Category Archives: Internet

My New Favourite Website – Quora.com

Posted on by
Reply

I you have not heard of Quora yet, I highly recommend you give it a try – it’s the first website in a long time to secure a spot on my bookmarks toolbar at the front of my browser, and usually the first one I now refer to if I have a few spare minutes to browse the web and learn about something interesting…

What sets Quora apart from other questions and answer sites is quite simply its incredibly high quality replies and the fact that most of the contributors  respond with very helpful and intelligent answers. You post as yourself not an alias, and you are encouraged to give details on your experience on any subject you are responding to. Amazingly you often get very official people responding to questions – like very senior C level execs in some pretty big companies like Facebook etc. The community regulates itself by using upvotes and downvotes meaning the best constructed and credible answers float to the top.

Here are a few really great threads that are worth having a read of:

Then here are some lists from Quora of some of their favourite questions from the last year:

 

Email, RSS Follow

The impending censorship of the internet

Posted on by
1

I found this video from a post on wordpress.org – who rarely speak out about anything political etc – however if you watch this video you’ll see why so many big players are stepping up and speaking out against some impending legislation that could mean the end of the open and free nature of the internet as we know it.. And that’s just the beginning.

Please take a few minutes to get an understanding of the possible ramifications of this legislation, and why everyone should try to do what they can to oppose it.

The reaction to this has been incredible. The giant web host GoDaddy suffereed massive basklash from their users after 22,000 of them pledged to move hosts if GoDaddy continued to support SOPA. And it worked. They reversed their decision, and now many online communities from Reddit to Business Insider are launching a campaign against any companies who support SOPA.

More info here:

How SOPA/PIPA Can Affect You
Over 40 Internet Companies Come Out Publicly Against SOPA (TechCrunch)
Why Americans Need a Civil Liberties Caucus (Forbes.com) 
What SOPA Means for Business and Innovation (Infographic)
Mashable staff Google Hangout debate on SPOPA
Scary facts about SOPA

Email, RSS Follow

The 40 most shared links on Facebook of 2011

Posted on by
1

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times)
2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)
4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)
5. (video) – Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)
6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)
7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)
8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)
9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)
10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)
11. Parents keep child’s gender under wraps (Yahoo)
12. How to Talk to Little Girls (The Huffington Post)
13. Stop Coddling the Super-Rich (New York Times)
14. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (Wall Street Journal)
15. (video) – Twin Baby Boys Have A Conversation! (Yahoo)
16. Man robs bank to get medical care in jail (Yahoo)
17. Why You’re Not Married (The Huffington Post)
18. A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs (New York Times)
19. Ryan Dunn Dead: ‘Jackass’ Star Dies In Car Crash (The Huffington Post)
20. Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’ (Yahoo)
21. Notes From a Dragon Mom (New York Times)
22. A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not “Crazy” (The Huffington Post)
23. Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph (Washington Post)
24. Penn State, my final loss of faith (Washington Post)
25. Golden-Voiced Homeless Man Captivates Internet (Yahoo)
26. The most typical face on the planet (Yahoo)
27. Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis  (CNN)
28. Permissive parents: Curb your brats (CNN)
29. A father’s day wish: Dads, wake the hell up!(CNN)
30. (video) – Laughing Baby Loves Ripping Paper! (Yahoo)
31. Epic Cover Letter: How To Get Hired For Your Dream Job (PICTURE) (The Huffington Post)
32. New Zodiac sign dates: Don’t switch horoscopes yet (Washington Post)
33. Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know (Yahoo)
34. The Psychology of Revenge: Why We Should Stop Celebrating Osama Bin Laden’s Death (The Huffington Post)
35. (photo gallery) – ‘Where Children Sleep’ (New York Times)
36. Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth’s axis (CNN)
37. Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies (CNN)
38. China’s latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals (CNN)
39. Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose (New York Times)
40. Steve Jobs’s Patents (New York Times)

Email, RSS Follow

So, Tablet Computers. iPad’s & Android’s wtf?

Posted on by
Reply

When the sneak peak of the iPad came out about a year ago now, it really did not excite me. The concept was good because we all can imagine the potential of handheld tablet computers, but Apple (unsurprisingly) were a bit light on the features and heavy on the price. I certainly was not adding one to my wish list – but I was definitely interested to follow the market. A few months later I got my hands on one for a proper play with it, and wow, I was very impressed. This thing is slick – like really cool. I was very surprised by how much I like it – and so many of the apps were absolutely captivating and very impressive to use. Also as a business productivity tool its amazing. However the price was still extortionate – starting at €499 for the basic 8GB & wifi – going all the way up to a crazy €799 for 64GB with 3G. So, it was stilll a pass for my shopping list, but i was excited to see what the competitors would come out with. And it didn’t take long….

