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diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch-screen.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch-screen.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..54d0b7c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch-screen.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bc4f34 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c72ac66 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/codefetch.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Lately I've been trying to find a good book on Python, but I haven't had time to get to a bookstore and actually browse through the many similar offerings, which is what makes [Codefetch][2] invaluable. Codefetch is a search engine that lets you search inside programming books for phrases, words, or bits of code.
Codefetch has been around for a while, we even mentioned briefly in [an article last year][1] on Wired.com, but this is the first time I've actually tested it.
Codefetch lets you search by language (22 options) and supports a healthy amount of regular expression operators. There's also an option to search literal which means you can match programatic expressions, spaces and all.
Results are displayed with your terms highlighted and showing the chunks of code were your search terms appear. At the top of each booking listing is a link to purchase the book from Amazon (which is how Codefetch generates some revenue).
There may well be a way to perform this kind of search using the tools on Amazon, but I'm not aware of it. An entry on the [Codefetch blog][3] claims the site has considerably better search results than O'Reilly's paid Safari service.
A word of warning, Codefetch made the front page of Digg this morning and was running somewhat slow.
[1]: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70219-0.html "Here Comes a Google for Coders"
[2]: http://www.codefetch.com/ "CodeFetch.com"
[3]: http://codefetch.blogspot.com/ "Code Fetch Blog"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/compare-linux.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/compare-linux.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05b7341 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/compare-linux.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Have you ever wondered how the various Linux distros of the world stack up next to each other? Well PolishLinux.org can help answer that question for you. The site gives [side by side comparisons][1] of nearly every popular distribution.
Comparison points range from general features to system boot time to popularity, and obviously some things are more subjective than others. Each section gets a rating from 0 to 9 and in most cases the description for that category elaborates and clarifies the rating in more detail.
Unfortunately there's no way to compare more than two distros at a time, but the site does have a [nice questionnaire][3] you can fill out that might also help you make a decision. The form asks a few simple questions about what you're looking for in your system and then makes suggestions based on your preferences.
PolishLinux.org also has some great tips for those just starting out with Linux and plenty of links to popular applications, how-to articles and more.
[via [Lifehacker][2]]
[1]: http://polishlinux.org/choose/comparison/ "Compare Linux distros"
[2]: http://lifehacker.com/software/linux/compare-linux-distros-side-by-side-229857.php "Compare Linux distros side by side"
[3]: http://polishlinux.org/choose/quiz/ "Distro Chooser"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/else.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/else.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93fb721 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/else.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Wiredblogs" title="Wiredblogs" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/wiredblogs.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />Elsewhere on Wired:
* I once saw a movie whose name I've long since forgotten that had one of those classic bad guys that just won't die ending. After shooting stabbing beating and otherwise trying to obliterate the bad guy, he finally gets incontrovertibly destroyed -- blown to bits in fact -- and this is confirmed when the hero picks up a burning chunk of the bad guy's arm and lights a cigarette with it. Listening Post outlines why [the RIAA is a lot like that bad guy][1]. Oh, and if anyone knows what movie that is, let me know.
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/01/your_timeshifti.html "Your Right to Time-Shift Is Under Attack"
* Bodyhack [points][2] to an article that suggests George Bush's refusal to support stem cell research might actually be helping the field by drawing in more private sector money. Hey, without Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher we might never have had punk rock.
[2]: http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/01/did_bush_jumpst.html "Did Bush Jumpstart a Stem Cell Revolution?"
* From [Gadget Lab][3]: "Here's a twist on the megapixel race confusing digital camera buyers: The camera of the future may capture only a single pixel."
[3]: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/01/the_000001megap.html "The .000001-Megapixel Camera"
* Table of Malcontents has great link to the obituary of what sounds like a truly wonderful bookshop. As Brownlee [writes][4], "the fact that Amazon.com is killing off wonderful crackpots like this one-by-one isn't just tragedy, it's blasphemy."
[4]: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/01/the_worlds_most.html "The World's Most Dangerous Bookstore"
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* Google has [announced][1] a partnership with the University of Texas at Austin which will see the search giant digitizing More than a million books from the University's library, including their world renowned Latin American collection.
[1]: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/austin_books.html "Google to Digitize More than a Million Books from the University of Texas at Austin"
* Oh those timely virus writers. [From Reuters][3]: "Computer virus writers attacked thousands of computers on Friday using an unusually topical email citing raging European storms." The new virus, dubbed "Storm Worm," was sent with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe." Consider yourself warned.
[3]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2007-01-19T201158Z_01_L19519163_RTRUKOC_0_US-WEATHER-EUROPE-COMPUTERS.xml&src=rss "Storm Worm hits computers"
* Wikipedia has [introduced][4] a new means of stopping "indirect" vandalism of the Main Page. Wikipedia calls the new software "cascading protection" and claims it "automatically applies to local images and templates, which have been frequent targets for this type of vandalism."
[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-01-15/Cascading_protection "Wikipedia takes steps to prevent vandalism"
* Coolest Greasemonkey script ever: [Eliminate extra exclamation points][2]. Imagine what it can do for MySpace... then again it doesn't make the writing any better does it?
[2]: http://www.zieak.com/2007/01/17/eliminate-extra-exclamation-points/ "Eliminate extra exclamation points"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/personal finance.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/personal finance.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72a3be1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/personal finance.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Yahoo has added a new section, [Personal Finance][1], to their popular Yahoo Finance portal. As the name suggests, Yahoo Personal Finance is a new suite of financial tools covering every major area of personal finance.
The major sections can be seen in the screenshot after the job, but pretty much all the categories you'd expect are there including taxes, retirement, banking and budgeting, and more.
Within each section there are numerous subsections with content from over twenty-five content providers ranging from Consumer Reports and The Motley Fool to CNNmoney and The Wall Street Journal. The majority of the aggregated content consists of advice columns, expert opinions, articles and how-to guides.
There are also over sixty new calculators to help answer questions like "what would my loan payment be?" or "how much interest will this IRA earn over time?"
There's a portfolio tracking tool that can be used to watch stocks, track your current holdings or store a history of sales and purchases. Creating a portfolio is farily simple and includes a tool to lookup company's stock symbols. Interestingly, while the lookup tool would seem like the perfect place for some nice AJAX, it remains a separate page.
Once you add a stock or fund to your portfolio, Yahoo Personal Finance does a nice job of aggregating all the relevant articles on your chosen companies from around the web.
Inexplicably there's no RSS feed available for your portfolio and given that some sort of RSS-like tracker is probably pulling the data in, a similar push out is conspicuously missing.
Recognizing the power of various social networking tools, Yahoo has provided a number of toolbar buttons at the top of each section to promote sharing on other sites, including links to Yahoo's own del.icio.us as well as non-Yahoo tools like Digg.
Other nice features of the new Personal Finance include a Q & A section, interest rate trackers, a nice glossary of financial terms, and time-based suggestions like "Things To Do In January."
Overall Yahoo Personal Finance offers an impressive amount of data in one place, but other than the portfolio tracker, none of it is all that personal. If you're looking for tools to manage your accounts or track spending, you're better off with a service like [Wesabe][2], which offers far more "personalization."
If you're just looking for a lot of aggregated personal finance information in one place then you'll likely enjoy Yahoo's new offering, though the lack of RSS support might be a deal breaker for some. Hopefully Yahoo will wake up and realize their oversight on that one.
