Buzz Words

I'm addicted to my blogs, I love to read, and to write, unfortuantely, I don't have time to maintain or write my four blogs anywhere near as often as I would like to - but I have noticed something interesting about the techcrunch posts I read daily.

Tech goes in waves. A few months ago it was all about the iphone. Buzz surrounding the release, then the costs, change in price, European release, etc etc. That faded and everyone was worried about Facebook, Project Beacon and invasion of privacy. Once again, the fad has faded, and Techcrunch seems to be most concerned with Google.

Our field changes daily, and keeping yourself in the loop can be a full time job...

Time to get back to the RSS!

ASP vs PHP

The world of programming is complex, and there is no end to the list of possibilities when it comes to choosing a language to program in. Sometimes, you will need to meet the needs of a client and write a script in a language you're not familiar with.

When looking for some help in this area, I found a site that describes the differences between ASP and PHP in a simple, easy to understand format.

The site shows the two codes next to each other, and is a solution for all those headaches!

Oh PageRank

Considering how much people talk about how little PageRank really means, a lot of fuss has been made over the last few weeks as Google updated their data centers and caused havoc reducing big names to minimal page ranks.

At the end of the day, we all care what Google think. They may not be the best search engine out there, but they are the industry standard. We don't "search" for things on the net anymore, we "Google" them.

A while back (late 2005), there was talking of getting rid of PageRank entirely, but this seems to have been shelved. Perhaps this re-shuffle is Google's way of hitting back at sites that behave in ways that piss them off, or perhaps we will start to see a more regular change in PR's.

Google has the power, it's not worth getting mad about it either. They say PR drops, it drops. They say it goes, it goes. There will be life after PageRank.

Being Stupid makes you look... well, stupid

TechCrunch have an excellent post about a possible lawsuit right here, but if I were them, I wouldn't be worried...

"oh hi sir... calling on behalf of the asten crutchen photo leading to tech erm website"

Sounds like a pro!

Bebo Everywhere!

Just the other day I was talking about social networking, and Facebook is always thought of as the pioneer of this technology, but it isn't true. There are many other sites out there that perform an excellent job at keeping people in touch with each other. Sometimes details on these lesser known sites can be hard to come by, but Bebo information doesn't need to be difficult to get. In some respects, Bebo offers features that other sites forget to offer, at that has lead to it's popularity in places such as Ireland.

As with any successful site, school and bosses want us to avoid being online all day and can sometimes limit access to sites. Unblocking Bebo doesn't have to be hard. Getting round the firewall or changing settings isn't just for internet geeks, and soon enough you can be back online communication with friends, and perhaps strangers too, but make sure to keep your social networking safe!

Shop Safe

We all have our favorite place to seek the best deals online. Some prefer the big name stores like amazon and buy.com, then there is the second hand option like ebay and half.com, then there is the beauty that is often forgotten of Craigslist.

Craigslist has often been somewhere I loved to look for offers, and to communicate with others, from the missed connections "you had to sit down in Subway on 3rd" to the apartment listings and and last minute sales.

The concern when buying from a stranger is always there too, but with some sense, we can always make sure to have our own form of buyer's protection. Avoiding scams at Craigslist doesn't need to be difficult. Be logical, follow wise practices, and most of the time your interaction will be with another honest internet user eager to go about their day. If all else fails, there is an Internet Fraud Complaint Center that will look after you.

Digital Picture Frames for All!

I am all about photography. I don't leave my house without a camera, but one drawback that digital age has, is the need to be proactive about printing the pictures. The days of waiting for holiday pictures to come back from the lab is well over, and we're all about the digital.

This is why I want to take the next step and get myself a digital picture frame, but at the same time, a good quality cheap digital picture frame but there are so many out there. I want to preserve those kodak moments, and enjoy the best of my photos too.

Now I know exactly where to start with digital picture frame reviews telling me exactly where I can get value for my money. They have products from Phillips, Kodak and many other suppliers and getting a cheap digital photo frame just got easier, now my best shots are on display and not just taking up space on my hard drive.

Idol Me

Idol Me is a site I came across while trawling the web the other day. Yes, you could look at it as another forum or networking site, but I see it as having a special bonus. It's foucus is Entertainment and Music and that is right up my street.

The music section covers a number of awesome artists and and now I can have access to to biography and information about my favorite genre's of music all in one place.

Each Idol Me member a space to write the own blog too. The site understands how it can be hard to get those creative juices flowing and offers tool to help write the blog and promotes them on their list of recent entries.

I like this site, and I hope they do well, it gathers all the info you need from a music and entertainment point of view and puts it nicely in one place. This site deserves to be successful.

J'mapelle Dictionary

If there's one thing the net is lacking, or at least my is yet to get my attention, it's an efficient multi lingual dictionary. Google has it's page translator, and there are many localized dictionaries to translate from A to B, but more often than not, I find myself Googling or Wikipedia-ing the terms I want translated.

Perhaps living a bilingual life gives me more of a need for this tool than many living in the US, but TechCrunch's mention of Lingoz this evening got my attention.

I played around with some French, Spanish and Hebrew words, and it even has a cool tool to differentiate between US and UK English. Words can be broken down into categories so searching for the term "Orange" gives you options from Psychology, Computer Graphics, or even Basic Colors. Best of all, this site is powered by Babylon, a company with ten years of success behind them.

If you ask me, they're on to something good here, after all, if you need a hotel in Germany or Places to Stay in the UK, you need to know how to ask for it!

Joost... for real!

Joost excited me from day one... I was a beta tester from an early stage, and have eagerly awaited news of it's official launch. The guys behind skype clearly have the head for making the things we soon will never be able to live without!

I don't own a TV - cable isn't worth spending the money on, and so much is available online, but Joost is the logical combination we've been waiting for for so long. The home computer isn't the luxury it used to be, and it's logical that it should take the place of the television. If it's not online... it's just not!

Let's be honest now, how many of us really wait in to watch our TV shows instead of looking for those torrents?!

Why Network?

I just came across this social networking post, and it was almost as though someone was speaking my mind. I don't get Twitter, nor Pownce. Facebook, mySpace, they kinda make sense. They condense many facets of the net into one familiar, tidy (not mySpace) and centralized home for us to benefit.

Twitter just lets me tell people something. Friends, ok, but strangers?

I don't get it.

The web is going social. If you're launching a start up, there has to be a social aspect. I have read about social cooking sites, and social diet sites... I don't get it, what happened to socializing with real people?

That said, where would I be without my facebook?

Facebook breaks it down

Ok, so most of us use Facebook. It overtook mySpace for teenagers, and professionally some would say it left LinkedIn waiting in the shadows, but perhaps that was the problem. Do young professionals want to share pictures of last nights drunken antics with a world of potential San Fransisco Bay employers?

Zuckerberg to the rescue. Yesterday, Tech Crunch reported that Facebook will allow you to group your friends, so different groups will get different info. Now those old high school buddies that you added so not to offend, won't have the same access as your co-workers you wish to share every second of your life with.

The Facebook phenomena took over. It wasn't sudden, but as soon as they opened the gates of their site to the non-college world, every week has seen a change. Almost every time I log in, something has changed, and to be honest, I don't like it. I am not sure why we're compelled to put our lives online, but this small change could make the world of difference.