Saturday, May 19, 2007
Digital Alchemy Privacy Policy
What information do we collect?
We collect information from you when you register on our site, subscribe to our newsletter, respond to a survey or fill out a form.
When registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card information or social security number. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.
Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
What do we use your information for?
Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:
• To personalize your experience
(your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)
• To improve our website
(we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you)
• To improve customer service
(your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs)
• To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature
Do we use cookies?
Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information
We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.
Do we disclose any information to outside parties?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Third party links
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.
Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.
Online Privacy Policy Only
This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.
Terms and Conditions
By using our site, you consent to our online privacy policy.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
We collect information from you when you register on our site, subscribe to our newsletter, respond to a survey or fill out a form.
When registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card information or social security number. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.
Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.
Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.
Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
What do we use your information for?
Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:
• To personalize your experience
(your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)
• To improve our website
(we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you)
• To improve customer service
(your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs)
• To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature
Do we use cookies?
Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information
We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.
Do we disclose any information to outside parties?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.
Third party links
Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.
Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.
Online Privacy Policy Only
This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.
Terms and Conditions
By using our site, you consent to our online privacy policy.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
Labels: Technology
Why Bloggers Need a Good Web Analytics Package
Web analytics is serious stuff for e-commerce sites looking to maximize sales, and for bloggers, it's an essential tool in getting to know and attract readers.
A good web analytics package can't be underestimated for serious bloggers looking to increase their readership. Web analytics is all about understanding the visitors to your website. Why do they click on this link and not that one? Is there something about the design of your blog that drives people away? What types of content do readers respond well to?
But that's not all web analytics is good for:
My favorite tools are:
Google Analytics: With the radical redesign of the old Google Analytics interface, this free tool is now both easier to understand and prettier. Pretty is important because it encourages you to dig deeper into the data. What it really means is better user interface design.
In addition to standard information like pageviews and visits, you can use Google Analytics to track goals like how many people have signed up for a newsletter or subscribed to your RSS feed. You can get a tour of the major features here.
pMetrics: Performancing has a free analytics product called pMetrics that I have only just started using. Even so, it's looking very encouraging. The user interface is very nicely done. An interesting tool called Spy lets you see how users interact with your blog in real-time. Another novel feature is integration with FeedBurner so you can track your RSS stats.
Some upcoming features are an API to let third-parties access and use analytics data and the ability to export data. Interestingly, a feature to support Ajax sites is also in the works.
HitTail: This is a long tail web analytics tool that helps you discover unique keywords that you can target with your blog posts. Long tail keywords are infrequently searched, but collectively, they make up the majority of your blog's pageviews. That's the theory at least. You can find out how users frame their search queries and get recommended keywords to write about.
Of course, there are many, many other good tools out there that might be a better fit for you. You might also consider Statcounter, 103bees, and Sitemeter. Most tools track the same type of information so the most important thing to consider is how that data is presented to you. Go with something pretty.
A good web analytics package can't be underestimated for serious bloggers looking to increase their readership. Web analytics is all about understanding the visitors to your website. Why do they click on this link and not that one? Is there something about the design of your blog that drives people away? What types of content do readers respond well to?
But that's not all web analytics is good for:
- Marketing: Find out where your readers are coming from. If you are running a marketing campaign, you need to know which of your efforts are working and how well.
- Advertising: Once you have all this data collected, you can put together a media kit for advertisers with information like number of pageviews or unique visitors a month along with geographic data. This can help you determine a fair price for advertising on your blog.
- Ego: It's always nice to know someone is reading and appreciating your hard work. Writing a blog can be a lonely endeavor.
