Thursday, March 30, 2006

Instiki-Instant Wiki

Instiki

This is a Ruby-based instant Wiki application that allows you to run a Wiki server on your PC with very little installation and minor overhead on your PC.

All that is required is Ruby (which is free), and Instiki (which is also free).

That said, I tried to install it last night, and while the install went without a hitch, when I tried to access the Wiki page, it would only come up with a blank page. I even tried changing the port and shutting down my firewall-no dice. When I have time I'll spend more time playing with it, as I think the idea is a really great one for keeping track of personal notes, and such--think of Wikipedia, only it has just your stuff in it!

Friday, March 24, 2006

Free "secure" anonymous e-mail

FREE secure anonymous E-mail to a friend, client or colleague: WillSelfDestruct

This is an interesting service--you type in a message, specify who to send it to and a time limit (e.g. 30 seconds), and if they leave the page, refresh, or if time runs out, the message is automatically destroyed.

There is only one problem that I can see--the web page isn't encrypted (e.g. the supposed "secure" message is being sent over the Internet in clear text! Perhaps that's in version 2...."Now featuring REALLY, TRULY SECURE messages!"

Hmmm.....OK, so again--where is the business model?

Monday, March 06, 2006

Podbop-great new mashup

This is a web mashup that won first place at Mashup Camp a couple of weeks ago. It is a service that generates a Podcast that contains the bands that are playing in a given city (as an RSS feed), along with an MP3 file of the band playing, if available.

Podbop uses Eventful as its base source for local event data, and they use a variety of other sources to provide the mp3 files. The URL is www.podbop.org, and I just subscribed to the service--it seems to be working as advertised. Hopefully I'll find new cool new bands that we'll want to go see this weekend!

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web - Mar. 1, 2006

The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web - Mar. 1, 2006

Could one of these be the next Google?

Windows Live Local - Virtual Earth Technology Preview

Windows Live Local - Virtual Earth Technology Preview

Now THIS is cool--a Microsoft technology preview that lets you drive through a city (virtually, of course), including all of the views you would get in a normal car (front, back, left/right, etc). It will be really interesting to see where they take this technology.