There have been a multitude of new tablets released onto the market like the Samsung Galazy Tab, the Dell Streak, the Archos 101 – all varying in sizes and capabilities – but all these, not being apple, run Google’s mobile operating System called “Android”. However because the market is still quite imature – none of them aren’t exactly cheap for something you may only use as an occasional toy – surfing the web on the couch instead of on the PC – or keeping you amused on trains & planes. Thankfully, it did not take long for a whole host of Chinese versions to hit the market. Like a lot of these Chinese imatations, most of them are rubbish…. Apart from one…

Zenithink ZT-180

The Zenihink ZT-180 looks just like an iPad with a 10″ screen – although it has a slightly more widescreen format screen. It has a pretty fast processor, 256mb and 4gb of internal storage – but unlike the iPad this is easily expandable by up to 32GB with a Micro SD card. it has Wifi and a full accelerometer as well which is great for games. Also unlike the iPad it has a full size USB port which for me is a massive plus! It runs Android 2.1 but can be upgraded to 2.2 Froyo. The battery like is not going to be as good as the iPad’s but from waht I hear you can get about 4-6 hours depending on usage. Some stat’s say more but many say less.  It does not have 3G but I’d be unlikely to even get an iPad with 3G due to excessive data charges in Ireland (it’s cheap in the UK). With a small Hack you can get loads of apps from the Android Market – and this upgrade improves battery life too apparently.

But the best thing about this, is the cost. I just bought this lovely little unit for a total price of €134 including express delivery via DHL – a tiny fraction of what you would have to pay for n iPad. Ok now its definitely not going to be quite as Good as an iPad – however it does have some advantages like USB & SD etc – however the iPad does have a nicer Capacitive screen – but overall its a great value package.

Buy from Here using 5% discount code: 15450

Email, RSS Follow

New Native Instruments ‘Kontrol’ 4 Channel Midi Controller for Traktor Pro

Posted on by
Reply

So, looks like Native Instruments are doing exactly what I predicted (hoped) they would. It’s a 4 Channel controller specifically for Traktor with jog wheeels, effects, samplers, and on-board sound card, and lots of other goodies. YES!!! I’m so buying this, I just hope it won’t be as expensive as the Xone DX.

Looks like the release may be accompanied with a new release of Traktor Pro too.

From: http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/07/21/traktor-pro_controller_new/

  • There is a new software on the way with 4 loop players/samplers
  • This will be a 2 deck/4 channel mixing console much like the new Xone DX
  • It has a built in sound card and will be around the same price as the DX ($1200 ish)
  • The decks are switchable from a-b c-d
  • Lots of good LED feedback
  • What looks like 4 cue pads per deck
  • NI is calling it a Traktor System (Hardware and Software combo)

The questions remain – What is it going to be called? Kontrol X2? Kontrol X3? Kontrol X4, Kontrol X5?
And how much is it going to cost? Says $1,200 above other sites have said it’s going to be €799 which would be right on the money..

Screen grabs form the video

Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol Traktor pro

Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol Traktor pro

Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol Traktor pro
Continue reading →

Email, RSS Follow

Feeling tired in the mornings? There’s an app for that!

Posted on by
Reply

Sleep Cycle iphoneDo you ever go to bed early to get loads of sleep, yet when you’re alarm goes off you feel like a corpse? Chances are you got rudely awoken in the wrong part of your sleep cycle. The brain goes in cycles during the night between deep sleep, dream sleep, and being close to being awake. Depending on where you are in this cycle will have a large affect on how tired you are in the morning.

Enter “Sleep Cycle” – and app for the iphone. This amazing little gadget uses your iPhone’s accelerometer to monitor your movements during the night and determine when you’re most likely in and out of a dream state. Before you go to bed, set the app’s alarm clock, then place your iPhone on the corner of your bed. As you move around during the night, Sleep Cycle records your activity and, over the course of two or three nights, gradually learns your sleep patterns. Beginning about 30 minutes before your alarm is set to go off, the app begins watching for the lightest portions of your sleep cycle and gently prods you awake with your choice of soothing preset sounds.