My favorite tools are:
Google Analytics: With the radical redesign of the old Google Analytics interface, this free tool is now both easier to understand and prettier. Pretty is important because it encourages you to dig deeper into the data. What it really means is better user interface design.In addition to standard information like pageviews and visits, you can use Google Analytics to track goals like how many people have signed up for a newsletter or subscribed to your RSS feed. You can get a tour of the major features here.pMetrics: Performancing has a free analytics product called pMetrics that I have only just started using. Even so, it's looking very encouraging. The user interface is very nicely done. An interesting tool called Spy lets you see how users interact with your blog in real-time. Another novel feature is integration with FeedBurner so you can track your RSS stats.Some upcoming features are an API to let third-parties access and use analytics data and the ability to export data. Interestingly, a feature to support Ajax sites is also in the works.
HitTail: This is a long tail web analytics tool that helps you discover unique keywords that you can target with your blog posts. Long tail keywords are infrequently searched, but collectively, they make up the majority of your blog's pageviews. That's the theory at least. You can find out how users frame their search queries and get recommended keywords to write about.Of course, there are many, many other good tools out there that might be a better fit for you. You might also consider Statcounter, 103bees, and Sitemeter. Most tools track the same type of information so the most important thing to consider is how that data is presented to you. Go with something pretty.
Labels: Technology
Blogging From The Top of Mount Everest
Eighteen-year-old Samantha Larson is the youngest foreigner to reach the summit of Mount Everest. All the time blogging about it on Blogger via satellite phone to her mom and brother in New York, who transcribed her thoughts.
This isn't her first time at the top of the world: she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2001 while chronicling the effect of altitude on heart rates for a science fair and summited Mount Vinson in Antarctica in 2005. Every climb has been accompanied by her father.
She is going to attend Stanford University in the fall. But first, she has to get off the mountain. You can get updates at her blog, Everest 2007.
This isn't her first time at the top of the world: she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2001 while chronicling the effect of altitude on heart rates for a science fair and summited Mount Vinson in Antarctica in 2005. Every climb has been accompanied by her father.
She is going to attend Stanford University in the fall. But first, she has to get off the mountain. You can get updates at her blog, Everest 2007.
Labels: Technology
Saturday Siesta: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Trailer (Terminator Spin-off)
The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a new TV show premiering early 2008 that will follow the adventures of Terminator's Sarah and John Connor as they fight to prevent the rise of the machines. It stars Lena Heady (300), Thomas Dekker (Heroes), and Summer Glau (Firefly).
The following trailer was shown during FOX's upfront presentation on May 17:
The following trailer was shown during FOX's upfront presentation on May 17:
Labels: Technology
Friday, May 18, 2007
Optimus Maximus: It's a Keyboard, Not Transformers!
The well-timed pre-release of the long-awaited Optimus Maximus keyboard is just in time to take advantage of the Transformers movie marketing campaign. For those who don't know, a character in Transformers is named Optimus Prime. What's so special about a keyboard?Designed by the Art. Lebedev Studio, the Optimus Maximus has keys that are actually small displays. They can be changed to any picture you want and mapped to any action. For instance, you could switch the characters on the keyboard from English to Russian, or even tailor it to the control keys for the game Quake. Pre-orders are being accepted starting tomorrow, May 20, at 3 p.m. Moscow time.
It's more art than object, however. The predecessor to the Optimus Maximus is a three-button auxiliary keyboard-informer called the Optimus mini three, which retails for $159.96. To get 111 more OLED (organic light-emitting diode) keys, you'll have to spend a cool $1564.37. This works out to about $14 a key.
Two hundred units will be produced starting December 2007 so it'll be a while before anyone can actually test out the Optimus Maximus, but f you're paying for the most expensive keyboard in the world, would it really be appropriate to actually use it?
Labels: Technology
Advertise on Digital Alchemy
Digital Alchemy reaches over 500,000 unique visitors every month, generating over 800,000 monthly pageviews. Our rapid growth has been accompanied by an equally rapid rise in our number of RSS subscribers, which currently stands above 900.
With a tight focus on delivering the latest digital media news, we have written over 800 articles in 11 months, covering all aspects of technology from streaming video to emerging Web 2.0 trends.
