium Sized Businesses
Awesome. This is the type of solution that Web 2.0 embodies--I haven't tried it, but for SMBs, this could be the perfect alternative to commercial service desk systems--particularly so for those that couldn't afford one any other way.
Awesome. This is the type of solution that Web 2.0 embodies--I haven't tried it, but for SMBs, this could be the perfect alternative to commercial service desk systems--particularly so for those that couldn't afford one any other way.
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