YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the internet, and its something that everyone knows about. Your grandparents, your baby sister, your parents, and even your dog know about YouTube. However, we all know that there are many websites out there that are much better than YouTube quality wise, but YouTube still is the place to be discovered. If you've created your own video, chances are that you'll upload the video to YouTube first; just to get more people to see it. We all know that YouTube is the best place to upload your videos, but is YouTube the best place to watch it?
I was wandering around thinking about the new Macbook Air when a website fell out of the sky and hit me on my head. It was iDesktop. From the name alone, you'd assume that iDesktop is a site where you have your own personal desktop, but its far from that. iDesktop is a site in which you can search for YouTube videos but also get the option to download the video. Most of the website needs Javascript enabled, so you'd better do that if you want to get anywhere.
Features: iDesktop is quite simple to use. Just search for something you would search for on YouTube, and iDesktop will show you a list of queries that match your search. Hovering over an image will display the description. At the bottom of the screen, there will be a control which will adjust how many matches you display on one page. Here is a picture of a search result: The buttons at the top will allow you to download, share, or add the video to your favorites. A great function is that not only can you download the video as a '.flv' you can also save it an AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, 3GP2, WMV, EXE or zipped EXE. When you click to start a video, the video will show up on the screen and begin playing. There is a little bit of lag, but it shouldn't be unbearable. You can also change the website theme by clicking the 'Theme' button on the top of the screen. I think the point of iDesktop was to provide a fun innovative and great looking way to browse and download YouTube videos. Another great feature is 'dim'. To enable this, just move to the top of the screen, and click the button that says 'show settings'. Click that, and enable 'dim'. With 'dim enabled, the background will turn a darker color when you play your videos, so you won't be distracted by all the images.
Problems: I don't really have that many problems with this website. It works alright, and although there is a some lag, it isn't something I would complain about that much. There is only one thing that annoys me. I wish that the website would allow some sort of 'list' function. Instead of showing the video's as small rectangular blocks, they should allow the videos to be displayed the way YouTube displays them. I keep my zoom at 0% so I can see a lot of videos, but this is what the screen looks like when you have zoom at 0%. It hurts my eyes, and I'm sure you'd say the same thing.
Final Thoughts: Other than that minor (or major, whichever you like) drawback, there isn't anything else to complain about. iDesktop makes downloading your YouTube video's a lot easier, and the design is quite innovative (although a bit too much for my poor eyes). This is a great site for anyone who wants to download all those great YouTube video. Whether you use it to watch videos or to download videos, the site is definitely something to try out. You might be surprised how much you like it.
The world is all about quoting what other people have said. This might include quoting people from forums, blogs, and other different sites. It's always to quote someone from another site because not only do you need to retype (or at least copy and paste) what the person said, you need to give your source. It's great that there is an awesome web application call Kwout. Kwout is extremely to use, and will allow you to take snips certain parts of a website, then allow you to upload it to Flickr, Tumblr, or your own website. There is a bookmarklet at Kwout which will make things even easier. Just jump unto the site you want to 'Kwout', and click the bookmarklet. Then, drag your mouse to clip out the section of the website you're interested in. Kwout will take care of the rest.
Kwout is 'supposed' to be used to quote others, but I've found that it could also be used to save an image. Sure, the 'Save Image As' button might be faster, but Kwout will allow you to mess around with the borders making it round or adding a shadow behind the image.
Try it out. You'll be surprised how much you love it.
Yesterday, I ranted about how Windows 7 might be Microsoft's last chance to keep and get more users. Today, I'd like to talk about the type of things that Microsoft should do to make Vienna something that others would want to buy.
Dear Microsoft,
Here are a couple of thing you'll want to do if you want people to buy Windows Vienna.
Don't rush. It's alright. We'll wait a few more years for Vienna to come us. Just promise us that Vienna will be compatible with everything, and that it works great. Please. Take your time. I don't care if Apple released a new operating system every year. Take things nice a slow, and remember to make sure that the operating system works. We'll wait. Don't worry. Just don't disappoint us.
Stability over user interface. Work on the stability. Pretty please? If your operating is stable, and works wonderfully, I swear I'll buy it and tell everyone else to buy it. I don't care if it looks like something from 1960. I don't care if the user interface looks like a 3 year old got crazy with a crayon. I don't care about that stuff. Give me a good solid operating system, and we can worry about the user interface later. Besides, I can skin it whatever what I want.