[2]: http://www.wesabe.com/ "Wesabe: Take Control of Your Money"
[1]: http://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance "Yahoo Personal Finance"
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* Congress is [considering legislation][7] that would *require* Internet broadcasters to use DRM technology to prevent listeners from making unauthorized copies of music files. The [EFF writes][4]: "This bill would also mess with Internet radio. Today, Live365, Shoutcast, streaming radio stations included in iTunes, and myriad other smaller webcasters rely on MP3 streaming. PERFORM would in effect force them to use DRM-laden, proprietary formats."
[4]: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005072.php "Take Action: Defend Your Right to Record Off the Radio!"
[7]: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/18/HNdrmlegislation_1.html "Proposed DRM legislation criticized as too harsh"
* Earlier this week we told you of rumors that Apple would charge $5 to activate the 802.11n wireless protocol that shipped inactive with recent Core 2 Duo machines. The rumor is correct, but the price was wrong, it will actually [cost $1.99 to activate][5].
[5]: http://news.com.com/2100-1044_3-6151281.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news "Apple to charge for faster Wi-Fi"
* Good news, the desk of the future will [charge electronic devices][3]. Office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc. has licensed a technology called eCoupled, which eliminates the need for dedicated chargers.
[3]: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070118/tc_nm/hermanmiller_product_dc "Desk of the future will charge electronic devices"
* Speaking of fatty foods (from [BoingBoing][2]): "Wegman's bakery received an online order for a cake with a message in Italian and English, but couldn't process the accent characters in the Italian passage -- instead, the printer barfed out a ton of error messages in angle-brackets." Which were then [frosted onto the cake][1]. Classic.
[1]: http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~tony/cake.jpg "Cake Error Message"
[2]: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/19/cake_printer_barfs_u.html "Cake printer barfs up error-messages "
* Best Digg submission ever: "[Google Search Engine][6]. Google is a revolutionary internet search website. With it, you can easily find whatever it is you're looking for on the internet! Digg this and spread the word!"
[6]: http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_Search_Engine_3 "Google Search Engine"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/xiph.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/xiph.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9e52aa --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/xiph.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/xiph.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/xiph.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..636f7db --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/xiph.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +While it has apparently been around for some time, I just noticed the [Xiph QuickTime components][1] this morning. Xiph is a collection of QuickTime plugins that allow QuickTime or iTunes to play Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files.
There are plugins for both Mac (Universal) and Windows, but you'll need to have QuickTime 7.x installed. The Xiph QuickTime components are released under the lesser GPL and the source is available from the site.
[Ogg Vorbis][3] is a popular open source alternative to MP3 and [FLAC][2] is a lossless compression format popular for its ability to maintain audio quality when compressing files.
There have been a few attempts at Ogg Vorbis QuickTime plugins in the past, but most of them seem to have been abandoned. So far as I know this is the first time anyone has created a way for iTunes to play FLAC files.
That's the good news. The bad news is I can't seem to get it working.
The plugins install okay, the additional frameworks also install, but neither Quicktime nor iTunes will actually play the files.
However plenty of people seem to have no problem, so don't let me troubles put you off. I'll post an update if I get it working, but in the mean time let us know if you get these plugins working.
[1]: http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/ "QuickTime plugins for Ogg and FLAC"
[2]: http://flac.sourceforge.net/ "Free Lossless Audio Codec"
[3]: http://www.vorbis.com/ "Vorbis.com"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/yahoo-finance-logo.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/yahoo-finance-logo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea1eb9d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Fri/yahoo-finance-logo.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/SponsoredReviews.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/SponsoredReviews.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..997fd97 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/SponsoredReviews.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +There's yet another service joining the rapidly expanding paid-review market pioneered by PayPerPost. [SponsoredReviews][1] is a new site designed to help bloggers get paid for writing reviews of advertiser's products and services. SponsoredReviews isn't publicly available yet and but their blog [promises][2] a beta test phase is coming soon.
SponsoredReviews offers a few clues in the their FAQ. Disclosure is required, though I can't find any specifics on what sort of disclosure, and payments will range from $10 to a whopping $1000 per review.
The Blog Herald thinks that with price tags of up to a $1000 SponsoredReviews is poised to introduce [a new ethical dilemma][3] for bloggers. Dave Winer on the other hand, [believes][5] that these services are simply a more transparent version of a very old practice. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has long held that PayPerPost and its ilk [are a modern-day payola][4].
Payola is a term describing a practice in which record companies paid radio stations to play whatever tracks the companies wanted to promote without reporting that the spot was paid. The practice is illegal in the United States though it's common in other parts of the world. The reasoning behind the U.S. law is that since radio stations report and publish their playlists and those publication in turn influence other stations the record companies could gain an unfair advantage in the market place.
A similar argument could be made against PayPerPost services since links from prominent blogs can raise the Google rankings of advertisers participating in the service.
I tend to agree with Arrington, though I think that Winer has a point too. Ultimately there is probably no such thing as a truly unbiased review, but if a blogger discloses that they were paid to write a review how useful is that for the discerning consumer?
Call me paranoid, but I probably wouldn't make it past the disclosure sentence in a paid review. Of course SponsoredReviews doesn't have specific guidelines available for disclosure, the site merely says blogger should "state the words 'Sponsored Review' or you can integrate it into the content." Okay, but would a style sheet rule like this be okay?
p.disclosure { font-size: 1px; }
Hopefully not. The FTC recently said word-of-mouth advertisers and reviewers [must disclose their relationships][6] which even includes things like products that have a MySpace page.
Interestingly, while SponsoredReviews claims negative reviews are okay, the official guidelines on the site read:
>* Reviews must be written according to the terms set by the advertiser.
* Constructive criticism is encouraged, however, reviews that are hateful or non-constructive will not be accepted.
* Reviews must be permanent and archived.
* Disclosure that the review is sponsored is mandatory.
What constitutes non-constructive from an advertisers point of view? Would a review like "this service is an adware-ridden nightmare best avoided at all costs" be considered non-constructive? As a reader I might consider that informative, constructive and good to know, but the advertiser would likely have a different opinion.
At this point it looks like these services are here to stay so, while the ethics may be debatable, the real question is what will the long term effect be? Will blogs featuring paid reviews be shunned, is the whole blogging realm doomed or is this much hoopla about nothing?
[1]: http://www.sponsoredreviews.com/ "SponsoredReviews"
[2]: http://www.sponsoredreviews.com/blog/?p=7 "SponsoredReviews Launching Soon"
[3]: http://www.blogherald.com/2007/01/15/sponsoredreviewscom-jumps-into-the-pay-per-post-fray-introduces-new-ethics-quandry/ "SponsoredReviews.com Introduces New Ethics Quandry"
[5]: http://www.scripting.com/2006/10/02.html#whyPayperpostIsBetter "Dave Winer on PayPerPost"
[4]: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/15/another-payperpost-virus/ "Another PayPerPost Virus"
[6]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101389.html?nav=hcmodule"
Pull My Strings
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* Over on Cult of Mac Leander Kahney has an awesome rundown on why people still [prefer the Newton][1] to even the potential of the iPhone.