We currently offer premium advertising space above the fold on the right column. We are partnering with the BlogAds Network to offer the following types of ads:
We also offer ad spaces for longer durations: 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months with the pricing adjusted proportionally. Based on current growth rates, we expect our pageviews to grow substantially in the coming weeks and months so the present eCPMs will drop significantly over the duration of your ad buy.
If you are interesting in advertising with us, please click on this link to place an order at Blogads.
With a tight focus on delivering the latest digital media news, we have written over 800 articles in 11 months, covering all aspects of technology from streaming video to emerging Web 2.0 trends.
We currently offer premium advertising space above the fold on the right column. We are partnering with the BlogAds Network to offer the following types of ads:
- A standard sized ad (150x200) priced at $60 for one week, which is a low effective CPM of $0.30 for 200,000 impressions.
- A hi-rise ad (150x600 pixels) currently priced at $200 for one week for a low eCPM of $1.00.
- The mini (150x100) ad priced at $50 a week for an eCPM of $0.25.
- The classie (text) ad priced at $20 a week for an eCPM of $0.10.
We also offer ad spaces for longer durations: 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months with the pricing adjusted proportionally. Based on current growth rates, we expect our pageviews to grow substantially in the coming weeks and months so the present eCPMs will drop significantly over the duration of your ad buy.
If you are interesting in advertising with us, please click on this link to place an order at Blogads.
Joost Information Leak: Hiding Deal Plans in Plain Sight
Hiding data in a PDF file by drawing a black box over the text has gotten the military in trouble before. All it takes to read the information is to copy-and-paste the redacted text into something like Word or Notepad.
Joost apparently didn't get the memo. A Joost presentation called "Joost Network Architecture" given on April 4, 2007 was posted online for everyone to see with key portions blacked out. As Mashable was informed, this turned out to contain key information about deals that Joost was trying to close with major content providers as of late March. A total of 61 deals were detailed, including deals with Sony, ITV, and CNN.
Most of the document deals with the P2P architecture underlying Joost's network with discussions of hardware and protocols. They are calling it "Joost P2P Magic".
The original PDF has been taken down, but an HTML version can be viewed courtesy of Google cache. You might have to highlight the text to see anything.
Joost apparently didn't get the memo. A Joost presentation called "Joost Network Architecture" given on April 4, 2007 was posted online for everyone to see with key portions blacked out. As Mashable was informed, this turned out to contain key information about deals that Joost was trying to close with major content providers as of late March. A total of 61 deals were detailed, including deals with Sony, ITV, and CNN.
Most of the document deals with the P2P architecture underlying Joost's network with discussions of hardware and protocols. They are calling it "Joost P2P Magic".
The original PDF has been taken down, but an HTML version can be viewed courtesy of Google cache. You might have to highlight the text to see anything.
Labels: Technology
Google to Acquire FeedBurner?
Acquisition fever is in the air: Google is rumored to be acquiring the popular RSS feed service FeedBurner, according to Vecosys' "very trusted source".The RSS ad market is one area where Google's AdSense platform has been noticeably missing so a FeedBurner acquisition makes strategic sense. This would be in line with the DoubleClick buyout, which gave Google access to the display advertising market. Both deals would give Google a solid foothold into areas where it hasn't made much headway as well as a wealth of data to analyze.
Valleywag reports a confirmation of the rumor and says the price range of the deal will be on the order of $100 million.
Labels: Technology
The Pirate Bay to Launch Video Streaming (YouTube) Competitor
The Pirate Bay has been buzzing with news recently: first with the announcement of a free music site called Playble and now with hints about a video streaming site to compete with the likes of YouTube.
The Video Bay, as it's called, is currently open only to beta and development testers. It will likely features a hands-off approach to copyrighted content like movies and TV shows. By contrast, the current range of free online TV sites host their files on third-party sites like YouTube and Dailymotion where they are subject to deletion. This may be the deciding factor in whether sites like Alluc and AllofTV will retain their popularity or be eclipsed by The Video Bay.