Don't get caught up in what others are doing. I don't care if Apple has Time Machine. I don't care if they have Spaces. I don't care if you can get Compiz for Linux. You don't need to waste valuable time working on things like that. Work on compatibility and stability. I'll install some programs later on that makes up for the lack of a Windows Time Machine function. No offense, but you guys aren't in much of a position to compete with others. Get a solid fan base. Then compete with Apple. There is no point in copying Apple software if you can't get it right. Just stick with the fundamentals of the operating system and we'll progress from there.
Trash the UAC. I don't know if you've caught onto this yet...but the User Account Control is the most annoying thing ever devised. This pops up on just about everything. Don't make me click more then once if I want to delete something. I know I want to delete it. You don't need to challenge my intellectual competence by making me confirm the same thing over and over again. If you guys don't want to trash the system completely, then at least make it easier to disable the UAC for certain applications. What is this? It takes eleven steps and the command prompt? No thank you.
Forget Vista. Forget about the mistakes you make with Vista. Pretend it was Windows 2.0. Pretend Vista never existed. Please, whatever you do, don't make Vienna look exactly like Vista. It would only bring back horrible memories of compatibility and driver issues. No one wants to revisit that horrid land. No one. Start off fresh. Work on the important things.
Don't create so many Versions. Don't confuse us. Most people don't know whether or not they should get Home Basic for the cheap price, Home Premium for the Media Center and Aero, Business for Shadow Copy, or Ultimate for everything else. This isn't supposed to be a hard thing. Just create one operating system with everything that you're going to give out. Don't split it up into 10 different versions in hopes of earning more money. Let's not be greedy alright?
DRM? Don't even think about it. No one likes DRM. Just get rid of it. Besides, with Amazon and Yahoo! (Hopefully) jumping on the DRM free bandwagon, it's time for you guys to hitch up those slacks and jump on. DRM music is dead. Incorporating DRM into the operating system is only going to encourage users to crack it. Why waste our time? Just take it out. Take it out, and watch the sale numbers rise...
This isn't Crysis. We aren't all hardcore gamers. Windows Vienna should not be something that requires a high end computer to run. It should not be something that eats up half my RAM when I boot up. It is not something in which we are on a mission to snipe the Emperor of China. This is supposed to be a piece of software that everyone is supposed to use.
If you guys do all these things, Microsoft will no longer be a laughingstock. People will no longer believe that the inner workings of Microsoft is being carried out by a bunch of monkeys with vests. Do these things, and you'll have many users happy. This will save your company.
Recently, images and a video of Windows 7 had been released on a Chinese Website. It depicted Windows 7 (Vienna) in build 6519, and many people have been talking about how things are going for Microsoft. The images of Windows 7 look exactly like Vista, which is making a lot of people hesitate, because it doesn't look like Microsoft has made any revolutions to its current operating system. Is Microsoft doomed? Find out more after the jump.
I believe that this is Microsoft's last chance to impress its users and save the company. Everything could rely on whether or not users are satisfied with Vienna. At the moment, Microsoft still has many supporters; most of which are using Windows XP. They are still loyal to Microsoft because they believe at after the fumble with Vista, Microsoft still might make a comeback with Vienna. But if Vienna fails, most if not all the users of Windows would move onto other operating systems. Linux is only getting better. Leopard couldn't seem any hotter. There are many choices for a different operating system, and if Microsoft just can't satisfy its users, the users won't hesitate to move on.
Windows is no longer the only Gaming machine. Both Apple and Linux programmers understand that their operating systems have a small game deficiency , and they are working on fixing it. Plus, game developers also know that there is a huge number of fans who are using Linux and Leopard. They will be working on game compatibility between operating systems. Windows also isn't the easiest to use, nor the most secure operating system out there. Leopard and Linux(s) are only getting easier to use, and not only are they quite secure; they look beautiful. You might think that Aero looks great, but once you see Compiz for Linux, you'll be blown away.
Microsoft is getting looked down more and more, and most of it is due to Vista. I'm not saying that Vista is completely horrible, because it is alright but the problem is that there are many people out there who do hate Vista, including PC World. These people who are bad mouthing Vista are the ones who hurt the company the most. Not everyone is tech savy, and even those who aren't tech savy know that 'Vista Sucks' because of the large number of times they hear it. They might have heard it from their friends, they might have heard it on the radio. But they know that there are people who don't like Vista, so they don't want to buy Vista. They have never tried it themselves, and probably never will try it due to the influence of others. Microsoft is losing so many potential customers when companies as well as popular tech journalists say things about Vista.