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/2007/01/in_1998_steve_j.html "Apple Newton Versus iPhone"
* Wired Science brings news of a development in which a pox could possibly be used to [kill cancerous cells][2].
[2]: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/01/using_a_pox_to_.html "Using a Pox to Kill Cancer"
* My personal fav of the day, Gadget Lab has has a post about [tires infused with essential oils][3]. Imagine if you will... monster truck rallies with a hint of lavender and jasmine in the air...
[3]: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/01/kumhos_scented_.html "Kumho's Scented Tires"
* Table of Malcontent isn't [wearing pants][4].
[4]: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/01/improve_everywh.html "Improv Everywhere's No Pants! Subway Ride"
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The new version of jQuery boasts numerous enhancements including bugs fixes, speed improvements and a simplified API. The creators of jQuery have also overhauled the documentation and gathered the previous scattered tutorials and guides [into one website][2].
There's a page available to [run speed tests][4] on jQuery 1.1 and the new documentation site should be a boon to web developers looking to get started with AJAX.
[1]: http://jquery.com/ "jQuery Javascript Library"
[3]: http://jquery.com/blog/2007/01/14/jquery-birthday-11-new-site-new-docs/ "jQuery New Site New Docs"
[2]: http://docs.jquery.com/ "jQuery documentation"
[4]: http://john.jquery.com/speed/ "jQuery speed test"
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* Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavericks franchise has [launched MavsWiki.com][1] a wiki designed to, "be a collaboration between the Mavs and their fans, with the goal being to document every game the Mavs have played." It'll be interesting to see if this catches on.
[1]: http://www.nba.com/mavericks/news/Mavs_Launch_MAVSWIKICOM.html?rss=true "Mavs Launch Mavswiki.Com"
* According to [Apple Insider][2] "Core 2 Duo-based Mac owners who want to unlock next-generation 802.11n wireless technologies hidden inside their computers will first have to fork a few bucks over to Apple." The 802.11n enabler patch will cost $4.99. Certainly $4.99 per person can't mean much to Apple, why not just give it away?
[2]: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2398 "Apple to impose 802.11n unlocking fee on Intel Mac owners"
* Footnote, Inc. has [announced an agreement][4] to digitize selected records from the vast holdings of the National Archives. 4.5 million pages are already online and waiting for your annotations.
[4]: http://www.footnote.com/nara.php "National Archives Records available on Footnote"
* Linux doesn't get enough coverage on this blog and I think it's high time we changed that. I just spent the last half hour [listening to the Linux Action show podcast][3] and decided that the Monkey Bites Linux love must spread. As of yet I have no plan, but in the mean time give the show a listen.
[3]: http://www.linuxactionshow.com/?p=75 "The Linux Action Show! Podcast"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0431997 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The Morning Reboot:
* Apple has given a iPhone skin for Windows Mobile [the legal smackdown][1]. There's such a thing as trademark protection, but this seem extreme. Fortunately for the hardcore users who absolutely much have the iPhone skin on their Windows Mobile device, the creator of the skin has posted instructions for creating you own version (see link above).
[1]: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1097832#post1097832 "iPhone skin removed"
* Drupal, the popular PHP-based content management system, has [released version 5.0][2]. Today also marks the sixth birthday of Drupal. Drupal powers a number of popular sites including [The Onion][3].
[2]: http://drupal.org/drupal-5.0 "Drupal 5.0"
[3]: http://www.theonion.com/content/ "The Onion"
* The rumors of an HD-DVD encryption crack appear to be true; TorrentFreak [reports][4] that an HD-DVD torrent of [Serenity][5] is now available. Can we end the BluRay/HD-DVD format "war" now?
[4]: http://torrentfreak.com/first-hd-dvd-movie-leaked-onto-bittorrent/ "First HD-DVD Movie Leaked Onto BitTorrent"
[5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film) "Serenity"
* The FBI is [warning of an email scam][6] in which the scammers suggest a "hitman" is on the trail of the recipients. The FBI site notes: "Please note, providing any personal information in response to an unsolicited e-mail can compromise your identity and open you to identity theft." (Note: The FBI's web design budget appears to very very small.)
[6]: http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm "FBI warns of email scam"
* If we spent our time reporting every scam, phishing attack and other security hack that hit MySpace we wouldn't have time for anything else, but this one is funny. Someone apparently hacked MySpace's "Tom" account (the default friend for all new members) to [send out a link to a phishing scam][7]. Not news really until you consider that the Tom account has roughly 148,059,490 friends. What we'd like to know is how much money a phishing attack against MySpace can really generate -- do they ask users to steal their parents credit cards or something? [via Digg]
[7]: http://i12.tinypic.com/3zk2jvr.jpg "Phishing scam screen grab"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/rss.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/rss.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f68b83b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/rss.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Okay I'm trying to get with this whole [radical transparency][1] thing we're pushing here at Wired so I thought I'd give you a heads up on a story I've been researching.
A couple weeks back, around the beginning of the new year, the mainstream media got caught up in series of stories about how RSS would be a breakthrough technology of 2007. RSS savvy Monkey Bites readers might yawn when Reuters [tries to explain][2] a six year old technology to the masses, but we thought maybe now would be a good time to see how "power users" are utilizing RSS.
I've been digging around the web for technologies and services that allow you to do more with your RSS feeds.
So far I've been looking at a variety of services that do RSS via SMS with a particular emphasis on filtering so only the most important things get sent to your phone. I'm familiar with [Zaptxt][3] and Yahoo's "Alerts" which [offers something similar][4], but if you prefer others let me know.
I've also been playing with Google Reader's new "Trends" analytics tool, which can tell you a lot about your reading habits, but I'm still not sure if it's all that useful.
I'm currently enamored with the idea of archiving meaningful feeds via email and I've been testing [RSSFwd][5] and [RMail][6] which both offer feeds delivered to your email account. But so far I haven't found a way to do exactly what I want, which is to have only items I've flagged sent to my email account.
This weeks Tutorial 'o the Day theme will be RSS power tips and at some point this may develop into a a full article, but in the mean time let's hear what you think. While the rest of the world is just getting up to speed, chances are Monkey Bites readers are already pushing the envelope, so let me know what your favorite RSS tips are in the comments below.
[1]: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/12/what_would_radi_1.html "What Would Radical Transparency Mean For Wired?"
[2]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2007-01-02T053910Z_01_N29192014_RTRUKOC_0_US-COLUMN-PLUGGEDIN.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C2_internetNews-4 "Untangle the World Wide Web with RSS"
[3]: http://zaptxt.com/home/ "Zaptxt"
[4]: https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.intl=us&.src=ntfy&.done=http%3A%2F%2Falerts.yahoo.com%2Fmain.php%3Fview%3Dblogs "Yahoo Alerts"
[5]: http://rssfwd.com/ "RSSfwd"
[6]: http://www.r-mail.org/ "RMail"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/tut.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/tut.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ad4bf3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Mon/tut.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +As I promised in the last post, this week's theme for Tutorial 'o the Day is RSS tips, tricks and hacks. If you don't know what RSS is, dig out from under that rock and get thee to a search engine.
Since most of these are one liners, we'll do two a day.
One of the frustrating things about RSS is that once you start using it you expect every site to offer feeds for every single chunk of data, which, unfortunately, few do. For instance, what if you want to get all of my colleague's posts and avoid me like the plague? There's no easy way to do that with the feeds that this page offers.