The Video Bay, as it's called, is currently open only to beta and development testers. It will likely features a hands-off approach to copyrighted content like movies and TV shows. By contrast, the current range of free online TV sites host their files on third-party sites like YouTube and Dailymotion where they are subject to deletion. This may be the deciding factor in whether sites like Alluc and AllofTV will retain their popularity or be eclipsed by The Video Bay.
Labels: Technology
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Which Celebrity Do You Look Like?
Which celebrity does Paris Hilton look like? According to AOL, close matches are Avril Lavigne, Katherine Heigl, Rachel Weisz, and Cynthia Nixon. A second image test matched Lavigne and Heigl again along with Christina Applegate and Cate Blanchett, but again no Hilton. Would Paris be offended?
Celebrity Look-Alike is the site where you can play around with some new facial recognition algorithms developed by AOL Labs, Oxford University, and Caltech University, according to an email we received. To find look-alikes, you upload a picture from either a file or URL, and you'll get back a group of four celebrities that most closely match your picture.
Since only 500 celebrities are covered in the database, it isn't surprising that results aren't too robust, but Celebrity Look-Alike has the feel of a product that could go viral very quickly regardless of its current limitations.
Labels: Technology
Dealing with RSS Overload: How Scoble Reads 622 RSS Feeds
How does A-list vlogger/blogger Robert Scoble read 622 RSS feeds every day? In this hyper-kinetic video taped with author Timothy Ferris, he explains that he has a certain way of looking at each feed item, scanning information like author, tags, and number of links to decide what's worth reading in-depth and what's not.
Another "secret weapon" is Google Reader, which lets you use keyboard shortcuts to navigate feeds. The downsides are bad search and not working offline.
Having used Spotback as my primary feed reader for a while now, I've been trying out Google Reader as a replacement now that Spotback has changed its focus to developing widgets. Search is a definite weak spot. In fact, I couldn't even find the search box. The plus side is the river of news feature that lets you scroll to very efficiently see new feed items.
Learn more Scoble tricks by watching the interview:
[via]
Another "secret weapon" is Google Reader, which lets you use keyboard shortcuts to navigate feeds. The downsides are bad search and not working offline.
Having used Spotback as my primary feed reader for a while now, I've been trying out Google Reader as a replacement now that Spotback has changed its focus to developing widgets. Search is a definite weak spot. In fact, I couldn't even find the search box. The plus side is the river of news feature that lets you scroll to very efficiently see new feed items.
Learn more Scoble tricks by watching the interview:
[via]
Labels: Technology
Google Experimental Search: Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Navigate Search Results
Google has launched a new page with several experimental search interfaces. One organizes search results in a timeline or on a map. Another adds extra search options to either the left or right side of search results to let you search patents, products, or the news in addition to the web.
By far the most useful experimental interface lets you navigate search results using keyboard shortcuts. Users familiar with the Gmail or Google Reader keyboard shortcuts will find the keys very familiar.
You press J to select the next result, or K to select the previous. Hitting O or Enter opens the selected result. / focuses the cursor in the search box, and Esc removes it.
This is a definite keeper for fast, mouseless navigation.
By far the most useful experimental interface lets you navigate search results using keyboard shortcuts. Users familiar with the Gmail or Google Reader keyboard shortcuts will find the keys very familiar.
You press J to select the next result, or K to select the previous. Hitting O or Enter opens the selected result. / focuses the cursor in the search box, and Esc removes it.
This is a definite keeper for fast, mouseless navigation.
Labels: Technology
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Searching Google in Widescreen: Two-Column Search Results
Not only can you take advantage of a widescreen monitor with a specially tweaked version of Firefox, you can now display Google search results in two columns using a Greasemonkey script called Two-Column Google.
