Ok so GMail accounts aren’t as hot a property as they once were, as almost everybody has one now. Anyway, I have 50 GMail Invites to give away.
So for those who still haven’t gotten their hands on some GMail, if you’re interested in a cool 1GB email account, just add this blog to your browser favourites and leave me a comment here 😉
Google have just launched a beta of one of their new services Google Video.
The service archives televised content transcripts and screenshots, and enables you to search through them.
It seems that soon they’ll also be providing video files of the shows.
For this test period, only a small amount of programming from a limited number of channels is included in the search results. But new content will be indexed daily and more channels will be added in the near future.
I think this is a cool and very interesting service, anyway I would also like to see Google expand it a bit further to include search of other video content lying around on the internet, like Yahoo’s video search.
Google just recently released version 2 of Picasa, the photo organizing tool they acquired last year.
Being a happy user of Picasa already, I downloaded the new version and took it for a spin.
Picasa 2 offers more photo editing options to alter the lighting, colors, saturation, contrast and more to make you happier about your shots in just one click.
It now provides added integration with Blogger and Hello so that users can directly post pics to their blogs or instantly share them.
Picasa 2 also allows you to add captions to your photos as well as make collages with photos of your choice.
Another cool new feature is the ability to create a Gift CD for friends and family with a built-in slideshow of your selected photos.
In short, Picasa is a great piece of software that just got better.
I think it’s a must for anyone who has a digital cam and/or digital pics on their pcs.
Download it from Picasa.
The Committee to Protect Bloggers is a new clearinghouse for information on bloggers who are punished, threatened or otherwise disadvantaged for what they post on their blogs.
The Committee has four primary spheres of activity.
– CPB will serve as a clearinghouse for information on incarcerated members of our community, as well as those whose lives have been taken from them because of their enthusiasm for the free exchange of information that blogging allows.
– CPB will serve as a pressure group to force unrecalcitrant governments to free imprisoned bloggers, and make restitution for tortured and murdered ones.
– CPB will bring to bear the formidable communicative power of the blogosphere to keep pressure on governments to stop
– CPB will act as direct agents in negotiations to free imprisoned bloggers.
[Via: BoingBoing]
I just found PeerCast, a P2P (Peer to peer) program that enables anyone to become an online audio and video broadcaster without the costs of traditional streaming.
So basically anyone can download this, throw it on their server and start their own online radio or tv station, creating more options for people than is normally found on commercially funded sites.
It’s open source, has a low memory footprint and CPU load.
It streams a number of formats (MP3, OGG Theora/Vorbis, WMA, WMV, NSV) and supports all popular media players (WinAmp, XMMS etc…).
I think this is a great and really interesting tool that makes setting up projects like this cheaper and more accessible.
I hope we see some Arab online radio and tv stations popping up here and there in the near future.
I’ll try playing around with it a bit when I find time to, but I don’t think I’ll be starting a station of my own anytime soon.
Microsoft is now offering a new and free anti spyware tool to help protect PCs from spyware and other potentially unwanted software that secretly monitors the activities of Internet users and can cause sluggish computer performance or popup ads.
Another free piece of software Microsoft will start offering soon is a new security program, that will protect PCs from viruses and worms. Updated versions of this program will be offered automatically and free each month from the Microsoft website.
The weird thing though is that Microsoft says that the virus-removal program will not prevent computer infections and was never intended to replace the need for traditional antivirus software.
So if I’m getting it right, this software doesn’t prevent viruses from wrecking havoc on your computers, it just helps you remove them after the damage is done.
Microsoft will also be launching a full anti virus software later on, that should compete against flagship products from McAfee, Symantec and others.
That one should be able to try and prevent viruses, I guess.
Anyway, if you’re interested, pass by the Microsoft Website and download these new free tools.
According to Om Malik:
If the deal goes through, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million users. It also gives the company a very fighting chance against Google
Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.
Instead, it generates energy by catching and eating houseflies.
Dr Chris Melhuish and his Bristol-based team hope the robot, called EcoBot II, will one day be sent into zones too dangerous for humans, potentially proving invaluable in military, security and industrial areas.
The EcoBot II powers itself in much the same way as animals feed themselves to get their energy, he said.
The EcoBot II uses human sewage as bait to catch the insects. It then digests the flies, before their exoskeletons are turned into electricity, which enables the robot to function.
Bacteria in the sewage eats the flies’ soft tissues, which releases enzymes that break down the hardened shell.
Sugar molecules released from the broken-down shell are then absorbed and used as energy by the bacteria.
Wow. That’s so cool.
Not the digestion part of course. I mean the whole idea and concept of a self powered robot.
Flash-forward: Terminator will be back!
[Source: CNN]
Opera Software released a test version of a major update to its Web browser software.
The new software adds stronger support for RSS and technology that allows users to navigate through voice commands and have Web pages read to them.
The new Opera beta version also includes user interface improvements such as bigger browsing space, cleaner menus, and better printing support, the company says. The browser also now works with Google’s Gmail, correcting a problem that had led some Opera users to switch to Firefox.
The voice support is powered by IBM’s Embedded ViaVoice technology, which Opera licensed early in the year.
This is really cool.
Before moving to Firefox, Opera was my browser of choice.
And even though I’m really happy with Firefox, I still think Opera is faster.
It’s great to see Opera coming up with these new ideas and features. If only Opera had the extensions Firefox had, I think I’d certainly move back to it.
TIME Magazine have published a list of 10 things we learned about Blogs.
It goes as follows:
[Details: TIME]