Here's a trick from [Micro Persuasion][3]'s Steve Rubel: search by byline and/or column title on Yahoo! News and then subscribe to the search as a feed. Every time your favorite writer has a new article published it'll show up in your feed. The only draw back being the slight lag time between when the article is published and when Yahoo News finds it, but hey, it's better than nothing.
The second tip for the day comes via the blog [Get Rich Slowly][2]. Thanks to [isnoop.net][1] it's easy to track your local movie listings even if the theaters near you don't have their own RSS feed. Just plug in your zip code and the scripts on isnoop will scrap Google to give you a list of theaters with movies, show times and an RSS feed for each. Combine those in your favorite RSS reader and you have an instant list of what's playing, where and when.
[1]: http://isnoop.net/rss/theater.php "Theatre Search"
[2]: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/01/14/custom-movie-listings-with-rss/ "Custom Movie Listings with RSS"
[3]: http://www.micropersuasion.com/ "Micro Persuasion"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/elsewhere.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/elsewhere.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ac3437 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/elsewhere.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Wiredblogs" title="Wiredblogs" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/wiredblogs.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />Elsewhere on Wired:
* This has relatively the same effect on me that fingernails on a chalkboard seem to have for other people: Bodyhack has a post (with pics) about a [wrist surface piercing with a watch attached][1]. "Surface piercing is hard to heal and with this chunky watched attached, getting bumped and scraped is inevitable."
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/01/watch_piercing_.html "Watch piercing never gets left on the nightstand"
* Who says kids are lazy? Game|Life has the story of a 9-year-old Seattle boy who "became a modern day Frank Abagnale, Jr. when he hijacked a handful of cars and sneaked onto an airline flight, all in an effort to visit his grandfather in Dallas." Naturally his mother [blames the whole thing on video games][2].
[2]: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/01/mother_blames_p.html "Mother Blames PlayStation for Son's Criminal Tendencies"
* Screw iPhone, truly upscale snobs are going to get [the Prada phone][3]. At $780 and sporting a touch screen interface Gadget Lab drily observers: "If an overpriced, touchscreen-only phone sounds oddly familiar, you're not the only one thinking imitation." But doesn't Prada charge like $500 for a belt? So relatively speaking $780 for a phone might not be that bad.
[3]: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/01/lg_flatters_iph.html "LG Flatters iPhone"
* Listening Post [has the skinny][4] on a new MP3 player that looks like a Rubik's cube. Except that it's all white, which is probably good since "you need to solve the puzzle in order to turn it off."
[4]: http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/01/rubiks_cube_is_.html "Rubik's Cube Is Sweeping the Nation Again"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-logo.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-logo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c083fd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-logo.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-screen.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-screen.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e0d006 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-screen.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-screen2.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-screen2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..95449b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor-screen2.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed508f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/inquisitor.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Because it lacks a plugin architecture like Firefox, Safari has relatively few add-ons or extra tools. That doesn't mean there aren't *any* add-ons though, and there's some great ones too, like [Inquisitor][1] which adds a Spotlight-like features to Safari's Google Search bar.
I'll confess I don't like Spotlight and I hardly ever use it so I wasn't looking forward to Inquisitor, but I was wrong. Where Spotlight is slow, clumsy and to me, useless, Inquisitor is fast, easy-to-use and makes searching the web easier.
Once installed, just type in the Google search box and the Inquisitor window will pop up with the top search results and attempt to auto-complete your word or phase. By default Inquisitor shows the top 3 Google results, but you can customize that number via Safari's preferences window.
Just below the results is a list of auto-complete suggestions and if you enable the feature, below that you'll see links to other search sites. The Search engine sites themselves are limited to offerings from Google or Yahoo, which I assume is because both offer good, stable APIs.
You can add as many search engines as you'd like to the "additional search engines" links and add keyboard shortcuts as well. It would be nice if the custom search engines could have a postfix string appended to them, but that's about my only quibble with this little gem.
The version of Inquisitor 3 that I's using is still officially a beta (currently beta 2), but I had no stability issues and haven't seen any bugs in my testing. Inquisitor is a great little app and it's free, though I'm sure developer Dave Watanabe wouldn't complain if you donated something toward future development.
[1]: http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/ "Inquisitor 3"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/myspace.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/myspace.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b2ff88 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/myspace.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +As we mentioned in yesterday's reboot, MySpace is developing software tools that will allow parents to [track their children's usage][2] of the site (note link requires registration). This morning brings word that the families of four children who were sexually assaulted by people that met on MySpace have [filed suit against News Corp][1], MySpace's owner, for negligence and fraud.
MySpace is hoping that the new tracking software, named "Zephyr" and due to be released this summer, will help stave off what continues to be a growing problem for the popular social networking site.
Though details of Zephyr remain vague, one thing it won't do is provide account passwords. The standalone program, which for now is Windows only, will notify parents whenever a someone logs into a MySpace account from that machine and will provide the name, age and location their children have entered on MySpace, however Zephyr will not give parents access to their children's profiles nor does it let them see email or other password protected communications.
Zephyr stores the data it collects in a password protected file and can notify parents of changes made to the account even if those changes are made from another computer. It also works even if the child's profile is private.
The basis of MySpace's existing security revolves around age restrictions. Last year MySpace enacted features that place restrictions on how adults may contact the site's younger users
Currently MySpace requires users to be over fourteen to register and under sixteen can display their full profiles -- containing hobbies, schools, and any other personal details -- only to people already listed as friends. Others see only the user name, gender, age, and location.
The problem is that the age restrictions aren't really enforceable. To get a full profile that the whole world has access to is a simple as changing your age on the signup form. Zephyr is intended to notify parents if their children are lying about their age to gain access to full profiles.
MySpace says many of Zephyr's specific mechanisms are still being worked out, but one thing is for sure -- the tool won't work if a profile is accessed entirely away from home.
For all practical purposes Zephyr seems to do little more than possibly give MySpace some wiggle room in its many pending lawsuits. The software has little chance of accomplishing anything from a security standpoint, but it does do one thing, it transfers at least some the burden of age policing back to the parents.
MySpace is attempting to walk a thin line here since if they gave parents total access to their children's accounts the kids would likely flee the site in droves for competitors like Facebook.
[1]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2007-01-18T155950Z_01_N18174054_RTRUKOC_0_US-NEWSCORP-MYSPACE.xml&src=rss "More families sue News Corp's MySpace: attorney"
[2]: http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB116900733587978625.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj "MySpace Moves to Give Parents More Information"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/nightly.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/nightly.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..662fe67 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/nightly.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Nightlybuild" title="Nightlybuild" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/nightlybuild.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The Nightly Build:
* More proof that Opera can do anything. [From the Register][1]: "A Swedish Wii owner took advantage of the console's built-in Opera browser and Wi-Fi to tap into his PC's media collection shortly before Christmas. The Wii remote can then be used to show photos and browse iTunes playlists on the TV"
[1]: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/18/orb_wii_console/ "Orb brings iTunes to Wii console"
* Google has started pushing Google Checkout again. A couple of months ago they offered merchants free order processing until the end of the year. Now they're targeting buyers with a new deal that's being [promoed on the Google homepage][3]. If you sign up now as a new user, you will get $10 to spend at Google Checkout merchants until March 31, 2007
[3]: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_promotes_checkout.php "Google Promotes Checkout on Homepage"
* In a move I believe was motivated by a deep desire to bring real world meaning to the theoretical work of [Jean Baudrillard][4], Microsoft has [patched a patch][5]. Microsoft issued a patch to patch a patch that "messed up the way Excel 2000 processes information."