The script rearranges Google results into two columns that you read left to right instead of top to bottom. This is extremely useful if you hate scrolling to see more search results. For extra-widescreen monitors, you can even increase the number of rows by tweaking the script code.
Be sure to install the Greasemonkey extension if you haven't already.
[via]
The script rearranges Google results into two columns that you read left to right instead of top to bottom. This is extremely useful if you hate scrolling to see more search results. For extra-widescreen monitors, you can even increase the number of rows by tweaking the script code.
Be sure to install the Greasemonkey extension if you haven't already.
[via]Labels: Technology
Use Pirated Software, Get Life in Prison
US attorney general Alberto Gonzales is at it again: this time he is targeting just about everyone using a computer and the Internet with the proposed Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 (IPPA). Both "attempted" copyright piracy and "actual" copyright violations would be punished.What exactly does "attempted" copyright infringement mean? It's not clear. Here's what the Justice Department summary says: "It is a general tenet of the criminal law that those who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so." So don't even think about downloading Spider-Man 3 from BitTorrent.
You can get life in prison for using pirated software in a situation that could cause deaths. For instance, using pirated software in a hospital.
Another item would make Homeland Security responsible for reporting the importation of unauthorized CDs to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Declan McCullagh has more about the IPPA here.
Image credit: BlakJakDavy on Flickr
Labels: Technology
Brickhouse: Yahoo's Answer to Google's 20% Time
A new weekly podcast by the San Jose Mercury News called Inside Silicon Valley features in its first podcast, Yahoo's Brickhouse. The San-Francisco based idea incubator is like a startup farm: 4-6 people work for 4-6 months on speculative ideas that would traditionally fall to startups to pursue.
The idea for employees is: less risk, more reward. Employees have the full backing of a large company like Yahoo, but don't face the do-or-die mentality that guides many (most) startups. But I'm sure many founders of startups would argue that that's exactly what makes so many startups successful.
One big question Yahoo's VP of Product Strategy, Bradley Horowitz, addresses is whether Yahoo has an idea-deficit. The unspoken elephant in the room is, of course, Google's 20% strategy to promote idea innovation by employees. It translates into one day of the week when Google employees can work on projects of their own choosing. Whether Yahoo can succeed in creating a culture of entrepreneurial spirit with Brickhouse remains to be seen-in 4-6 months.
A really neat demo they show in passing is a giant touchscreen world map that displays Flickr photos from around the world.
Watch the full podcast below:
[via]
The idea for employees is: less risk, more reward. Employees have the full backing of a large company like Yahoo, but don't face the do-or-die mentality that guides many (most) startups. But I'm sure many founders of startups would argue that that's exactly what makes so many startups successful.
One big question Yahoo's VP of Product Strategy, Bradley Horowitz, addresses is whether Yahoo has an idea-deficit. The unspoken elephant in the room is, of course, Google's 20% strategy to promote idea innovation by employees. It translates into one day of the week when Google employees can work on projects of their own choosing. Whether Yahoo can succeed in creating a culture of entrepreneurial spirit with Brickhouse remains to be seen-in 4-6 months.
A really neat demo they show in passing is a giant touchscreen world map that displays Flickr photos from around the world.
Watch the full podcast below:
[via]
Labels: Technology
Watch Real Time Flickr Image Uploads
Flickrvision is an amazingly cool mashup of Flickr and Google Maps that lets you spy on live image uploads as they happen. Every time an image gets uploaded, the map moves to the location of the upload. Along with the pretty pictures, you can also see the time of upload, the name of the uploader, and the rough location of the upload. Something like this would make a neat screensaver.
This isn't David Troy's only mashup: he also created Twittervision, which replicates the basic concept for twitters.
This isn't David Troy's only mashup: he also created Twittervision, which replicates the basic concept for twitters.
