here's our definitive list of technologies we're looking forward to seeing.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127152/article.html
Friday, September 29, 2006
C++ Optimizations
"A few C++ code optimizations, we should be reminded of from time to time. "These optimizations are fairly easy to apply to existing code and in some cases can result in big speedups. Remember the all-important maxim though, the fastest code is code that isn't called." -digg
http://www.custard.org/~andrew/optimize.php
http://www.custard.org/~andrew/optimize.php
500+ Computer ebooks are all FREE
"Free 500+ ebooks include free ebook VB.NET, free ebook PHP, free ebook MySQL, free ebook Java/Javascript and many free programming ebooks and free computer ebooks. All ebooks are free, no registration, no email, no login." --digg
http://www.ebooklobby.com/index.php?cid=6
http://www.ebooklobby.com/index.php?cid=6
geek tips!
Geek to Live: The 100th installment
by Gina Trapani
It was a little more than a year ago that we decided to make Lifehacker into something more than just a link blog: a source of original feature articles on software and productivity that you won't find anywhere else. I chose the title "Geek to Live" for my twice-weekly feature post because it embodies what Lifehacker's all about: a tech-centric approach to solving common every day problems. (Oh yeah, and it's the site tagline, too.)
Right now you're reading the 100th installment of Geek to Live, which has spanned every one of my personal nerdy obsessions over the past year: from home networking, Firefox, and data security to personal finance, netiquette and web publishing. A lot happens in the course of a year, so today I've gone back and updated the dustier GTL installments and rounded up a giant look back at the series so far.
Home servers
How to set up a personal home web server (Sept 2005) - The debut of Geek to Live prompted the most reader questions (which I still get via email today) of them all. Updated the text for Apache version 2.2 and added further reading links. Enabled comments.
Control your home computer from anywhere (Sept 2005) - Using VNC, you can drive your home PC or Mac from any internet-connected computer. Comments now enabled.
Tech support with UltraVNC SingleClick (Sept 2006) - Remote control Mom's computer using a standalone VNC client you can email to her.
Host a personal wiki on your home computer (Sept 2005) - Using Instiki, a great beginner's wiki. Comments enabled.
Set up your personal Wikipedia (March 2006) - Using MediaWiki, a more advanced wiki package. Comments enabled.
Access a home server behind a router/firewall (Sept 2005) A primer on port-forwarding through a home router/firewall. Comments enabled.
Assign a domain name to your home web server (Sept 2005) - Use a dynamic DNS service to register a memorable domain name for your home server (be it VNC, FTP, Web or Instiki.) Comments enabled.
Finding free stuff
6 ways to find reusable media (Aug 2006) - Homage to the public domain, Creative Commons and the Free Documentation License.
Find free music on the web (Nov 2005) - Your mostly-legal MP3's await.
Networking
Fast, one wire network (IP over FireWire) (May 2006) - This won't work in Vista, so enjoy it while you can.
Create your own virtual private network with Hamachi (Sept 2006) - Free VPN for secure file-sharing.
Set up a home wireless network (March 2006) - Send this to your brother-in-law who wants to set up wifi.
Web publishing
Improve your web site with Google Analytics (Sept 2006) - Diving into the web stats package you want on your site.
Have a say in what Google says about you (Feb 2006) - Create the online legacy you control.
Write effectively for the Web (Nov 2005) - Physician, heal thyself.
Netiquette
The art of asking (August 2006) - Applies IRL as well as online.
How to deal with Internet Meanies (March 2006) - Develop troll immunity.
Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments (Sept 2005) - On being a good commenter.
Passwords and Security
Choose (and remember) great passwords (July 2006) - A few methods.
Securely track your passwords (July 2006) - With KeePass.
Secure your saved passwords in Firefox (Feb 2006) - Without Firefox saved passwords I wouldn't be able to login to anything.
Encrypt your data (June 2006) - Lock up your USB thumb drive or simply your pr0n collection.
Money
Automate your finances (May 2006)
Send and receive money with your cell phone (May 2006)
Year-end money moves (Dec 2005)
Avoid New Year's credit card debt (Dec 2005)
Firefox
My favorite Greasemonkey user scripts (Dec 2005) - Still my favorite Firefox extension EVER.
Turn Firefox into a web writer (Nov 2005)
Fifteen Firefox Quick Searches (Oct 2005) - Don't miss Adam's follow-up take on Firefox Quick Searches.
