Complete Guide to Google Wave November 9, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Google.add a comment
I have been spending some time this weekend reading Gina Trapani’s on-line manual, The Complete Guide to Google Wave. Google Wave is an intriguing new service that operates as an interactive, on-line collaboration tool.
Google has a long video demonstration of Wave, but if you don’t want to spend over an hour watching it, here’s a cute little summary that someone created to explain how Google Wave can be useful:
Android 2.0 Development November 1, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Google.add a comment
Last Tuesday, Google released version 2.0 of Android, their open source mobile operating system. This new version of Android is about to appear on many new smart-phones about to be released (notably Motorola’s Droid). I am anxious to see how these new phones compare to the iPhone.
What got my attention is that Android now supports native app development — the Native Development Kit was introduced in June. Before this, applications had to be written in Java. Java is fine, but applications that are compiled for the specific device run faster and aren’t as restricted in what they can do. This should make the Android platform more attractive to many developers and eventually the end-users.
New Google Search Options October 26, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Google.add a comment
Early this month, Google added some useful options for refining a search. This is a handy feature everyone should know about. On a search page, just below the Google logo, is a “Show options…” link. Click that and a wide variety of choices appear in the left margin. Now, if Google’s results are not quite to your liking, there’s an easy way to tweak the search. —
For example, I wanted to know more about using Chinese White in watercolor paintings (something frowned upon by most contemporary artists). In the past, a search for “chinese white watercolor” would return pages and pages of sites that only wanted to sell me tubes of paint.
Google already improved their standard search to return sites that actually talk about subject rather than just stores. Even better, the Google search options let “More shopping sites” or “Fewer shopping sites” be shown — depending on whether you’re trying to buy something or simply get more information.
Other handy options restrict searches to a period of time — you can choose to discard sites that too old for your needs. In my case, I selected “Books” and discovered a Chinese White resist technique. Many of these features have been available from Google for a while, but the new options list now makes it easy explore the possibilities.
Favorite Tech Podcasts October 19, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Software.add a comment
Nominations have just been closed for the People’s Choice Podcast Awards. For those who do not know, podcasts are audio or video programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. There are podcasts covering almost every subject. They are almost always free and some are quite good. They can be downloaded and played back on any computer — I subscribe to them via iTunes so my iPhone always contains the latest episodes.
Podcasts are a great way to pick up new information while commuting, cleaning the house or walking the dog. It is my main means for keeping up with what is going on in the tech world. So in the spirt of the podcast awards, I thought I would share the list of the technology-related podcasts I subscribe to:
 Astronomy Cast is the only science podcast I listen to regularly. Hosts are Fraser Cain of Universe Today and astronomy professor Dr. Pamela L. Gay. The episodes take you on “a fact based journey through the cosmos”. Fun and informative for people that want to learn more about astronomy and space exploration. |
 FLOSS Weekly is one of my favorite podcasts. Each week it interviews people behind an open-source project. It’s amazing how much high-quality, free software is out there — and the people that bring these projects to the world are always intriguing. |
 gdgt weekly covers the gadget news of the week. Hosts Ryan Block and Peter Rojas are also the creators of the gdgt website, where people can find reviews and post their own opinions on the gadgets in their lives. |
 GeekBrief TV consists of short, daily video podcasts of the latest gadget and tech news. It features Cali Lewis, who is fun to watch (it’s a little silly, but I enjoy the outtakes that usually appear at the end of an episode). |
 MacBreak Weekly is a panel discussion of the latest Apple Mac, iPod and iPhone news. The main hosts are Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko and Leo Laporte. At the end of the show the panel members give a software pick of the week. MacBreak Weekly is part of the TWiT Network, which includes several podcasts on this list of favorites. |
 net@night is a weekly podcast about interesting sites on the Internet. Hosts are Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte (and often Sarah Lane calls in). |
 Robots, the podcast for news and views on robots. A new episode comes out every two weeks and usually features a news report and interviews with two experts in robotics. |
 Security Now is probably the most technical podcast on this list and covers anything and everything that deals with computer security. It is hosted by Leo Laporte along with Steve Gibson of Gibson Research, the creator of the SpinRite disk utility. Part of my job has been to write programs that protect our company’s software and I always enjoy listening to Steve’s explanations. |
 This Week in Google covers news on Google and the current happenings in the world of cloud computing. Regular hosts include Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis. |
 This Week in Tech is the flagship podcast of the TWiT network. Each week Leo Laporte gathers a panel of experts to discuss the latest news in tech industry. |
 Windows Weekly covers the latest news surrounding Microsoft Windows. The hosts are Paul Thurrott of the SuperSite for Windows and Leo Laporte. |
Find Top Topics with TweetMeme October 12, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Twitter, Web Development, WordPress.1 comment so far
The latest episode of Net@Night interviews Nick Halstead of TweetMeme. TweetMeme is a service that examines all Twitter posts and categorizes them. It crawls through links and determines which articles are getting the most mentions. This helps find the stories getting the most attention at any given time. This is a little different than Twitter’s trending topics, because TweetMeme does not just look at the content of the tweets, but also at the content of the links inside the tweet. Go to TweetMeme and try it.