Labels: Technology
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
How to Search for Webcams on Google (Video)
Our article on watching live webcams and security cameras covers dozens of search terms that bring up publicly accessible video footage. Readers who prefer a video for their learning needs will find this a useful addendum that goes over the process of using Google to search for webcams from start to finish:
Labels: Technology
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales Diaries Now Online
The long drought for Babylon 5 fans will soon be over with the release of B5: The Lost Tales on July 31. In the meantime, several web diaries have been posted, covering various aspects of the production process. Interestingly, they have been distributed to video sharing sites across the web with videos appearing on YouTube, VMIX, and Google Video.
One video covers the production of the many visual effects that will appear with several shots of the new station, Starfuries, a Centauri attack, and a hall of fire.
Another is a reunion video that features some remarks from Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins, and Peter Woodward.
The last shows the aftermath as the stage is variously torn apart or put into storage.
[via]
One video covers the production of the many visual effects that will appear with several shots of the new station, Starfuries, a Centauri attack, and a hall of fire.
Another is a reunion video that features some remarks from Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins, and Peter Woodward.
The last shows the aftermath as the stage is variously torn apart or put into storage.
[via]
Labels: Technology
First Episode of Sanctuary Now Online
The first episode of Sanctuary is now online. In case you missed our first post on Sanctuary, it stars Stargate's Amanda Tapping as a scientist searching for monsters. It is being billed as the first broadcast-quality online sci-fi series. Each webisode will be 15 minutes long.
To get the broadcast-quality version will cost you $1.99, but you can find the free, official low-quality version posted on YouTube.
You can watch it below or here:
To get the broadcast-quality version will cost you $1.99, but you can find the free, official low-quality version posted on YouTube.
You can watch it below or here:
Labels: Technology
Monday, May 14, 2007
How to Avoid Rapidshare and Megaupload Download Limits and Wait Times
Rapidshare is one of the most frustrating websites to download large files off of, especially if they are broken into many pieces while Megaupload positively shines in comparison. So why do people keep using these two services when more generous file hosts like Mediafire exist?
I can only guess that it's simply because so many other people are using them. In order to get free premium Rapidshare accounts, which let you download unlimited amounts of files, users upload their own files onto Rapidshare, hoping enough people download them in turn so that the uploaders can earn enough premium points to qualify for a free account.
But it doesn't have to be that complicated. You can get unlimited Rapidshare downloads more simply.
What you are going to do is request a new IP address from your ISP. This is assuming that you do not subscribe to an Internet service with fixed IP addresses.
First, figure out what your current IP address is by going to IP Chicken. Write down the series of numbers that are displayed. This is your current IP address.
Then, follow the steps below to get a new IP:
1. Go to Start->Run and type in "cmd" without quotes to bring up the command prompt. Hit Enter.
2. Type in "ipconfig /flushdns" without quotes and hit Enter.
3. Type in "ipconfig /release" without quotes and hit Enter.
4. Type in "ipconfig /renew" without quotes and hit Enter. You should now have a new IP address. Check your IP address at IP Chicken again and compare it to the one you got earlier.
5. Now, erase your browser's cache and cookies.
6. Try downloading the Rapidshare or Megaupload file again.
I can only guess that it's simply because so many other people are using them. In order to get free premium Rapidshare accounts, which let you download unlimited amounts of files, users upload their own files onto Rapidshare, hoping enough people download them in turn so that the uploaders can earn enough premium points to qualify for a free account.
But it doesn't have to be that complicated. You can get unlimited Rapidshare downloads more simply.
What you are going to do is request a new IP address from your ISP. This is assuming that you do not subscribe to an Internet service with fixed IP addresses.
First, figure out what your current IP address is by going to IP Chicken. Write down the series of numbers that are displayed. This is your current IP address.
Then, follow the steps below to get a new IP:
1. Go to Start->Run and type in "cmd" without quotes to bring up the command prompt. Hit Enter.
2. Type in "ipconfig /flushdns" without quotes and hit Enter.
3. Type in "ipconfig /release" without quotes and hit Enter.
4. Type in "ipconfig /renew" without quotes and hit Enter. You should now have a new IP address. Check your IP address at IP Chicken again and compare it to the one you got earlier.
