OgasaWalrus.com

Spezify: Visual Search Tool

todd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:44:22 -1000

I learned about this visual search tool when I decided to check-in on the Twitlive video stream and ended up watching a Net@Nite discussion between Leo LaPorte and Sarah Lane...

Spezify

I'm not sure it is something I will use regularly. But, it does provide an interesting way to literally "look for something" on the web.

Note: It doesn't render correctly when viewed using Safari 4. However, Firefox 3's rendering looks fine.

TrueCrypt 6.2a: FIle Container or Full Drive Encryption

todd — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:22:08 -1000

Just a quick note that TrueCrypt 6.2a was released on June 15. TrueCrypt is an amazing Open Source encryption app that can create encrypted file containers that are mounted as drives or entire drives (including boot drives). It works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Adobe's Acrobat.com Became a Freemium Service

todd — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:56:03 -1000

Adobe's Acrobat.com added a somewhat pricey (compared to most other web services) premium service in addition to its existing free service.

Acrobat.com Premium

The premium service is priced at $39 per month or discounted to $390 if you play for a full year.

You can find a good description of the site's premium service in this CNET article...

Farkie.com: Transcode and Download YouTube & Other Web Media

todd — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:46:05 -1000

I learned about...

Farkie.com

Microsoft's Jimmy Schementi Talks About IronRuby in a Channel 9 Video Interview

todd — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:25:26 -1000

BeanShell: Lightweight Java Scripting

todd — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:35:17 -1000

I just learned about the...

BeanShell

...Java scripting language while reading about the new Android Scripting Environment and writing about it for the MobileContentToday blog...

Android Scripting Environment Both Awesome & Frightening

Its installers are are Java jar files. So, I'll guess it can be used on any platform that Java runs on. I'm definitely planning on taking a closer look at it sometime soon.

Google Docs Supports Microsoft Word/Excel 2007 DOCX/XLSX File Formats

todd — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:25:13 -1000

The Official Google Docs Blog announced...

The file formats keep on coming! Announcing .xlsx and .docx support

This means the Microsoft Office 2007's XML-ish Microsoft Word and Excel file formats are support now. Just in time for Microsoft Office 2010 :-)

PHP SDK for Windows Azure: Java/Ruby SDKs Funded Too

todd — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:13:24 -1000

Interesting item from Microsoft's Port25 site...

Announcing the PHP SDK for Windows Azure

I found this part of the announcement equally interesting...

Microsoft has provided funding for two other SDKs that support third party programming languages: Java SDK for Microsoft .NET Services and Ruby SDK for Microsoft .NET Services so as to facilitate interoperability between the Azure Services Platform and non-Microsoft languages and technologies.

ServerFault.com: Q&A Site for SysAdmins & IT Pros

todd — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:27:29 -1000

ServerFault.com may not be the best name for a website, but if you are a system administrator or IT professional, you might want to consider bookmarking it. It is a Q&A site for this group of people with a Digg-like look and voting structure. Here's how their About page description starts out:

Anecdotal Info from Steve Gibson: Avast Anti-Virus Found 50% More Malware Than AVG

todd — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:04:19 -1000

I'm way behind in listening to the Security Now podcast featuring Steve Gibson. So, I just listened to Security Now 189 (March 26, 2009). This particular podcast episode focuses on Internet Explorer 8. However, Gibson discussed an anecdotal, but very interesting, finding before the jumping into the main podcast topic. He mentioned that a friend's notebook became infected by malware. He tried the free editions of both AVG and Avast anti-virus.

Google Speeds Up Chrome Browser, Adds Fullscreen Mode - Still No Mac Version

todd — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:43:20 -1000

YouTube video courtesy of Google

U.S. Data.gov Site Provides Machine Readable Datasets to the Public

todd — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:54:32 -1000

The U.S. Government's...

Data.gov

...is up and running.

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

I'm looking forward to dipping into it to see what is there and hope to see a bunch of cool web-data mashups resultings from its availability.

WolframAlpha Terms of Use: Be Sure to Read It!

todd — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:20:12 -1000

Interesting item over on Growlaw that should be read by anyone who might use a result from the WolframAlpha computational query engine...

WolframAlpha wants full citation credit for anything it generates that is used in a publication according to Groklaw.

WolframAlpha Continues to Amaze Me: A Few Sample Queries You Can Try

todd — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:16:21 -1000

The WolframAlpha computational query engine continues to amaze and amuse me. If it could speak answers to queries in the late Majel Roddenberry's voice (voice of the various Enterprise computers), it would really feel like getting a response from a Star Trek computer.

Here's a couple of amusing exercises you can try typing:

- sin(x) cos(y)
You can see a small part of WolframAlpha's response above

- Type in the first names of your family members in the text entry box

bit.ly Made It Easier to Check Link Click Numbers for its Short URLs

todd — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:09:37 -1000

I use bit.ly to shorten all the URLs (web addresses) I share on Twitter (I'm @toddogasawara on Twitter) because it keeps track of how many times a shortened bit.ly generated URL is clicked. So, it gives me an idea of how interested other people are about a particular item or topic.