Once in a while, I come up with ideas about what to post here. Today, I wanted to share some interesting photos I’ve taken over time. The one below was taken back on 12 Jan 2010. My family and I were just coming back from a shore visit on Catalina Island. I shot this with a Nikon D5000 camera.
Paradise at sea (by Forlanda)
Here’s a very motivational and inspiring documentary about common folks and elite runners, and the challenges they faced in the quest to do a marathon.
There is a site called animoto.com which allows anyone ot take a set of pictures and turn them into a dazzling collage of images that has life Below is a sample of what you can do with it if you use the free version:
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Apple has been known to push the envelope on innovation. Their releases of personal computers long ago (back in the 1980s) with the Apple II/IIe and especially the Macintosh were innovative for their time. However, because they only ran on a particular platform controlled by Apple, the IBMPC compatible with Microsoft Windows operating system quickly took over.
By the 1990s, the only people that used apples were the education sectors, those with special multimedia application requirements, and the die-hard Apple fans. Most users went on the PC/Microsoft Windows bandwagon. Almost every electronic store you go to you will see various PC brands like Dell, HP, Compaq, Acer, ASUS, eMachine, Toshiba, and IBM.
I see the same pattern with Apple again. This time it is with the iPhone; and this time the battle is against Google’s Android operating system which is run by many smart phone platforms. The race is starting to heat up with the recent release and highly marketed DROID phone from Verizon. Most recently, there has been very strong buzz around Google’s Nexus One.
From what I can see, features and capabilities that the iPhone have the Android phones also have. Right now Apple touts over 100,00 apps for the iphone, while the Android has tens of throusands; but because of its open architecture, I foresee Android applications quickly surpassing the iPhone in application count. And from the standpoint of availability, the Android operating system is more available from more phone service providers than the iPhone, which is limited only to AT&T.
I predict that within three years, the Android-based cell phones will completely dominate the smart phone market. The iPhone will continue to thrive, but only for those die-hard Apple fans. Check back in 2013!
Have you ever wished you can save some of those YouTube videos for later viewing? This is especially true if you plan on going somewhere with your laptop with no Internet access.
If your answer is yes, then read on…
There is a file conversion site–zamzar.com–that can actually convert YouTube video postings to any video format your computer can play. All you need to do is open your browser to http://www.zamzar.com. There make sure to do the following:
If you have several YouTube videos you wish to save for later viewing, repeat the above steps for each and everyone of them.
Have fun!
Warning: Some videos are copyrighted. Be careful not to contribute to such illegal activities.
From the factory, the Droid comes with the following built-in core applications:
The unit has 3 desktops you can fill with shortcuts to the above applications and other applications you may install at some point in the future.
The center desktop has the following preset shortcuts:
All core applications are quickly explained below.
Alarm Clock
Provides a clock and alarming features which can be set in various ways. You can add a single alarm, a periodic daily alarm, or an alarm that goes off on certain days of the week.
Amazon MP3
You can browse top music albums or tracks. You can also browse by genre. When you find what you like, you can purchase it.
Browser
This is the Internet browser. The browser is location aware. Through its GPS function, it knows where it is.
Calculator
Provides basic calculator functionality, including some advanced math functions like sin, cos, tan, ln, log, factorial, pi, exponential, power, and square root.
Calendar
Your Google calendar will show here.
Camera
Provides your basic camera function with still pictures and video capabilities. The camera can shoot 5 megapixels pictures.
Car Home
The GPS Navigation system. Has voice command capabilities so that if you wish to go to a particular address, you can say “directions to…”. Aside from navigation, you can view contacts and the map here.
Contacts
Your contact list resides here. Any accounts you synchronize with that contains contact information will go here.
Corporate Calendar
If you synch up with MS Exchange, your corporate calendar will show here.
Provides access to e-mail accounts.
This is a Facebook application to access your Facebook page on the web. The interface is pretty straight forward.
Gallery
Provides a means to view pictures and videos in an easy to follow format.
Gmail
Application for Google’s web e-mail–gmail.
Maps
This is just like google maps, but it is location aware. It will show the Droid’s present location on the map.
Market
This is just like the iPhone’s app store. The market is where you can get free and paid for applications for the Droid.
Messaging
TEXTing application.
Music
Music playing application.
Phone
By the way, I forgot that the Droid is a phone too.
Settings
This is where most of the Droid customization and settings are done.
Talk
This is an application for Google’s IM called Talk.
Visual VM
Allows user to view voice mail and source of voice mail. Voice mails can be managed through the application. This service cost money to use.
Voice Search
Allows user to do searches on anything using voice commands.
YouTube
This is a Droid YouTube application.
Recently I had the opportunity to evaluate a DROID. Aside from some very useful and impressive core applications, I found these free jewels in DROID’s application market:
Do you know of a free Droid application that isn’t on this list but you think is worth mentioning? If so, let us know; leave a comment.
I’ve been hoping to get invited to beta test Google’s new online application called “Wave”. Well, after submitting two requests over a period of a month, I finally got an invitation!
I am now one of the lucky few who will get a chance to test drive what could be one of the most paradigm changing revolutions in our Internet times.
As I go through the use of Wave I will post my opinion of it and it possible applications, and how this new communications medium can possibly impact the way we do things online or with our daily lives.
If this technology takes off, it could mean smaller book stores. Barnes & Noble or Borders as we know them, may end up looking more like coffee shops than a book store.