[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard "Wikipedia: Jean Baudrillard"
[5]: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2085354,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594 "Microsoft Patches Buggy Excel Patch"
* The site your boss doesn't want you to see. According to the tagline on [PointlessSites.com][2] the sites aims to "list here only pointless and useless sites that; are completely pointless, don't have pop up/under ads or too many ads in general, are original, useless, are not offensive." What's not to love?
[2]: http://www.pointlesssites.com/ "The definitive place for pointless websites"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c59853e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Thu/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The Morning Reboot:
* It took a while longer, but Adobe has finally released the final version of Flash Player 9 for Linux. The new plugin can be [downloaded from the Adobe site][1].
[1]: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&P2_Platform=Linux&P3_Browser_Version=Netscape4 "Download Flash Player 9 for Linux"
* Web [newspaper blog traffic tripled last month][2]. According to Reuters article "U.S. news organizations are increasingly calling on their reporters and editors to write news blogs and compete with the expanding Internet format for informal analysis and opinion." Oh are they ever dear reader, and sometimes they use bullwhips to drive their point home.
[2]: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/wr_nm/nielsen_blogs_dc_1 "Web newspaper blog traffic triples in Dec"
* Microsoft [plans to offer][3] Windows Vista for sale and download online, marking a new step for the software company, which has previously sold Windows only on packaged discs or pre-loaded on computers.
[3]: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_vista "Microsoft to offer Windows Vista online"
* CNet has compiled a list of the [top ten software downloads][4] of the past ten years, based on download.com usage. ICQ tops the list. I can see where for maybe three or four of those years download.com would be a good indicator of popularity, but after that, I mean does anyone actually download things from download.com?
[4]: http://www.cnet.com/4520-11136_1-6257577-1.html "Top 10 downloads of the past 10 years"
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Shelfari is a social network that revolves around books and has an attractive, easy-to-use interface whose design and layout are vaguely reminiscent of the popular Mac software Delicious Library.
Speaking of Delicious Library, Shelfari allows you to upload your Delicious Library info as a text file which means you don't have to input excessive amounts of data (a similar function is available for LibraryThing exports).
If you don't have your book data already in some malleable digital form, you'll have to enter it by hand or search to see if other users have already input your favorite books. You can search for books by title, author, ISBN or subject.
There's all the familiar trappings of social networks, profiles, tagging, friends, recommendations, and more (if I had a dollar for every time I've typed that sentence...).
Shelfari also takes tip from Digg and offers a number of lists like "Top Books," "Top Tags," "Most Opinions" and "Top Shelves" to help you find books that might pique your interest.
Shelfari lets you create separate book shelves for books you've read, books you own and books you plan to read. Your books are displayed, as you might expect, on a bookshelf and above each cover image (pulled from Amazon) are links to friends opinions and other metadata. Each book also has a direct link for purchasing via Amazon, which is part of Shelfari's revenue stream.
Unlike LibraryThing which charges an annual fee for users that want to list over 200 books, Shelfari is free regardless of the size of your book collection.
Overall I liked Shelfari, it has a simple and slick interface an it's easy to add books to your listing. At the same time, something about Shelfari put me off a bit, perhaps it's too slick.
Shelfari is a bit like a meat-space Borders or Barnes and Nobel, clean, organized and well lit, whereas LibraryThing is bit more like a local bookshop, it's run by one person, it's a bit musty, there's dust in the corners and the lighting isn't perfect, but it has a genuine community feel that Shelfari lacks.
Then there's Shelfari's misguided decision to refer to users as "Shelfarians."
My search for the perfect book cataloguing service isn't over yet. What I'd really like is a site that offers a robust API --like the Flickr API-- anyone have any suggestions?
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/build.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/build.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac66e48 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/build.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Nightlybuild" title="Nightlybuild" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/nightlybuild.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The Nightly Build:
* [The Freedom Toaster][2] is a self server kiosk that lets you burn software and media. Currently the project is limited to South Africa. From the website: "The Freedom Toaster project began as a means of overcoming the difficulty in obtaining Linux and Open Source software due to the restrictive telecommunications environment in South Africa, where the easy downloading of large pieces of software is just not possible for everyone."
[2]: http://www.freedomtoaster.org/?q=home "Freedom Toaster"
* So far it's just a rumor but [according to ZDNet][1] blogger Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft will be offering a "Family Pack" discount on Vista Ultimate edition. Foley claims that plans are afoot to "allow Vista Ultimate customers to purchase two additional copies of Vista Home Premium for somewhere between $50 to $99 a piece."
[1]: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=201 "Microsoft to offer Vista ‘Family Pack’ discount for Ultimate users"
* Google pulls a page from Microsoft's playbook. Google has [removed Yahoo and MapQuest Maps][3] from their search results page. In an official statement Google tells Search Engine Land that, "Google is always working to improve search. The redesign of maps onebox better simplifies the Google user experience when looking for business and address information." In other words shut up and and eat it; Google knows what's best for you.
[3]: http://searchengineland.com/070116-103251.php "Google removes links to Yahoo and MapQuest maps"
* It may not be not software related, but it's pretty cool: George Clooney and the SCI FI Channel are teaming up to [bring a six-hour miniseries][4] version of Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age to the small screen. Please don't screw this up Mr. Clooney. [via [BoingBoing][5]]
[4]: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=39447 "Clooney, Others Develop SCI FI Shows"
[5]: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/16/clooney_and_scifi_ma.html "Clooney and SciFi making "Diamond Age" miniseries "
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/elsewhere.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/elsewhere.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19b38a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/elsewhere.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Wiredblogs" title="Wiredblogs" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/wiredblogs.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />Elsewhere on Wired:
* Randy Dotinga over at Bodyhack has news of new study which finds that video games may be [good for your head][1]. Didn't [Steven Johnson][2] already say that? Silly scientists and their "proof" and "evidence."
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/01/video_games_goo.html "Video Games: Good for Your Head (!)"
[2]: http://stevenberlinjohnson.com/ "Everything Bad is Good For You"
* Autopia [reports][3] that Lotus Engineering, which helped to develop the only-cool-electric-car, the Tesla Motors electric car, has partnered with ZAP, a small Santa Rosa company.
[3]: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2007/01/lotus_and_zap_t.html "Lotus and ZAP Team for EVs"
* Forget the video iPod, if you want your movies really, really, really Zoolander-style small, you need to check out Gadget Lab's write up on a [wristwatch that plays movies][4].
[4]: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/01/wristwatch_play.html "Wristwatch Plays Movies"
* Table of Malcontents has some great [surreal paintings][5] from Polish artist Jacek Yerka.
[5]: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/01/jacek_yerka.html "Jacek Yerka"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/outlook.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/outlook.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad3eb39 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/outlook.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +As the public release of Vista and Office 2007 draw near more details about the new software is emerging. One such detail that emerged last week involves Outlook 2007 which no longer uses Internet Explorer as an HTML rendering engine and instead relies on the rendering engine used by Word 2007.