Because people are already sad at the sorry state Vista is in, there won't be many who actually stick around to see if Vienna is any better. Microsoft still has a year to go on this project, but from the way things look; it doesn't seem too good for Vienna. Vienna was supposed to be released in 2010, but it seems that Microsoft had been rushed by the amount of unhappy users to push the release date back. I think that was a big mistake. There is no point trying to finish something sooner then you would normally do; just to please the users.
Trust us. We aren't going to be happy if you release Vienna early and it sucks. We're not going to be happy that we need to stay with Vista until Windows 8 comes out. We'd be less happy if we needed to stay with XP for another 5 years while you get Windows 8 ready. This is your last chance Microsoft. Let's get it right this time.
Microsoft, I do hope you get Vienna right. This is your last chance, so get it right.
Everyone chats. Everyone. The only people who don't chat are those poor souls who don't have internet access. There are so many ways to chat; you've got AIM, MSN, Yahoo! Chat, Google Chat, ICQ, IRC, Skype, and much more. However, when using any of those, the process of setting up a chatroom is quite complicated. Much more complicated then using a simple site like ChatMaker.NET. This is one of the easiest ways to begin a chat with a group of friends, and it works quite well.
All you need to do is type in the name of the chatroom, and you'll be sent to the chatroom. If there is no chatroom with the name, the site will automatically create one for you. It's really easy to use, and I only have one thing to complain about; and that's the fact that the page refreshes, and you need to scroll down to see what you've typed. Regardless of that small obstacle, ChatMaker.NET is probably the easier way or stating a chatroom with a couple of friends. Just start a chatroom, and send them the URL. There aren't that many people who use ChatMaker at the moment, so most of the rooms would be empty. Keep in mind that others can read everything you type; if they manage to find the name of your chatroom.
Many people have talked about this subject, but the matter isn't over until a nobody talks about it.
Google knows everything about you. If you have used their search engine, they know everything you searched. They know what you're interested in. If you use their calender or docs web applications; Google knows about all sorts of things that are going on in your life. The more you use Google, they more they know about you, which is what many users are worried about. Is Google secretly selling your information to some organization that is out to get you because you honked your car horn at them during a traffic jam? Should Google be keeping your personal information private? (For those of you who don't know, many companies do a Google search about you when you decide to apply. What sort of things are they going to find?) There are so many people out there who are afraid of the things Google is capable of doing because they have all this information in their hands.
I don't think Google is going to try and do something that would screw everyone over. They are a very large company, but they are not the only company. They there is still some competition with Yahoo!, and if Google does something wrong with our personal information, Yahoo! is going to get a huge boost of users. Which bring me to my second point. There are other places to search for information. There are tons of other places that could potentially screw you over. Every single time you submit anything on the internet, it could be used against you. If you broke the law, and the police get a warrant; they could get all that information from Google as well as any other site that has your personal information (Facebook, Twitter, your Blog, etc.). It's not like Google is just there handing out your information for free because they try to keep it private.
Google keeping all your information isn't exactly bad. With more information about the popular searches, Google could add different functions which would allow you to find sites that you're more interested in. Besides, it's not like you could force Google to get rid of your information. The only way you could keep your private information a secret is if you boycott the internet, and that's not something you'd want to do.
So, Google isn't all that bad. If they did do something, you'd be sure to hear about it because thousands upon thousands of users would be complaining. Google isn't a bad company. They do so many things for you, and only want to make your browsing experience the best it can be. Conclusion? If you're going to break the law, don't do something stupid like searching "How to Make Bombs" on Google. Other than that; Google on.
Now don't get me wrong. I love playing MMORPGs, and spend many a night up late smashing that troll on the mountainside with my wooden stick. I really enjoy playing MMORPGs, but I've found that my love for them have slowly dwindled. I'm starting to think that it could be possible for MMORPGs to start to fade. It's not the game itself, because the games are always exciting. It's the people who play the games. And it's not everyone who plays; it's only some. They ruin the gaming experience for everyone and make others feel like they don't want to play anymore. It only takes a few select individuals to ruin the games for everyone. There are spammers, scammers, hackers, trolls, and every other disgusting creatures you can think of. They ruin the entire experience of playing a roleplaying game, and they are going to end up being the reasons that less people play MMORPGs.
Spammers: These guys are everywhere; from forums to social networking sites. They are even in games, which is a bust. I mean, who wants to hear someone repeating the same thing over and over again? I've got a message to everyone who has ever spammed. We f-ing heard you to first time. Shut up. It seems that many players seem to think that the more you spam the longer your e-penis because that's exactly what they do. They spam like there is no tomorrow. This is especially in the MMORPGs that have a marketplace. You'll jump into the marketplace on a popular channel, and see huge blocks of text everywhere saying "SELLING XXX! 5 GOLD" or something like that. Except they use more '!' and '@'. A lot more. I might be neutral about this if the spammers kept their business in the marketplace, but they don't. These people will spam everywhere. When you're training, when you're raiding, I've even had someone try to sell 'Free Cash' when I was casually chatting with some friends. These people need to be stabbed by the 'Sword of a Thousand Truths'. Seriously.