I’ve been using this for the last few nights now and honestly I’m amazed! I did not really believe it would work but at 79 cent I thought it was worth the try. Every time I have used it, it has an uncanny ability to wake you up, just as you feel you were about to wake up naturally yourself! You set the latest time at which the alarm can go off, and it will wake you up some time before then. So not only do you get woken up at the time when you are going to feel the best, but it might be earlier than you expected so you have more time in the morning too – and will feel more awake than if you slept those extra 20 mins anyway!

Email, RSS Follow

The best Movie Trailers – Recut

Posted on by
Reply

If you have not seen these before you are in for a laugh. Some very clever people take well known movies and ‘Recut’ the trailers to make it look like a completely different movie. They take a horror and make it a nice family movie, or take a comedy and turn it into a thriller. Or in the case of Top Gun… Well, just watch it and you’ll see….
;)

The Shining

Office Space:

Top Gun:

Email, RSS Follow

LastPass – You’ll never have to remember a password again!

Posted on by
Reply

LastPass
This is truly one of the most amazing little programs I have ever discovered, and I can’t believe I had not seen this years ago.

It’s a very simple program that installs in your browswe; IE, Firefox Chrome and many more, and quite simply securely remembers all your passwords for every site you want, and fills it in for you whenever you need it to! Its really a Godsend and I can’t see myself ever being without this again.

It’s totally secure, only works when it knows its you (You obviosuly have to log in with one master password at first) but after that you’re done. If you log in to a new site it does not recognise, it will descretely ask you if you want it to remember these details in its secure online database. Even if you start working on a new computer, just install lastpass, log in, and you’re done! So simple and so effective.

So get yourself over to https://lastpass.com now and get on it!

Email, RSS Follow

Top 10 Essential Google Chrome Extensions

Posted on by
2

Chrome Extensions

If you are not using Google Chrome yet – I highly advice you download it right now, and make it your primary Browser. I’m absolutely loving Chrome, especially since they brought extensions into the game. The quality of the Extensions in Chrome are simply fantastic, here are my recommendation for the Top 10 Must have’s – some are just simple little usability boots, but others will transform the way you use a browser!

LastPass: This is simply incredible. Install this on any browser, on any computer, and it stores all your passwords securely, in the cloud! It literally means that the next time you put in your password to login to a website, last pass will pick it up and you will never have to enter it again! Simply magic!

Picnick Image Editor: We all need to quickly edit an image from time to time, be it simply resizing the photo or cropping the dimensions, or maybe something a little more complex even. Picnick brilliant integrates into Chrome and with one click you can be editing any image on a web page and then save to file or upload to even save to Flickr etc – absolutely invaluable

nullNew Tab To Tasks: I LOVE this one. If you use Google Tasks – you’ll know its a brilliantly simple way to keep a to do list which is in your gmail and you can get it on your iPhone etc. Although if like me you do not actually make the effort to look at it enough, here is the answer: This extension integrates Google Tasks into any new Tab, so this way you cannot help but see your tasks more, so you’ll get more of them done and also put more in too! I feel more productive already!

Google Mail Checker Plus: This one beats the pants off the standard Gmail Checker which is one of the most popular Chrome Extensions. It’s an in-line popup showing you your mails without loading up gmail in a new window, but also lets you delete, Archive, Mark as Read or Spam any mail with one click. Super Efficiency!

Google Mini Maps: This extensions lets you open up a mini map window on top of your current tab to find something on a map without loading Google Maps in a new tab. it’s Lightning quick too. Stay tuned to this one for some nice updates too.

AniWeather: A lovely little weather forecast extension that gives you a nice little popup with all the info you want, highly customisable. Also pops up a tiny reminder of the weather in the bottom corner whenever you start the browser :-)

AdBlock: This version of AdBlock for Chrome does a great job of blocking those pesky ads we all hate on certain sites.

IE Tab: As fantastic as chrome is, sometimes certain sites just don’t work properly, usually due to developers not updating their work to the latest standards. I hate having to revert back to IE – but thankfully this extension displays any page/site using the IE Engine, so you’ve now got the best of both worlds!

Smooth Gestures: A brilliant “Mouse Gestures” extension for Chrome that left you do things like navigate back and forward between pages by just using your mouse. Absolutely essential.

SlideShow: Lastly one of the best, more impressive and also useful extensions I found. This turns any page with images or a gallery – into a beautifil fullscreen slideshow. Works great with Facebook, Flickr, Google Images and many more.

Email, RSS Follow