There was [much][1] [uproar][6] in certain quarters as Word's rendering engine has historically been substandard. Considering that a number of popular authoring tools, such as Dreamweaver ship with special tools whose sole purpose is to clean up the often bloated, non-standards-based output of MS Word's HTML output, using that engine for Outlook might seem like an odd choice.
Rumors have swirled about as to the reasoning behind the switch so to put matters to rest I got in touch with Jessica Arnold, Product Manager for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
It turns out that even older version of Outlook use the Word rendering engine for creating HTML emails so there's no real change on the authoring end. The change to using Word for received emails come because, according to Arnold, "A big thing we heard from customers is that they wanted the richness of the editing experience they were used to from Word integrated throughout Outlook."
The problem she says was that "often the content people created looked different to the recipient receiving it - like the formatting would be slightly off, or things wouldn't appear as they had when the message was in "compose" mode."
The desire for consistency appears to be the main motivation, but Arnold did admit that "for some particular users this may not be true and we're always looking for ways to improve our rendering support in the future."
For a full rundown on what HTML is available via the Word rendering engine there are [two pages][2] [worth of specs][3] on Microsoft's website. There's also a white paper on what's [new in Outlook 2007][4]. Microsoft has a [code validator][5] (Windows only) for those looking to create Outlook 2007 compatible emails using other authoring tools.
Perhaps the most annoying thing for users looking to deliver HTML email newsletters and the like is a lack of support for CSS positioning with <code>div</code> tags and the lack of support for the CSS float property. Without these tools it will be difficult if not impossible to design standards compliant HTML emails.
Arnold says "customers using Outlook don't just want to display HTML content, the way they do in their browser, but also have an expectation that they should be able to author that content as well." Arnold claims "Word's new HTML rendering engine has been improved based on HTML and CSS standards," but did not provide any specifics.
However given that many popular mail clients and services have HTML rendering disabled by default (GMail for instance), and many users consider HTML email a nuisance, perhaps the outcry is misplaced. It's possible that only people really effected by this will be spammers who rely on embedded images to verify when email was viewed.
Unfortunately Microsoft's change of rendering engine doesn't appear to have been motivated by a desire to fight spam or enhance security, while background images are not supported, images nested in tables are, which means spammers can still get information sent back when Outlook renders the HTML content.
If your business relies on HTML email, you'll definitely want to revise your code come January 30th when the new versions of Vista and Office hit the shelves. Until then you might try contacting Microsoft, Arnold says "the Word team is continually examining HTML and CSS support based on customer feedback."
[1]: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2007/01/microsoft_takes_email_design_b.html "Microsoft takes email design back 5 years"
[2]: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338201.aspx "Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007 (Part 1 of 2)"
[3]: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338200.aspx "Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007 (Part 2 of 2)"
[4]: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102109301033.aspx "Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 e-mail editor white paper"
[5]: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0b764c08-0f86-431e-8bd5-ef0e9ce26a3a&displaylang=en "Outlook HTML and CSS Validator"
[6]: http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=156#5 "Microsoft Breaks HTML Email Rendering in Outlook 2007"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32fb6b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The morning reboot suggests you not put today's fresh coffee right next to the mug with yesterday's leftover, cold and somewhat slimy coffee as this may cause early morning confusion and unhappiness.
* [Wikiseek][1] is a new Wikipedia search engine that indexes only Wikipedia pages and sites those pages link to, which should make for more focused, less spam-laden search results. It's also much faster than Wikipedia's current search engine.
[1]: http://www.wikiseek.com/ "Wikiseek"
* Netflix has [unveiled a new streaming movie service][2]. Select subscribers will gain access to the new service, "Watch Now," which will allow users to watch films straight from the web. The service does not offer actual downloads to cut the risk of piracy. Initially only 250,000 customers will get Watch Now, but Netflix plans to add roughly the same amount each week until June.
[2]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6266819.stm "Netflix unveils online film offer"
* Open source is the way forward. An article over on CNet [claims][3] that more companies are "finding that the best way to make money with software is to give it away." The examples they cite are a bit obscure, but hey, here's hoping they're right.
[3]: http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6150104.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news "Taking the plunge into open source"
* HSIA: [US man badly burned by self-combusting mobile][4]
[4]: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/16/mobile_phone_fire/ "US man badly burned by self-combusting mobile"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/tut.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/tut.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a72866 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Tues/tut.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Feedicon" title="Feedicon" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/feedicon.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />Today's RSS tip comes from comments on yesterday's post. I'd been looking for a way to archive selected feed entries as email messages for long term storage, but using services like <a href="http://rssfwd.com/" title="RSSfwd">RSSFwd</a> or <a href="http://www.r-mail.org/" title="RMail">RMail</a> by themselves sends everything to your email address.
This morning it occurred to me that using del.icio.us or any other social bookmarking site as an intermediary would make it possible. When I checked my email I noticed that Monkey Bites reader David Rotham had [posted exactly the same workflow][2]. Here's what he suggests:
>decide on how you'll tag items that you want emailed to you. Use that tag to "flag" items you want emailed to you. Get an RSS feed for your user ID and that tag from del.icio.us. Give that feed to RMail. That's it.
So there you have it. And naturally David's tips apply to any social bookmarking site. If you send those emails to GMail, you've got a permanent online archive of news that you can tag and search whenever and wherever you need.
The second tip for the day is pretty simple but something I didn't realize was available. As Digg continues to grow in popularity the signal to noise ratio seems to have corresponding decline. Posts that have nothing to do with technology still end up in that category, but it turns out that you can actually create feeds from Digg searches.
Using a combination of "not" operators in the advanced search page I've generated a Digg feed that cuts out a lot of meaningless chatter that was cluttering up my RSS reader. Muhammad Saleem over at The Mu Life has the full details on [creating search-based Digg feeds][1].
[1]: http://themulife.com/?p=580 "Digg.com's Lesser Known RSS Features"
[2]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/01/stories_were_wo.html "RSS Power Users"
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Because Wikiseek only indexes Wikipedia and sites that Wikipedia links to, the results are less subject to the spam and SEO schemes that can clutter up Google and Yahoo search listings.
According to the Wikiseek pages, the search engine "utilizes Searchme's category refinement technology, providing suggested search refinements based on user tagging and categorization within Wikipedia, making results more relevant than conventional search engines."
Along with search results Wikiseek displays a tag cloud which allows you to narrow or broaden your search results based on topically related information.
Wikiseek offer a Firefox [search plugin][3] as well as a [Javascript-based extension][4] that alters actual Wikipedia pages to add a Wikiseek search button (see screenshot below). Hopefully similar options will be available for other browsers in the future.
SearchMe is using Wikiseek as a showcase product and is donating a large portion of the advertising revenue generated by Wikiseek, back to Wikipedia. The company also promises to have more niche search engines in the works.
If Wikiseek is any indication, SearchMe will be one to watch. The interface has the simplicity of Google, but searches are considerably faster, lightening fast is fact. Granted Wikiseek is indexing far fewer pages than Google or Yahoo, but if speed is a factor, niche search engines like Wikiseek may pose a serious threat to the giants like Google and Yahoo.
Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion has [an interesting post][5] about the growing influence of Wikipedia and how it could pose a big threat to Google in the near future. Here's some statistics from his post:
>The number of Wikipedians who have edited ten or more articles continues its hockey stick growth. In October 2006 that number climbed to 158,000 people. Further, media citations rose 300% last year, according to data compiled using Factiva. Last year Wikipedia was cited 11,000 times in the press. Traffic is on the rise too. Hitwise says that Wikipedia is the 20th most visited domain in the US.
While Wikiseek will probably not pose a serious threat to the search giants, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is looking to compete with the search giants at some point. While few details have yet emerged, his for profit company Wikia is reportedly working a new search engine dubbed Wikisari which aims to be a people-powered alternative to Google.
With numbers like the ones cited above, Wikipedia may indeed pose a threat to Google, Yahoo and the rest.
[1]: http://www.wikiseek.com "Wikiseek"
[2]: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/16/wikipedia-search-engine-wikiseek-launches/ "TechCrunch: Wikipedia Search Engine WikiSeek Launches"
[3]: http://www.wikiseek.com/tools/search_plugin/ "Wikiseek Firefox Search Plugin"
[4]: http://www.wikiseek.com/tools/FF_extension/ "Wikiseek Firefox extension"
[5]: http://www.micropersuasion.com/2007/01/wikipedia_threa.html "Micro Persuasion: The Wikipedia Threat to Google's Empire"
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The Markdown support includes coloring and folding of document structural elements, as well as the ability to preview the finished document using the "Preview in BBEdit" command, which leverages WebKit.
I have several modified versions of Markdown and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to get BBEdit to use these for the native features.
Other enhancements include new commands "Save as Styled HTML" and "Copy as Styled HTML" which generate HTML code duplicating the layout and text styles of syntax-colored code. BBEdit can also now read and write the "binary property list" format, primarily used for preferences files in Mac OS X 10.4.
BBEdit 8.6 is also a maintenance release that fixes reported issues and adds several other refinements to this award-winning HTML and text editor.
BBEdit 8.6 is a [free upgrade][2] for users with version 8.5.x. Users of BBEdit 8 may upgrade for $30, while those with version 7 can upgrade for $40. A new copy of 8.6 is $125.
[2]: http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/updates.shtml "BBEdit 8.6"
[1]: http://web.barebones.com/company/press.php?news_id=158 "Bare Bones Software Ships BBEdit 8.6"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/elsewhere.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/elsewhere.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73d54ba --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/elsewhere.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Wiredblogs" title="Wiredblogs" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/wiredblogs.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />Elsewhere on Wired:
* Listening Post's Eliot Van Buskirk has a story about [libraries and Windows-only DRM][1]. "Physical library cards don't require a certain type of wallet; why should the electronic ones only work on Windows?"
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/01/library_media_l.html "Public Libraries, Private DRM"
* Game|Life [reports][2] that someone has figured out a way to use the PlayStation 3 as a digital video recorder using the Plextor ConvertX DVR and MythTV.
[2]: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/01/ps3_does_dvr.html "PS3: The Next TiVo?"
* According to an as-yet unverified document provided to [27B Stroke 6][3] by a privacy activist, there's a program afoot to standardize state driver's licenses and create a de facto national I.D card using private sector contractors.
[3]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/01/national_id_to_.html "National ID to Be Privatized, Activist Says He Has Docs"
* Hopefully the last item will one day end up in [The Museum of Unworkable Devices][4], which we discovered this morning via Table of Malcontents.
[4]: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/01/the_museum_of_u.html "The Museum of Unworkable Devices"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/freesoftware.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/freesoftware.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59ff5d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/freesoftware.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +There's an interesting, albeit rather long, new study available from an international, interdisciplinary team of researchers that documents Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and its economic influences on the EU.
The full text of the 287 page report, entitled ""Economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the EU," is [available online][1] (PDF). The report provides one of the most thorough and comprehensive looks at the FLOSS community and what FLOSS software has done for the IT community that I've ever seen.
While most of the statics and numbers are geared toward EU and European nations in general (the lead contractor of the study was UNU-MERIT from the Netherlands), the study nevertheless provides a fascinating look at free software and its impact on the world at large.
Particularly stunning is the estimated time to reproduce this software in proprietary format (131,000 person years) and the estimated amount of donated programming effort in monetary terms (800 million per year).
Here's some more highlights pulled straight from the text:
>* Almost two-thirds of FLOSS software is still written by individuals; firms contribute about 15% and other institutions another 20%.
* Europe is the leading region in terms of globally collaborating FLOSS software developers, and leads in terms of global project leaders, followed closely by North America (interestingly, more in the East Coast than the West). Asia and Latin America.
* The existing base of quality FLOSS applications with reasonable quality control and distribution would <strong>cost firms almost Euro 12 billion to reproduce internally</strong>. This code base has been doubling every 18-24 months over the past eight years, and this growth is projected to continue for several more years.
* This existing base of FLOSS software <strong>represents a lower bound of about 131 000 real person-years of effort that has been devoted exclusively by programmers</strong>. As this is mostly by individuals not directly paid for development, it represents a significant gap in national accounts of productivity. Annualised and adjusted for growth this represents at least Euro 800 million in voluntary contribution from programmers alone each year, of which nearly half are based in Europe.
* Firms have invested an estimated Euro 1.2 billion in developing FLOSS software that is made freely available. Such firms represent in total at least 565 000 jobs and Euro 263 billion in annual revenue. Contributing firms are from several non-IT (but often ICT intensive) sectors, and tend to have much higher revenues than non-contributing firms.
* Defined broadly, FLOSS-related services could reach a 32% share of all IT services by 2010, and the FLOSS-related share of the economy could reach 4% of European GDP by 2010.
* Proprietary packaged software firms account for well below 10% of employment of software developers in the U.S., and "IT user" firms account for over 70% of software developers employed with a similar salary (and thus skill) level. This suggests a relatively low potential for cannibalisation (sic) of proprietary software jobs by FLOSS, and suggests a relatively high potential for software developer jobs to become increasingly FLOSS- related.
This report gives me a warm fuzzy feeling every time I think about it. As government documents go this one is pretty readable and if you have any interest in evangelizing for open source software there's a enough positive numbers in here to sway the opinions of the most hardened proprietary skeptics.
[Discovered via BoingBoing][2]]
[1]: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf ""Economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the EU"
[2]: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/17/giant_amazing_study_.html "BoingBoing: Giant, amazing study of Free/Open software"
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Jajuk has been around a while, but they recently upgraded to version 1.3 which utilizes mPlayer to add more supported music formats. Because I don't have mPlayer installed I wasn't able to test that feature, but MP3 files play fine without an extra work.
Jajuk has some nice features and mirrors Amarok fairly closely. highlights include:
* Ogg, ID3 V1 and V2 support
* Dockable perspectives and views
* Wikipedia view displays artist discography
* Visual catalog of all albums by covers
* Dynamic playlist creation by drag and drop
* Configurable cross-fade
* Recursive play/repeat/shuffle/push in directories/sub-directories or by genre/artist/albums...
* Best Of smart function to play your favorite tracks
Jajuk recommends using Java 1.5, but I got it to run using 1.4, though it did flicker occasionally so if you want to test it on OS X without upgrading Java it's possible, though for long term usage I'd recommend you upgrade to Java 1.5.