5. Now, erase your browser's cache and cookies.
6. Try downloading the Rapidshare or Megaupload file again.
Labels: Technology
Browse the Web in Widescreen: Configuring Firefox for Widescreen Monitors
If you're using a widescreen monitor to browse the web, your monitor is thin and wide (landscape), but your browser is long and skinny (portrait). To correct this mismatch, Jonathan Weare's Widefox displays your tabs in a vertical sidebar instead of horizontally below your bookmarks.
This configuration makes finding tabs a snap with dozens of tabs stacked vertically for easy perusal. You can place the tab bar on either the right or left side of the browser window. Although it's a little tricky to adjust to the new tab bar configuration, Widefox might just be a keeper.
To try it out yourself, all you need to do is install and configure Tab Mix Plus along with a custom userChrome.css file. Click here for the gory details.
[via]
This configuration makes finding tabs a snap with dozens of tabs stacked vertically for easy perusal. You can place the tab bar on either the right or left side of the browser window. Although it's a little tricky to adjust to the new tab bar configuration, Widefox might just be a keeper.
To try it out yourself, all you need to do is install and configure Tab Mix Plus along with a custom userChrome.css file. Click here for the gory details.
Sample Widefox Screenshot
[via]Labels: Technology
Full Episodes of Lexx and Starhunter on Joost
Joost users will soon have to stop complaining about the lack of content on the online video service. Though they don't exactly set the high water mark for science fiction television shows, episodes of Lexx and Starhunter can be viewed in high definition on Joost. Look for them on channel 25, the Alliance Atlantis Sci-Fi channel.
In case you've never heard of either Canadian-produced shows, Starhunter follows the adventures of a bounty hunter looking for his missing son, and Lexx chronicles the misadventures of a group of eclectic characters along with liberal doses of sex and nudity.
Expect even more science fiction shows on Joost once Warner Bros' Sci-Fi Fix channel debuts with Babylon 5 and Invasion.
Need an Joost invite?
In case you've never heard of either Canadian-produced shows, Starhunter follows the adventures of a bounty hunter looking for his missing son, and Lexx chronicles the misadventures of a group of eclectic characters along with liberal doses of sex and nudity.
Expect even more science fiction shows on Joost once Warner Bros' Sci-Fi Fix channel debuts with Babylon 5 and Invasion.
Need an Joost invite?
Joost Channel Catalog
Labels: Technology
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Search for BitTorrent Downloads with TorrentScoop
The folks over at JunkNova have put together a torrent search engine using Google Custom Search. Like DiggTorrents (previously GoogleTorrents), TorrentScoop searches a hand-picked collection of BitTorrent sites for downloads. The interface is spartan; search is the only objective.
Another torrent search engine worth checking out is FullTorrent.
Another torrent search engine worth checking out is FullTorrent.
Labels: Technology
Watch All of TV Online: Streaming Episodes of Heroes, Lost, and The Office
AllofTV.net may not live up to its namesake, but it's not for lack of effort. With shows like CSI, The Simpsons, Heroes, and Lost among the hundreds of choices available both old and new, this online timeshifting site is a comprehensive resource for TV addicts.
Like its many peers, episodes are hosted on third-party video sharing sites like YouTube or Dailymotion. There is also an added dimension of interactivity; users can share comments with each other on the episodes they watch.
You can also check out the catwalk for listings of the most popular shows and episodes. At the moment, The Office, DragonBall Z, and Family Guy are the three leading shows.
Like its many peers, episodes are hosted on third-party video sharing sites like YouTube or Dailymotion. There is also an added dimension of interactivity; users can share comments with each other on the episodes they watch.
You can also check out the catwalk for listings of the most popular shows and episodes. At the moment, The Office, DragonBall Z, and Family Guy are the three leading shows.
Labels: Technology
