Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Video Interview with Founder of Vanilla, "A WordPress for Forums"

Video Interview with Founder of Vanilla, "A WordPress for Forums"

Longtime forum moderator Mark O'Sullivan's Vanilla, an open-source, standards-compliant, fully extensible discussion forum CMS, is a favorite of many designers and webmasters alike.

One reviewer said it best: "Forget how 'normal' forums are done - Vanilla strips it back to what's important: the conversations. Not the smileys, the bandwidth-hogging signatures, the mailbox, the forum categories. It pushes discussions to the forefront and uses subtle AJAX to make the experience of communicating with others fast and simple." Read and watch on for a discussion of the product itself as well as open-source monetization and forum culture versus the real-time web.

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Vanilla was selected for this summer's TechStars program, and the public beta for Vanilla 2 was released this April 27.

O'Sullivan actually wrote a follow-up blog post regarding our brief chat about how the real-time web and its constant firehose of information are affecting forum discussions and culture. "There is an intrinsic value in being able to take part in a discussion on your own time," he wrote. "We can't all be online, let alone awake at the same time, so in these situations the real-time web doesn't work. Forums are always on, and they are expected to operate on a different schedule than real-time."

And while O'Sullivan continues to write that there isn't a competition between real-time and forum discussions, he does state that the quality of forum information can often be much higher than info procured from real-time sources, in his opinion.

Discuss

Backups Get Sexy with Quanp's 3D Storage Service

Backups Get Sexy with Quanp's 3D Storage Service

Quanp, a new service from office electronics company Ricoh, has just launched a beta of their online storage system which offers an interesting twist to the usual backup services: a visual search tool that displays your data in 3D. The 3D viewer is actually a desktop application designed for Windows PCs, but Mac users aren't entirely out of luck - there is an online version of the service, too.

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Once we got past the site's terrible name (short for "quantum paper" - huh?) and focused on what it was offering, we were intrigued. Using a desktop widget called quanp drop, you simply drag-and-drop files from your computer to the online service, be them documents, photos, mp3s, or whatever else you want. It's a similar concept to the widget used by file-sharing service Dropbox; but unlike the Dropbox widget, installed via an executable file, quanp's widget is powered by Adobe AIR. You can even pick which style you want to use for your icon.

Then, depending on your computer (Mac or PC), you can either download the Windows-only desktop client or head over to the online service at quanp.net. Unfortunately, non-Windows users using the online service miss out on the sexiest thing about this new service: the 3D file browser.

For Windows Users

In the Windows desktop client, you browse through your files using its visually stunning interface. Although pretty, visual browsing isn't always the most efficient way to locate a particular file, so quanp's software also lets you search by keyword, tag, date, and more. The client even includes a basic reader for Microsoft Office files so you can see the content without having to launch the office software.

For Mac Users

Non-Windows users can use the online site to browse through files, but there's nothing all that exciting about this part of the service. It doesn't even offer an web version of the 3D interface. However, you can view files and their metadata, share them with others, plus upload or download files using buttons provided on the site.

Sexy, But Useful?

For the most part, a lot of what makes quanp fun to use is its visual eye candy. However, for users of the free Windows Live service, there may be some hesitation in switching. Although lacking a drag-and-drop widget of its own, Windows Live users can upload both photos and videos to online services using Photo Gallery software - and not just to the online service provided by Windows Live, but to flickr, Facebook, and YouTube as well (the last two via plugins). They can also tag files, identify faces, edit photos, and browse through files - just not in glorious 3D.

Of course there are plenty of other online storage services out there, but Windows Live is the most apt comparison since it, like quanp, is a combination of desktop software and an online component - a "software + services" arrangement. Most other online storage services either don't offer desktop tools at all or don't offer tools that also function as a way to elegantly browse and edit your files.

To determine if quanp is the better choice for you, think about whether you need to upload more than just photos or videos - if so, then quanp will work (although visual search of docs isn't quite as fun). Also of note, quanp offers 10 GB to Windows Live's 25 GB. However, the company plans to offer graded pricing in the future for additional storage, but no official decision has yet been made on exactly what that will be.

Of course, for some early adopters, "sexy" beats "practical" any day. If that describes you, then you should sign up for the quanp beta here. (But sorry world - the beta is U.S.-only!)

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When it Comes to Spam, Everything Old is New Again

When it Comes to Spam, Everything Old is New Again

Google released some interesting data about the volume and types of attacks its spam detection software identified over the last quarter. According to Google, overall spam levels in the second quarter of 2009 were 53% higher than during the first quarter, and 6% higher than a year ago. Even though the total volume of spam dropped by 70% after the the takedown of the infamous McColo ISP, it only took four months for spam levels to get back to normal. Last month, 3FN, an other large ISP spam source was also shut down, but spam volume only dropped by about 30%, and chances are that the spam market will simply rebound within a few months, as new spammers get into the market.