You may also see small “mom & pop” book shops sprout out with a drive through for book pick ups, considering the space requirement will be significantly smaller and provided that the machine is relatively affordable for businesses.
Imagine also if libraries get some funding from the government to provide this service. They can get any books available online provided paper supplies are available!
This is also excellent for people who wants to self-publish. See the video below. You don’t have to have a publisher publish your book; you can do it yourself.
It would be interesting how this evolves or develops in the next two to three years.
Most people with very minimal computer background use their web browser without thinking about web safety. They just expect their computer to do its job. Well, there is more than meets the eye when surfing the Internet, especially if you are using someone elses computer or a computer shared by many other people. Here’s what I mean.
When you are browsing the Internet, your web browser leaves a trail of where you’ve been, what you’ve typed, what you’ve seen, and the various information you’ve been entering in web forms. In Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), it even remembers the state of you browser so that if it crashes, you can be restored to the last state of your browsing activity.
Now think about who could potentially see this if you are using a public computer or a shared computer! This is an identity theft scenario just waiting to happen.
IE8's Safety
This is where IE8 Safety feature comes into play. Microsoft has updated IE8 with Internet safety as a major change. As an example, one of the key things you will notice is that IE8 has an InPrivate Browsing feature–a way for you to browse without leaving a trace. Note that IE8 has no Phishing Filter as it has been replace by SmartScreen Filter.
Clicking this menu item will bring up the Delete Browsing History dialog box where you can select the specific items in your browsing history you want to delete. The options include:
If you are paranoid like me, you’ll want to make sure that any trace of your browsing history is truly deleted by making sure you check all of the above and uncheck the first one–Preserve Favorite Website Data.
InPrivate Browsing
Selecting this menu item or pressing CTRL-SHIFT-P, will open a new IE8 window running in “InPrivate” browsing mode. This means that your browsing activity isn’t leaving any trails behind. Be advised that this InPrivate protection is only in effect for this window. By default, IE8 will open in its normal mode.
You should use this mode when using public or shared computers to prevent others from finding information about your web activity.
This is basically a report of which sites you’ve visited showing if cookies were accepted or blocked. Depending on your browser’s privacy policy setting, you may or may not have any reports of cookies being accepted by your system.
Privacy Report
If you select one of the sites in your privacy report, you will notice that the Summary button becomes enabled, and if you click it you will get the following dialog box:
Privacy Report Summary
If you decide that the current browser privacy policy isn’t sufficient or you simply wish to change it, you can click the Settings button Privacy Report dialog box. When you do you get this:
Privacy Policy Settings
As you can see, it can get pretty involved just trying to make heads or tails of Privacy Policy. Suffice it to say that in this window you can control how cookies are allowed or disallowed on your computer. You can also control the pop-up blocker and control InPrivate browsing settings. I’ll cover this area in more detail in another article.
When you select Safety then InPrivate Filtering from the command bar, you toggle on and off this feature. What exactly is InPrivate Filtering? It is a feature that allows you to block the sharing of information about the sites you visit to third party content providers. This information can be used to generate a profile about you which then can be used for targetted advertisements.
You can choose to automatically block, choose which ones to block/allow, or to simply have it off by selecting the InPrivate Filtering Settings menu item from the Safety command bar drop down menu. The window for InPrivate Settings is shown below.
InPrivate Filtering Settings
The feature activates when the site you are visiting is secure–meaning it is using HTTPS in the URL. When you select this from the menu (under Safety in the command bar), IE8 will bring up a little pop up window that provides information about the site. The example below show what I got when I went to the logon page of gmail.
Security Report on gmail
As you can see, it provides information about who the certificate of authority (CA) is and other information related to the site’s certificates. Typically, the CA is the one vouching for the sites identity. In this case the CA is Verisign–a very reputable CA company.
There isn’t really much information about this function in IE8. The closest thing on this I can find from Microsoft is an article on “What are International Domain Names?”
This item appears to be disabled or grayed out all the time. So there was no way to determine exactly what it does. Although, I’m guessing that if a site is an international site where the domain name can be shown in its native language, then this feature might allow you to show it in its original form or standard text encoding.
This appears to be a security feature because it is possible for text encoding to look like a legitimate looking domain when, in fact, it is a foreign site!
You’ll probably not even use this, but it is good to know what it may be used for.
This is IE8’s replacement for the Phishing Filter that was introduced in IE7. When it is on, IE8 will send the website you are visiting to Microsoft to check to see if it is in the list of phishing or malicious software distribution sites. It it is, you will get an RED background in the address bar and you will get a block message from IE8. You can ignore the message and continue to the bad site or you can go to your home page (recommended).
If you suspect a site is a suspicious or potentially malicious site, you can submit a site to Microsoft for review by selecting Check This Website from the SmartScreen Filter submenu.
Although it isn’t recommended, you can turn off this feature by selecting Turn Off SmartScreen Filter from the submenu.
If you visit a site that is obviously a malicious one, you can simply report this abuse by selecting Report Unsafe Website from the SmartScreen Filter submenu.
As you can see, this is a very powerful feature of IE8 to help protect users from malicious sites that are there to potentially steal your identity or to spread malware to your computer.
This feature will navigate you out of the page you are currently viewing to Microsoft’s update site. There Microsoft will assess what updates your computer needs and you can opt to install them.
I recommend installing critical security updates at the very minimum as these will close any vulnerabilities your computer might have from hackers who will exploit them.
IE8 is a major change from the previous versions due to heavy focus on security. The Safety feature of IE8 is a testament to that.