TechLifeWeb

Sites that I found interesting for January 5th 2009 through January 6th 2009:

• After an Agonizing Wait, Picasa for Mac Finally Arrives - Google announced Monday that Picasa for the Mac, a free desktop application for editing, organizing and sharing digital photos, is now available as a public beta through Google Labs.
• Time Spent Watching Video Jumps 40% in One Year « NewTeeVee - The amount of time U.S. Internet users spend watching video is up an impressive 40 percent year over year.
• How to wash your car properly - Not exactly tech but interesting to pass along.

Sites that I found interesting for December 30th 2008 through January 5th 2009:

• The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World - Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. And they are leaving a lot of marketers behind. Article in the Wall Street Journal.
• Long-term personal data storage - Digital content - both the media AND the format - can become unreadable. So how do you keep your pictures, music, videos, documents and more around for decades? Here's how.
• Gone Phishing - If you receive a direct message or a direct message email notification that redirects to what looks like Twitter.com—don't sign in. Look closely at the URL because it could be a scam.
• Marissa Mayer on the future of Google - Interview: "It's really important to move beyond just keywords"
• MD5 considered harmful today - We have identified a vulnerability in the Internet Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used to issue digital certificates for secure websites. As a proof of concept we executed a practical attack scenario and successfully created a rogue Certification Authority (CA) certificate trusted by all common web browsers. This certificate allows us to impersonate any website on the Internet, including banking and e-commerce sites secured using the HTTPS protocol.
• Mouseover DOM Inspector v2.0 Help - The Mouseover DOM Inspector, or MODI for short, is a favelet (also known as a bookmarklet) that allows you to view and manipulate the DOM of a web page simply by mousing around the document.

Sites that I found interesting for December 22nd 2008 through December 27th 2008:

• My Favorite Podcast Episodes of 2008 - Rhonda Tipton has a nice list of podcast episodes she enjoyed during '08. If you are a developer you might want to check them out.
• » twidroid - the twitter client application for android mobile phones - twidroid is the first full-featured twitter client for android mobile phones
• Find Torrents Of Your Favorite TV Shows With TED - Torrent Episode Downloader is basically a tool which scours the internet for torrents of TV shows that you ask it to and then lets you download them using a torrent client. TED does not download the files itself, nor does it host the files. It only searches for them.

Earlier this month my family and I went to Disneyland, California. One of the highlights in recent years is Innoventions in Tomorrowland. Located right next to Autopia (old timers will remember it as the America Sings building) Innoventions showcases technologies that HP and Microsoft are building for the homes of the future.

I’ve read about Microsoft Surface in recent months. Surface is essentially a coffee table with a big multi-touch enabled screen. You interact with digital things just like you would the physical. My favorite part of tech like this is how fast kids just ‘get it.’ No asking how or what, kids just start using it naturally.

In this short video we put together a video puzzle with fun results:

Sites that I found interesting for December 11th 2008 through December 19th 2008:

• Access more memory, even on a 32-bit system - No matter how much memory you have in your PC, you may not be getting the most out of your installed RAM.
• Form Bookmarklets - Makes the browser ignore web site requests to not remember passwords.

  Some sites, including many banks and a few other sites such as Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Passport, tell browsers not to remember passwords for visitors using autocomplete="off". This bookmarklet makes the browser ignore autocomplete="off" temporarily, allowing you to save passwords even on sites that use autocomplete="off".

• Oppo Readies Universal Blu-ray Player - Value video products manufacturer Oppo Digital said it is preparing to enter the Blu-ray Disc player category in a big way, with a fully featured “universal” unit supporting, DVD video, DVD-Audio, and SACD, in addition to Blu-ray Discs with up to 1080p/24Hz output.

Ever want to use the RSS feed from your Facebook status? Well, this is ridiculously  harder to find than it should be so I thought I’d do a quick post. Note, this for the ‘new’ Facebook. Things changed a while ago and instructions found elsewhere no longer work.

1. Log into Facebook

2. Click on this link: http://www.new.facebook.com/minifeed.php?filter=11

3. Scroll way down. On the right-hand side you will see a blue (should be the standard orange but I digress) rss icon and the words My Status. That is your RSS feed.

Next, advanced users might want the feed to say "wrote a new blog post" instead of "Scott wrote a new blog post":

1. Copy the link to your rss feed

2. Go to this Yahoo! pipe and past in your feed:  Facebook Status RSS Feed Filter

3. You can then select Get as RSS from the options list.

Note: If you want the RSS feed for your Facebook Notifications, see this link: How do I subscribe to my Facebook Notifications?

Thanks to Beaudreaux’s Bayou for digging up the link to the minifeed.

Sites that I found interesting for December 9th 2008 through December 10th 2008:

• Find the right Blu-ray player for you - According to the early reports, Blu-ray is faring well this holiday season and it's not hard to see why. With standalone player prices finally slipping below $250 and more popular movies available, Blu-ray is now a solid option for those who want the best image quality from their home theater. If you're looking to go Blu over the next few weeks, here's a roundup of recent Blu-ray coverage on CNet to help you make your choice.
• Livemocha: Learn Languages Online - English, Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, 学会英语 - Haven't tried this. Looks interesting if you want to learn a language.
• Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC Lens Review - The length of the zoom range is almost as remarkable as that of the lens's name itself, with the 15x ratio covering everything from a 28mm equivalent wideangle to a 420mm equivalent telephoto. This is unprecedented in terms of SLR optics, and is clearly aimed at users upgrading from superzoom digicams who require a similar focal length range without the inconvenience of changing lenses.Version for Nikon DSLR Cameras
  and Canon DSLR Cameras

Super slick NASA preview of the long-delayed mission to salvage the Hubble Space Telescope, now scheduled for the first half of 2009.

Added: December 09, 2008
Duration: 03:59
Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

Sites that I found interesting for December 7th 2008 through December 8th 2008:

• London from above, at night - Very cool pictures.
• Five Best Media Center Applications -
• Apple Shuts Down iPod Interoperability Effort - Apple is invoking the DMCA in an effort to block people from using iPods with Linux.

Sites that I found interesting for December 4th 2008

• CPI Inflation Calculator - Ever wonder how much $1000 1950's money would be today? This is for times like that.
• i-nigma - the fast track to mobile internet - qrcode readers for all kinds of phones. I got it to work (slowly) on the Blackberry Pearl. You can also use your phone to go to: www.i-nigma.mobi
• P8tch - Think of it as a TinyURL you can wear. Each two-by-four-inch, velcro-backed p8tch has a Mysterious Commando Design on the top, and a QRCode on the bottom.