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The Return of Image Spam

Interestingly, Google also notes that image spam, which is generally filtered out quite well by modern spam detection software, has seen a major resurgence. Amanda Kleha, a member of Google's message security and archiving team, theorizes that this might be due to new spammers getting into the market after the shutdown of McColo and 3FN, and these new players are starting out with well established methods, even if they are not very effective. Kleha also notes that spammers might just be testing how well the current generation of spam filters handles these messages in order to perform statistical analysis based on which subject lines and content make it into users' inboxes.

Google also notes that one of the largest spam attacks in the last quarter was based on an old school "newsletter" template (with malevolent links and images thrown in there for good measure). This attack unleashed about 50% an average day's spam volume in only 2 hours. So while it might not have been highly sophisticated, there was surely a massive network behind it that was able to send out this huge amount of spam in such a short time.

Discuss

Pingdom Now Offers Free Website Monitoring

Pingdom Now Offers Free Website Monitoring

Over the last few years, Pingdom has established itself as a well-regarded uptime monitoring service, but until now, its services were only available to paying customers. Today, however, Pingdom launched a free version of its service. The free service offers all the features of Pingdom's paid accounts, though users are limited to monitoring just one website or server. This free account also comes with up to 20 SMS alerts per months, which is a nice perk, given that you probably want to know that your site or server is down as soon as possible.

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Pingdom gives users a large number of options. You can, for example, choose to have it ping your server anywhere between once per minute or once per hour. Pingdom is also flexible enough to be able to ping specific ports on your server and also check the state of your SMPT, POP3, or IMAP email server - though with the free account, you can obviously only choose one of these.

In addition to its free service, Pingdom also offers a basic account for $9.95 per month, which allows users to monitor up to 5 sites. The company also offers a business account for $39.95 per month, which can check up to 30 sites. The basic account also comes with 20 free SMS alerts, while business account users can receive up to 200 alerts by text message.

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3G Speeds Tested & Compared, City by City [Performance Tests]

3G Speeds Tested & Compared, City by City [Performance Tests]

As wireless users know all too well, not all 3G networks are created equal. PC World recently put Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T to a multi-city test to determine which best delivers speed and reliability.

The magazine took a snapshot of the performance of those three major networks in 13 markets during March and early April (specifically, 5443 individual tests from 283 testing locations). Weather, time of day, and other variable factors not withstanding, the magazine found that Verizon had an average download speed of 951 kbps, and produced uninterrupted speeds in 89.8 percent of tests.

For its part, Sprint's 3G network delivered solid connections in 90.5 percent of cities tested, with average download speeds of 808 kbps across 13 cities, while the AT&T network's average download speed clocked in at 812 kbps. But where reliability was concerned, AT&T delivered only 68 percent of the time.

Take a look at the link below for the full city-by-city results, then let us know your take on PC World's conclusion. Do they match up with your own wireless experience in those cities? Let us know which network you use and how it fares in your location.

A Day in The Life of 3G [PC World]

Aviary.com Creates Edit-Ready Web Screenshots [Screenshots]

Aviary.com Creates Edit-Ready Web Screenshots [Screenshots]

Looking to grab a copy of the entire scroll-able content of a web page? Aviary, makers of a previously mentioned online image editing tool and Firefox extension, make it really simple: just add the site's URL after aviary.com/.

The speed with which Aviary's Flash-based editor pops open depends on their server load and the content of the site you're trying to paste over—Lifehacker is a "large image," while aviary.com/xkcd.com loads just fine. But the full-length capture works, allows you to save to the desktop (through the "Export" function) and make basic edits like cropping and text and shape addition. Our initial tests showed some real lag, and a few failures, when trying to open the right-hand tools for "Advanced Editor" or "Image Effects" on larger web captures, but when they work, you're getting a pretty neat Photoshop-lite to play with.

Aviary's URL appending service is free to use, requires a free account to save images online and access certain advanced features.

Capture any webpage: Just add Aviary.com/ in front of the URL [Aviary blog]

The Most Detailed 3D Map of Earth Yet [Maps]

The Most Detailed 3D Map of Earth Yet [Maps]

Forget Google Maps: NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy have released the most detailed three-dimensional map of Earth yet. It covers our planet between the 83 north and 83 south parallels thanks to 1.3 million stereo images like these:

The images were captured by ASTER, ! and then stitched together into a seamless map. ASTER—Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer—is the instrument taking maps of land surface temperature, reflectance and elevation flying onboard NASA's Terra satellite. Once the Global Digital Elevation Model was complete, it was divided into 23,000 GeoTIFF files, each covering 1 x 1 degree of the globe. You can download the map here. [JPL]

Philips Cinema 21:9 TV Will Cost $7400 [TVs]

Philips Cinema 21:9 TV Will Cost $7400 [TVs]

I don't know if we will ever see the 56-inch Philips Cinema 21:9 in the US, but if I didn't have a projector, I would totally fall for it. Even at the $7400 price tag just published in the UK.