Scammers: Way to take advantage of the newbies. Scamming has become more and more popular because it's easy to get items from the new players. Even if a scammer was dealing with a veteran, the scammer would still be able to get some stuff by resorting to the old "I'm a hot girl. I'll cyber with you for 1,000 gold". And it works. I just feel bad for the new players because I highly doubt they would want to keep playing a game in which everyone tries to take advantage of them. They don't want to be exploited. So stop trying to get whatever rare items they have in their pants.
Hackers: Another way of pissing people off. Hacking in a single player game is alright, because your actions don't affect others. In an online game, whenever you hack, you're making thousands of people angry because you have an advantage. Plus, some script kiddies are extremely annoying, and 'hack' by trying to kill you or mess you up in anyway possible. Oh, and most of you guys can't even call yourself hackers. You don't hack. You guys are script kiddies, so don't make it look like it's a hard thing to do. Anyone could get the instructions for hacking a game, but we don't do it because we want to play the game fairly, and not ruin the experience. I'm sorry to saw that you guys have failed the point of online gaming, because it certainly isn't to cheat your way through.
Trolls: These guys are just idiots that everyone meets. These are the ones who start swearing for no good reason, and the people who just want to pick fights with you. But they don't know how to argue. The smartest response you're get out of them is "Your Mom". Yeah. "Your Mom" is the best thing they could come up with. What's worse is that these guys seem to thinking that making you hate the game is their job. They try their hardest to annoy you into quitting the game. They do everything in their power to make you want to invent something which would allow you to punch these guys through your screen.
With all these types of people, playing single player games seem a lot more inviting. At the rate AI is developing at the moment, it won't take long before AI is somewhat close to human intelligence. It might take a while, but it's worth the wait. Someone should create a game in which you can play popular MMORPGs but not see certain people that others have deemed to not be a good user. These players should just be blocked from the game.
These people are the reason that I'm playing MMORPGs less. I know it might be stupid to stop playing MMORPGs because of these people, but it is quite hard to enjoy yourself when most people are acting like idiots. I know that there are many game Admins who are trying to get rid of these types of people, but it's extremely hard to get rid of them all. They just keep coming back. With any popular MMORPG, you'll see spammers, scammers, hackers, and trolls. Maybe it's time to move on to a new type of game. Maybe it's time to up the security and ban these people. Maybe it's time a genius creates a game that gets rid of all these trolls.
Whatever might happen, I feel that certain people are pushing people away from playing MMORPGs. Until those people are gone, I guess I'm back to playing with consoles and bots. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
If any of us wanted to watch Television on our computer, we would probably have to get a TV Tuner. If we were too cheap to buy a TV tuner, then we'd stick it to old YouTube. But that's not good enough. I want to watch television, and I want to watch it now. Thanks to a nifty free program called AnyTV you can watch many television shows on your computer. You don't need to register or buy any additional hardware. Just download the program, find what you want to watch, and start watching. These numbers are just an idea of the amount of shows you could be watching.
2630+ Online TV
6910+ Video clips
4750+ Online Radio
Not only that, but you can even get shows from different countries. Although AnyTV might not be as popular or as great as Joost, it's still a great start and a wonderful application for those who just want to sit down and watch some television on their computer. Shame it's only for Windows. At least it's free.
The new Macbook Air is out, but there aren't that many people who don't want to buy it because it's too expensive or too thin. They are wrong. You need to buy this laptop. Here is why.
1. Show Off We all know you want to do this. After purchasing a Macbook Air, the first thing you need to do is to go up to a friend who still has the original Macbook, and show them that you are the man. Get right up in their face and be like "Dude. I have a frickening Macbook Air. What's that piece of crap you're carrying around? What? Is that a Macbook? Heh, when was the last time you were in an Apple store? 1985?" Show them the amount of money you have. Show them that you are better then they are. Show them who's king of the neighborhood.
2. Pretend you are a Bomber You know what the first thing people would think if you walked into an airport pulling a metal object out of a manila envelope? "He's got a bomb!" The police would come rushing over along with the bomb squad and you'd create this huge scare. Then, suddenly pull out your Macbook Air. The reactions would be awesome.