Jajuk has no trouble scanning my library and in fact it was able to do so in just over 5 minutes which isn't bad for 65 gigs worth of music, the same task in iTunes takes at least double that.
I had no trouble fetching cover art or CDDB info and the in-app Wikipedia lookup was surprisingly fast. There's also a nice graphical breakdown of your music based on tags that lets you see some aggregated metadata about your music collection (see screenshot below).
I'll admit that I don't really like Java apps, but Jajuk bucks the trend of the previous apps I've used by managing to be both fast and stable. That said, it still won't replace iTunes for me.
Because it's Java-based you can [test out Jajuk in your browser][3] if you'd like to use it without downloading.
[1]: http://amarok.kde.org/ "Amarok"
[2]: http://jajuk.info/index.html "Jajuk Advanced Jukebox"
[3]: http://jajuk.info/jnlp.html "Launch jajuk online"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/maya.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/maya.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab48984 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/maya.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/maya.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/maya.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6ccc9e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/maya.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Autodesk, Inc. announced [Maya 8.5][1] yesterday with support for Intel-powered Macs, which should be music to ears of many an animator looking to upgrade their workstation.
The new software enables faster completion of complex animation and simulation tasks, giving artists enhanced creative control on multiple platforms.
Marc Petit, Autodesk's Media & Entertainment vice president, says in the press release, "Autodesk Maya 8.5 is our first Universal application of Maya. This multi-threaded software leverages the latest multi-core workstations from Apple. Maya 8.5 equips digital artists with innovative new technologies such as Maya Nucleus, a unified simulation framework, as well as greater productivity."
New features in Maya include the Maya Nucleus Unified Simulation Framework, a unified simulation framework, Maya nCloth, a module built on Nucleus technology which lets you quickly direct and control cloth, and other material simulations, and the addition of a Python scripting support.
The Python support has bindings to the OpenMaya API which gives you an alternative language for plug-in development. In addition, the Maya Python modules can be imported into an external standalone Python interpreter for batch processing.
There are half a dozen other enhancements which you can [read about on the Autodesk site][2]. Maya ships in two versions, Complete which will set you back $2000 and Ultimate which is a whopping $7000.
[1]: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=7635770 "Maya 8.5"
[2]: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7635643 "New Features Maya 8.5"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/nightly.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/nightly.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1661aa0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/nightly.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Nightlybuild" title="Nightlybuild" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/nightlybuild.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The Nightly Build:
* Our own Listening Post has some good coverage of Apple's announcement that the company will [license its FairPlay DRM technology][1] to hardware vendors that are part of the "Made for iPod" program.
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/01/apple_opens_fai.html "Apple Opens Fairplay DRM to NetGear"
* Not to be outdone by its stateside equivalent, the RIAA, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries has [threatened to take legal action against ISPs][2] if they don't stop users who illegally upload and download music. Luckily, the folks at the IFPI don't seem to have heard of [Tor][3].
[2]: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/music-industry-declares-war-internet/story.aspx?guid=%7B0D43D22C-F418-4947-95AE-82A44A2B55DB%7D "Music industry declares war on Internet providers"
[3]: http://tor.eff.org/ "Tor: anonymity online"
* The Choose Your Own Adventure series is coming to the iPod. I don't know if I would get into these anymore, but I loved them when I was kid. Book number one is [now available for download][4] — free of charge until Jan 25, 2007.
[4]: http://www.cyoastore.com/product/show/5773 "Choose Your Own Adventure for the iPod"
* And finally, this Reuters story is just [too amazing not to mention][5]: A New York-based designer has come up with a mirror equipped with infrared technology that sends a live video feed to any cell phone, e-mail account or personal digital assistant device selected by a shopper. Christopher Enright, chief technology officer for digital design company IconNicholson, said putting these mirrors outside store fitting rooms meant women could go shopping with their friends -- remotely. "She could be in Paris, your mom, watching you try on your wedding dress (while you are in New York)," Enright told Reuters on Tuesday as he unveiled the interactive mirror at a retail trade show. Just think of the possibilities for all those one-way mirrors in Italian restaurants...
[5]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2007-01-18T002818Z_01_N17321711_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-MIRROR.xml&src=rss "Mirror, mirror on the wall, is this dress for me?"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3172e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The morning reboot notes that the third whiskey seems far less essential the morning after.
* Global digital music sales [nearly doubled in 2006][1], but still failed to over take CDs. The same report, from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) also claims that overall music sales were down 4 percent, something the report attributes to piracy, though it lacks any evidence to back that up.
[1]: http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/digital-music-report.html "IFPI Digital Music Report 2007"
* MySpace will begin [offering parental notification software][2] in an effort to appease critics who claim the site is chock full of underage users. The software, dubbed "Zephyr," can be used to find out what name, age and location their children use to represent themselves on MySpace. No word on how that software might also be used by people who are not the parents of the children.
[2]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2007-01-17T065753Z_01_N16209418_RTRUKOC_0_US-MYSPACE-ZEPHYR.xml&src=rss "MySpace to offer parental notification software"
* Despite Microsoft's claim of 100 million IE7 installs, Firefox's share of the U.S. browser market is at 14 percent and has [continued to grow][3] each of the last three months. The disparate claims can probably be attributed to the fact that most IE7 users are upgrading from IE6 rather than switching from anther browser.
[3]: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196901142 "Despite 100 Million IE 7 Installs, Microsoft's Browser Still Loses Ground"
* Bad news for my English friends: According to a UK survey one in eight men would [swap their girlfriend for an iPod][4] or similar must-have gadget. No word on how many lonely nerds would swap their aging 3G iPod for a girlfriend.
[4]: http://techdigest.tv/2007/01/1_in_8_men_woul.html "1 in 8 men would dump their girlfrend for an iPod"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/tut.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/tut.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa20054 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2007/01.15.07/Wed/tut.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Today's RSS power user tip is a modification of a [Lifehacker tip][1] I ran across recently. Some information, like job and apartment listings is extremely time sensitive, miss an announcement and you could miss out on that rent-controlled beauty in the East Village.
The Lifehacker article linked above outlines how to get RSS feeds for Craig's List searches. Just enter your search criteria and look for the RSS link at the bottom of the page. Of course you need not use Craig's List, any similar service that offers RSS feeds for searches would work as well.
But rather than refreshing your news reader obsessively, why not just use [Yahoo's Alerts][2] or a similar service to send those messages to directly to your phone so you can find out about new apartment listings even when you're away from the computer?
To use Yahoo Alerts just login to your Yahoo account and head to the alerts page. Click the "feed/blog" category and paste in the url from Craig's List.
If you haven't already, set up your Yahoo Alert's account to send messages to your mobile phone. Enable your new feed to send SMS text messages and you're done. Using Yahoo Alerts you can limit the number of messages that get forwarded to your phone since, depending on your mobile plan, this may cost a bit of money.
Now you can get new apartment listings (or job leads or any number of other things) even when you're away from your computer.
[1]: http://www.lifehacker.com/software/top/technophilia-craigslist-for-power-users-204312.php "Craigslist for power users"
[2]: http://alerts.yahoo.com/main.php?view=splash_signup_signin&.done=http%3A%2F%2Falerts.yahoo.com%2Fmain.php%3Fview%3Dblogs "Yahoo Alerts"
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