Backup
Automatically back up your hard drive (Jan 2006) - Set it and forget it. One of the most popular GTL's ever published.
Automatically email yourself file backups (April 2006) - Somewhat hacky (in the bad way) command line automated self-email with file attachments.
Effective data capture
Develop your (digital) photographic memory (April 2006) - Put that ubiquitous cameraphone to good use.
Take study-worthy lecture notes (Sept 2006) - An overview of the Cornell note-taking method; especially geared towards students.
Quick-log your work day (July 2006) - Track what you did all day long without tiresome interruptions.
Save and annotate the Web with Scrapbook (April 2006) - Pre-Google Notebook, Firefox-based web clippings. Still outstanding from a feature set perspective.
Personal organization
Organizing "My Documents" (Feb 2006) - A simple folder scheme.
Extreme makeover, filing cabinet edition (Feb 2006) - Taking the "work" out of "paperwork."
The Usable Home (Oct 2005) - Your apartment is just like a software interface. How easy is it to use?
Tickle yourself with Yahoo! Calendar (Sept 2005) - Pre-Google Calendar email/SMS reminders about Mom's birthday.
Mental focus
Firewall your attention at the office (Jan 2006)
Ban time-wasting web sites (Jan 2006)
Command line
Mirror files across systems with Rsync (Aug 2006)
Plain text calendar with Remind (July 2006)
Mastering Wget (March 2006)
Introduction to Cygwin: part 1, part 2, part 3 (June 2006)
Operating Systems
Format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch (March 2006) - When the last resort is your only one.
Windows Vista RC 1, in screenshots (Sept 2006) - A photo gallery of what's to come on new PC's in 2007.
Rescue files with a boot CD (August 2006) - Start up your unbootable PC with a Knoppix CD.
Future-proof your email address (Dec 2005)
Essential email filters (July 2006)
Empty your inbox with the Trusted Trio (June 2006)
Knock down repetitive e-mail with Thunderbird's QuickText (Nov 2005)
Train others how to use email (Jan 2006)
Best tools
Top 10 free and cheap productivity tools (July 2006)
Lifehacker Pack (Jan 2006) - My answer to Google Pack.
Top underrated apps of 2005 (Dec 2005)
Best apps of 2005 (Dec 2005)
Phew! At a few thousand words a pop, I must admit I never thought 100 articles later it'd still be full steam ahead. But Geek to Live's been the most fun I've ever had in a textarea. I hope it's been good for you, too.
Got any topic requests for future Geek to Live installments? Lemme know in the comments. And as always, thanks for reading.
Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, looks forward to writing the next 100. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Definitely NSFW: These Women Can Sell Any Power Tool on the Planet
Benny Benassi is well known for his music videos, probably more than he is for the music itself. In his video for Satisfaction, a few scantily clad well-endowed women are demoing power tools in a late night infomercial style setting. If you’re not a fan of techno, this may just be the best reason yet to start. Warning: Definitely NSFW
News Feed Source
Home Page: http://digg.com/view/technology
Feed Title: digg / Technology
Feed URL: http://digg.com/rss/containertechnology.xml
Article
Title: Definitely NSFW: These Women Can Sell Any Power Tool on the Planet
Link: http://digg.com/gadgets/Definitely_NSFW_These_Women_Can_Sell_Any_Power_Tool_on_the_Planet
Author: ~
Publication Date:
Good Agile — Development Without Deadlines
BigTom writes, "In a recent blog entry Steve Yegge, a developer at Google, writes a fascinating account of life at possibly the coolest development organization in the world. Steve lays out some of the software development practices that make Google work. Go on, say you are not even a little bit jealous. ;-)" From the article: Developers can switch teams and/or projects any time they want, no questions asked; just say the word and the movers will show up the next day to put you in your new office with your new team. There aren't very many meetings. I'd say an average developer attends perhaps 3 meetings a week. Google has a philosophy of not ever telling developers what to work on, and they take it pretty seriously. Google tends not to pre-announce. They really do understand that you can't rush good cooking, you can't rush babies out, and you can't rush software development. Yegge also does a fine job of skewering what the author calls "Bad Agile."
Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/28875290/article.pl
TinyXP - 55Mb WinXP client
This TinyXP not only runs fast, but takes up only 400Mb total space on your system hard drive. Thats the "WINDOWS" folder, "Documents and settings" and "Program Files." By using only 40Mb of RAM, this allows your PC to run fast, I mean VERY fast!