Web pages can include a TweetMeme button that shows a popularity count and makes it simple for readers to Twitter about the site. Currently the button cannot be used WordPress.com blogs, but TweetMeme is trying to garner support.
TweetMeme also offers a paid Twitter Analytics service that gives website owners detailed reports on how their content spreads through Twitter. In this video, Nick Halstead demos its features:
Drupal Gardens October 1, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Drupal.add a comment
The most recent episode of the Drupal Voices podcast interviews Acquia marketing director Bryan House. He discusses Acquia’s upcoming web service Drupal Gardens. The idea is to make it easy to get a web site started using Drupal, just as WordPress.com lets you get started using WordPress.
Drupal Gardens makes it possible to design a Drupal 7 site right within the browser and allows customization with the built-in theme builder. Once a site is developed it can be exported to allow transfer to another web host (or the web hosting service available through Acquia).
Drupal Gardens is currently in pre-alpha. Acquia expects to make it available as a beta service by January and will be finalized when Drupal 7 is released early next year.
For more information, see Dries Buytaert’s blog and watch the 11 minute preview.
Windows 7 Academic Offer September 28, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Software, Windows.add a comment
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a special educational promotion of Windows 7 for just $29.99 USD from now until the end of the year. You must be a currently enrolled student to qualify — see Microsoft’s terms and conditions.
Update»
People have reported some difficulties installing the student version of Windows 7, which is packaged differently than the retail Windows 7 upgrade. See Paul Thurrott’s article for details.
iPhone App Organizer September 9, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Software, iPhone, iPod.add a comment
Apple held their fall iPod press event today (the video is available here). Steve Jobs took the stage to a thunderous applause. The Apple CEO is back after recovering from a liver transplant earlier this year.
All four flavors of iPods have been updated. The big news is the iPod Nano now comes with a video camera, microphone, speaker, FM radio and pedometer (starting at $149 US). The iPod Touch (still the “funnest iPod ever”) gets a 50% improvement in speed, but not the widely rumored camera — it starts at $199 US for the 8GB model. The iPod Classic price stays the same ($249 US), but now holds 160GB of music. The iPod Shuffle now comes in various colors starting at $59 US.
That’s all well and good, but as an avid iPhone user, the big news for me was the announcement of iTunes 9 and the release of iPhone OS 3.1. The most welcome feature is the ability to organize the applications using iTunes.
It has been possible to move the application icons from page to page on the phone itself, but it is a long, painful process. Now iTunes 9 makes it easy to place icons on any page. Just connect your iPhone or iPod Touch, select the device in iTunes. The new Applications tab provides three columns:
- a list of all the applications on the left
- a simulation of the iPhone screen to the right
- and a column of thumbnails for each page on the far right
The apps can be moved around on the screen or dropped onto one of the page thumbnails. Multiple app icons can be selected by pressing the command key and clicking. If you are not sure which page holds the app, double-click the app in the list on the left and it jumps directly to that page. To save space on the iPhone, you can uncheck the app in the list.
Finally apps can be organized on the iPhone without spending half a day moving wiggling icons one by one.
The iTunes store also gets a new layout. Ringtones are available for $1.29. A new category of albums, iTunes LP, come with liner notes and extra features. Home Sharing lets you transfer music and media between different computers on your personal network.
Apple has put a lot of work into iTunes and it has paid off. They are the #1 music retailer and the new features and ease of use of their new store should place them yet another step ahead of the competition.
Snow Leopard Arrives September 1, 2009
Posted by cuyler in MacBook, Software.add a comment
I bought my 13″ MacBook Pro a couple of months ago and immediately signed up for the $9.95 Snow Leopard Up-to-Date program. The package arrived earlier today and I’ve got it installed. I will replace this post with a short review as I try it out. My first impression is: it’s just a nicer Leopard.
For more information, MacRumors provides a nice list of Snow Leopard reviews:
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times
Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal
Jason Parker, CNET
David Pogue, The New York Times
Jason Snell, Macworld
Tweet Analysis with Twitalytic August 24, 2009
Posted by cuyler in Twitter, Web Development.1 comment so far
In the latest episode of the This Week in Google podcast, Lifehacker Gina Trapani discusses Twitalytic, her web server program that archives Twitter posts. It retrieves all the tweets from you, your followers and the followers of your followers storing them in a database on your server.
Besides archiving the tweets, it performs some analysis and shows different views of the data. It performs statistics on replies to your tweets and tracks conversations. It also tells you which followers are the most responsive and which followers share friends with you.
Like Gina, I want to be able to go back and review what I post and when I said it. I didn’t see any obvious way to archive my tweets, so earlier this year I wrote a simple Python program to save my Twitter stream. Gina’s Twitalytic service archives more and incorporates the information into a website. This gives it the potential to become a powerful web communication tool and aid for crowd-sourcing. – Twitalyic