3. Send rude messages to your neighbors. I know you've got that rowdy neighbor who is deaf and plays his music like his stereo system is half way around the globe. You want to tell him to shut up, but he has locked his door. The solution? Either type a nice 'Shut the fuck up' into Appleworks or get a picture of whatever-the-hell-you-think-is-gross and slip the computer under the door. Of course, you'd probably lose the laptop, but it was worth it.
4. No Games Not a gaming laptop, but no worry. You don't needs games to keep you happy! You don't need to waste time playing useless games when you could be working on that new project that your boss assigned you. Your boss would be so proud.
5. No Optical Drive Another great thing. Without an Optical Drive, you don't need to waste your money buying all those DVDs that you watch just one time. You don't waste money on the newest games. You don't waste money on antivirus and productivity software. You will save so much money that you'll end up being able to pay for the computer just using your savings.
6. Play in the dark There is a backlit keyboard on the laptop. What does that mean for you? It means you'll be able to stay up at 3 o'clock in the morning working on a last minute assignment, and you'll actually be able to see what you're typing. Sure, you'll probably damage your eyes beyond repair, but at least you get your work done.
7. 5 Hour Battery Time You'll only get 5 hours our of this battery. This is the best thing ever, because you're not going to want to waste those 5 hours. You only have 5 hours to do something, and wasting your time browsing sites like Digg or playing around with a flash game isn't the smartest idea if you have something due the next day. Having only 5 hours of battery life is the best way to improve productivity.
8. Hide your porn. Imagine this. You're in your cubicle, browsing porn on your Macbook Air, when all of a sudden, someone runs into the room yelling "The boss is coming! Someone told him people have been looking at porn during work! He's coming to confiscate all laptops". If you owned a large laptop, you'd be screwed over, because you would have anywhere to hide it. But with the Macbook Air, it's a totally different story. You could hide it just about anywhere.
-You can hide the laptop inside your shirt and people wouldn't even know unless you arched your back. -You can stuff this inside a binder or in a stack of manila folders. Yeah. Always keep manila folders around. -That really thin desk drawer? Hello new best friend. - Sit on it. Apple makes tough products. Don't be afraid to sit on your Macbook Air. Remember, it's saving your job.
9. Be the center of attention Everyone knows this laptop is expensive. Everyone knows that whoever owns it makes over a million a year. Carrying a Macbook Air around is like strutting into a soup kitchen with Bill Gates on your back. Everyone will worship someone with that much money. Be that 'someone'. Be envied. Be loved. Be the first one to be robbed.
10. Spoil yourself. You deserve this top of the line laptop. You deserve to have this thin sexy product. It is made for you, and even has your name carved at the bottom. Don't hesitate to get this. You deserve it. You've done so many great things, so why shouldn't you get something like this? It's the newest, thinnest, coolest laptop in the market. Spoil yourself. Get this.
Have that $3,000 saved up from your kid's college fund? It's time to use it. Don't worry. Your kid won't mind. They will never stop thanking you.
The RIAA doesn't seem to know priorities. Instead of patching up their website, they are busy suing everyone who has access to the internet. Genius.
A Hacker has recently used a simple SQL injection to wipe the RIAA website clean. This all started out at Reddit where someone posted the link to a really slow SQL query which, if clicked on, would slow down the server. So, what started out as just a small prank has ended up wiping out the RIAA database. Just awesome.
I hope the RIAA realizes how much people hate them now... Yep. Hope so.
YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the internet, and its something that everyone knows about. Your grandparents, your baby sister, your parents, and even your dog know about YouTube. However, we all know that there are many websites out there that are much better than YouTube quality wise, but YouTube still is the place to be discovered. If you've created your own video, chances are that you'll upload the video to YouTube first; just to get more people to see it. We all know that YouTube is the best place to upload your videos, but is YouTube the best place to watch it?
The buttons at the top will allow you to download, share, or add the video to your favorites. A great function is that not only can you download the video as a '.flv' you can also save it an AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, 3GP2, WMV, EXE or zipped EXE. When you click to start a video, the video will show up on the screen and begin playing. There is a little bit of lag, but it shouldn't be unbearable. You can also change the website theme by clicking the 'Theme' button on the top of the screen. I think the point of iDesktop was to provide a fun innovative and great looking way to browse and download YouTube videos. Another great feature is 'dim'. To enable this, just move to the top of the screen, and click the button that says 'show settings'. Click that, and enable 'dim'. With 'dim enabled, the background will turn a darker color when you play your videos, so you won't be distracted by all the images.