Link: http://digg.com/software/TinyXP_55Mb_WinXP_client
Link: http://digg.com/software/TinyXP_55Mb_WinXP_client
Bigger, better CrossOver adds WoW to Linux
Would-be Windows-on-Linux gamers got a very early Christmas present today, with the release by CodeWeavers of the first public beta of CrossOver, with support for World of Warcraft and other "steam-based" games such as Half Life 2 and Counterstrike.
Link: http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS3460199439.html
Link: http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS3460199439.html
Thursday, September 28, 2006
A Quantitative Analysis of Online Dating
imjustatomato writes "Never before has something so human and primitive as dating been reducible to such discrete values. A study analyzes the data of an online dating service. When do you like someone like yourself? Among online dating members, "marital status" and "wants children" are the two most influential characteristics to match. Other interesting findings are: men initiate 73.3% of messages, but their initiations are 17.9% less likely to be reciprocated; 78.2% of messages are never responded to."
Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/28745001/article.pl
Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/28745001/article.pl
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
VOIP - The Details Kill The Fun
A bunch of VOIP services have launched to help people make cheaper calls from normal phones. None of them are compelling for the mass market.
VOIP is great when you initiate calls from VOIP phones or software (Skype, Vonage, etc.). These VOIP networks can call other VOIP phones, or patch into the normal telephone networks to make relatively inexpensive calls. Vonage long ago replaced my normal telephone service, and an increasing number of people are using VOIP solutions instead of a normal telephone.
But a new crop of companies have a launched that are trying to let people make free or cheap VOIP calls from a normal POTS (plain old telephone service) phone (often a cell phone) to another POTS phone. If someone gets it right, there’s a huge market out there to destroy. The problem is that no one has gotten it right. And the mass market won’t adopt these services until they are dead simple to use.
These services generally take one of two approaches to allow people to make VOIP calls. One approach is to tell the service what number you are calling from and what number you would like to call. The service then calls both parties and connects them. The second approach is to assign special phone numbers to use instead of the normal phone number. These special numbers are controlled by the VOIP service and bypass the POTS system for the most expensive parts of the call.
Neither approach allows people to make quick calls on the fly to someone. Both require multiple steps to make a call, usually involving the use of a website as well (meaning you have to be at a computer or try to access the services via a mobile browser).
Here are a few that we’ve been tracking:
Jajah: Go to the website, tell it your phone number and the number you want to call, and a call is initiated to both phones. Call rates are very cheap, sometimes free. But you have to be at your computer to use it, and have a billing relationship with jajah if you are making non-free calls. They have some big news coming out this week, however, that will be worth noting.
Rebtel: We first covered Rebtel here. They just announced a whopping $20 million in venture funding. Rebtel has an extremely confusing method for making calls. The basic fee is $1 per week. They then assign local phone numbers for each of your friends. You call that number instead of the normal number for that friend. Your friend picks up the phone, hangs up and dials the number that just called them to connect to you. The call is then free. If that wasn’t clear, you can see the instructions here. You can also use Rebtel without the person hanging up on the other end, but you will be charged for the call (rates are lower than normal phone rates).
Hullo: We covered Hullo here. Very similar to Jajah, with slightly better features.
ConnectMeAnywhere: Sam Sethi wrote about ConnectMeAnywhere on TechCrunch UK. Like Rebtel, ConnectMeAnywhere assigns local numbers to your contacts, and you use those local numbers instead of their normal phone number. Unlike Rebtel there is no free option where the person hangs up and calls back. Instead, CMA just charges a lower rate than your phone company does. Their rates are here.
None of these services is good enough to change user behaviors in the mass market. Having to be at your computer, or call special phone numbers, is too much trouble for most people. Certainly forcing the person receiving the call to hang up and call back isn’t very attractive. And traditional POTS rates continue to fall fast, meaning the incentive to go with a hard-to-use VOIP provider is lower.
We’ll monitor new services as they launch, of course. And perhaps someone will come up with a better solution. Until then, I’m not betting on any of the current crop of companies.
Author: ~Michael Arrington
LINUX: See changes word by word with dwdiff
Unix text utilities were designed primarily for programmers and admins, but here's a little secret: the utilities also work well for writers. Instead of using diff to see changes between programs, I often use diff utilities to see what has changed between one version of an article and another. A few weeks ago, I found dwdiff, and found it works eve
first post
okay.. finally I am in the blogging game... well almost when its over... quite slow of a start, all the same better late than never.
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