The Philips 56PFL9954H Cinema 21:9 uses the same aspect ratio of most movies out there, which means that it eliminates the black bars while watching a Blu-ray title. And while every single consumers electronics expert in the UK is raving about the amazing quality of this 8.3-million-pixel TV set, the Philips Cinema 21:9 still has to do zooming to make the movie to fill its 1080-pixel vertical resolution. In other words: It looks great, but it's still not perfect. [Daily Mail]

gdgt, the Data Driven Gadget Site, is Live [Media]

gdgt, the Data Driven Gadget Site, is Live [Media]

gdgt is a new gadget site that's database driven. You pronounce it either g-d-g-t or "gadget". I like it, mainly because I can track pieces of information about gadgets I own, but also tech I would like to have.

See, here's my list of gadgets.

Since the database is user generated, I can't wait to get in there and add some classic tech and offbeat stuff. Using it is peculiarly thrilling. The problem with general news sites is that you don't always get news that relates to the gadgets you own; the problems with forums is that the information is relevant to what you're interested in, but highly unstructured. This fixes both. A year or two ago, we decided to cover less new product, and cover more software and updates you can use to improve the gadgets you already have. gdgt is built upon this philosophy.

The site's just launching today, but Ryan Block and Peter Rojas (Engadget and Gizmodo alum) are only getting started and I've been told the road map is epic and long. (Disclaimer: I advise gdgt here and there, too.)

How do you get started? You sign up. Quickly, so you get the user name you want, I would suggest. I'd explain how it works in depth but Veronica Belmont, has a video here with all the details.

Oh and here's my account. Add me as a friend!

UPDATE: Looks like they're down because of traffic, time to ease up a bit and check back later.
[gdgt]

NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009

NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009

NVIDIA obviously isn't doing much talking about it itself just yet, but Fudzilla apparently has it on good authority that the company is indeed already hard at work on Ion 2, which promises to bring with it plenty of improvements over the already impressive Ion chipset. Chief among those is a decreased die size, "much faster graphics," and more than twice the shaders of the original Geforce 9400M /MCP79 chipset that the current Ion is based on (which uses 16 shaders). Not many more details than that, unfortunately, but NVIDIA is supposedly looking to launch Ion 2 by the end of this year -- although not before it sells plenty more Ion 1s, of course.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook ad metrics (click-thru rates) still abysmal, despite known click-fraud problem - http://ping.fm/o8S9X

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Skype 3.0 for Windows Mobile Shares Files, Sends Texts, Skypes [Windows Mobile Apps]

Skype 3.0 for Windows Mobile Shares Files, Sends Texts, Skypes [Windows Mobile Apps]

Skype's finally dropped a brand new version of their app for Windows Mobile. Three dawt oh brings file sharing and SMS texting, for free. Weeeeeeeee. [Skype via jkontherun]

TubeMaster++ Update Makes Grabbing Videos and Music Easier [Downloads]

TubeMaster++ Update Makes Grabbing Videos and Music Easier [Downloads]

Windows only: Last year we shared TubeMaster Plus with you, an extremely handy program for downloading videos and music from streaming sites. TubeMaster++ has been released and comes with a slew of new features.

TubeMaster++ makes grabbing streaming videos and music incredibly simple. As long as TubeMaster++ is running, it will grab nearly every kind of media you watch over your internet connection thanks to its ability to scan the incoming data and not rely on the browser itself. Whether you're watching a video in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera, as soon as you start watching it, TubeMaster++ will begin capturing it.

You can save files, play them back right in TubeMaster++ and convert them. What formats can you convert into? A better question would be what formats can't you convert into. You can convert audio formats into WAV, MP3, OGG, and AC3, among others. Video can be converted into dozens of formats and presets for mobile devices including the Creative Zen, iPod, Blackberry, PSP and PS3, various mobile phone sizes, and more universal formats like AVI and MPEG4.

TubeMaster++ does lose one feature from its predecessor, because of dependencies it has on installed software it is no longer portable. The trade off will be more than worth it for most people however as the new version is more stable, offers more features, has a built in video and music search engine, and has dropped upgrade requirement to download from adult video-sharing sites. TubeMaster++ is freeware, Windows on! ly, and requires Java Runtime Environment and WinPcap (both of which are included in the installation if you don't have them.)

TubeMaster++ [via FreewareGenius]

Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel's spotted "Tourist Remover," a service that takes the stray tourists out of your shots of famous landmarks.

"Tourist Removed" is a web app that will remove other tourists from the photos you took of landmarks while on vacation as a tourist. All you have to do is take multiple shots of the same location, and Tourist Remover will only keep the bits that stay the same. It's like diff for photos!

"Tourist Remover" cleans up your vacation photos

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Great post by @glenngabe - Facebook or Just Face-Look? Are People 55+ Really Using Social Networking Websites? - http://ping.fm/I11Lp

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