Hello everyone, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! 

As we close out the year and celebrate this blog’s 4th anniversary in the next few days, we want to say THANK YOU to all readers for visiting this blog.

To mark the occasion, we have arranged a big product giveaway worth more than USD1,200 exclusive to Friedbeef.com readers!

For more details, do check out the relevant giveaway blog posts below.  Feel free to enter as many of the giveaways as you like :) We’ll do the prize drawing on New Year’s day.

• GIVEAWAY: Audials One: Rip Audio Streams into MP3 Files
• GIVEAWAY: Smart PDF Converter Pro: Convert PDF into DOC files
• GIVEAWAY: TUN3R iPhone App: Discover Music Based on Your Tastes
• GIVEAWAY: Windows 7 Classic Start Menu: Classic Startmenu UI for Win7

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Related Articles at Friedbeef's Tech:

GIVEAWAY: Smart PDF Converter Pro: Convert PDF into DOC files

GIVEAWAY: Windows 7 Classic Start Menu: Classic Startmenu UI for Win7

GIVEAWAY: TUN3R iPhone App: Discover Music Based on Your Tastes

GIVEAWAY: Audials One: Rip Audio Streams into MP3 Files

3 Quick Web 2.0 Tips

What is it?

AudialsOne is a commercial music suite which has one killer feature.  It can record everything you hear on any website or streaming application and automatically saves the file as a new MP3 on your computer.  You can also do this in batch style where you can also just search by genre, artist or song title and AudialsOne will scour the internet for streams which are playing relevant material and record them to your PC as well.

AudialsOne takes care of DRM copy protection and file format problems with music  and audio book files via its PerfectAudio quality guarantee

The giveaway

Worth USD59.90 each, but we’re giving it away to 10 lucky Friedbeef.com readers thanks to our sponsors :)

How to Get It: 

10 readers will be selected randomly to receive this giveaway.  To be eligible:

Just leave a comment on this post

OR

tweet this post and tag #friedbeefgifts

You can do both to increase your chances :) We’ll do the prize drawing on New Year’s day.

This post is part of our Christmas giveaway bonanza to say THANK YOU for reading this blog – Do check out our OTHER seasonal giveaways and feel free to enter as many of them as you like.

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Related Articles at Friedbeef's Tech:

Christmas Giveaway: More than USD 1,200 Worth of Products now FREE

GIVEAWAY: Smart PDF Converter Pro: Convert PDF into DOC files

GIVEAWAY: Windows 7 Classic Start Menu: Classic Startmenu UI for Win7

GIVEAWAY: TUN3R iPhone App: Discover Music Based on Your Tastes

iPhone App Giveaway: 20 FREE Copies of BattPowr

What is it?

Converting any document to PDF is fairly straightforward.  Going the other way around however, is much tougher especially when trying to reproduce the original layout of the PDF in a Microsoft Word file.  Smart PDF Converter is a commercial grade software which does just that.  Aside from Doc and MS-Word files, it also supports PDF conversion to other file formats like HTML, TXT, XLS, JPEG.

The giveaway

Worth USD69.90 each, but we’re giving it away to 7 lucky Friedbeef.com readers thanks to our sponsors :)

How to Get It: 

7 readers will be selected randomly to receive this giveaway.  To be eligible:

Just leave a comment on this post

OR

tweet this post and tag #friedbeefgifts

You can do both to increase your chances :) We’ll do the prize drawing on New Year’s day.

This post is part of our Christmas giveaway bonanza to say THANK YOU for reading this blog – Do check out our OTHER seasonal giveaways and feel free to enter as many of them as you like.

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Related Articles at Friedbeef's Tech:

Christmas Giveaway: More than USD 1,200 Worth of Products now FREE

Top 5 Free Ways to Convert ANY File

3 Playlist Ideas To Enchance Your Itunes Experience

GIVEAWAY: Windows 7 Classic Start Menu: Classic Startmenu UI for Win7

GIVEAWAY: TUN3R iPhone App: Discover Music Based on Your Tastes

What is it?

With last.fm and Pandora shutting its doors to many international users, TUN3R is an alternative  iPhone internet radio app for the TUN3R web service which picks and streams radio stations based on your music tastes.  Certainly a great way to discover new music. 

The giveaway

Worth USD2.99 each, but we’re giving it away to 5 lucky Friedbeef.com readers thanks to our sponsors :)

How to Get It: 

5 readers will be selected randomly to receive this giveaway.  To be eligible:

Just leave a comment on this post

OR

tweet this post and tag #friedbeefgifts

You can do both to increase your chances :) We’ll do the prize drawing on New Year’s day.

This post is part of our Christmas giveaway bonanza to say THANK YOU for reading this blog – Do check out our OTHER seasonal giveaways and feel free to enter as many of them as you like.

---
Related Articles at Friedbeef's Tech:

Christmas Giveaway: More than USD 1,200 Worth of Products now FREE

iPhone App Giveaway: 20 FREE Copies of BattPowr

GIVEAWAY: Smart PDF Converter Pro: Convert PDF into DOC files

GIVEAWAY: Windows 7 Classic Start Menu: Classic Startmenu UI for Win7

GIVEAWAY: Audials One: Rip Audio Streams into MP3 Files

What is it?

Classic Start Menu is an alternative to the Windows 7 Start Menu. It emulates the old classic start menu which we’re all familiar with.  Useful if you don’t like the Windows7 Start Menu and long for the ‘good old days’.

The giveaway

Worth USD19.99 each, but we’re giving it away to 5 lucky Friedbeef.com readers thanks to our sponsors :)

How to Get It: 

5 readers will be selected randomly to receive this giveaway.  To be eligible:

Just leave a comment on this post

OR

tweet this post and tag #friedbeefgifts

You can do both to increase your chances :) We’ll do the prize drawing on New Year’s day.

This post is part of our Christmas giveaway bonanza to say THANK YOU for reading this blog – Do check out our OTHER seasonal giveaways and feel free to enter as many of them as you like.

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It is estimated that unwanted electronics represents 1.9 to 2.2 million tons in the US alone. The majority of these products, about 1.5 to 1.9 million tons, were discarded in landfills with only 345,000 to 379,000 tons recycled. The end result isn’t pretty. E-waste is toxic and 40% of heavy metals – such as lead, mercury, cadmium – in our landfills comes from the disposal of electronic equipment. 

Here are 9 cool web services which pay you for trading in your phone (or other old gadgets) you have lying around.  In order to help you pick one, we did a head to head acid test by picking 3 phones and comparing payouts from trading in each phone, from each site.

The Acid Test

• 1 high end: iPhone 3G (2nd Gen) 16GB
• 1 mid range: Blackberry Curve 8310
• 1 low end: Nokia 1110

All slightly used but good working condition.  All carrier unlocked.  All with the box and everything that comes with it (chargers, manuals, cables etc)

1. How to get the best trade-in deals quickly: BuyMyTronics

BuyMyTronics first started of as BuyMyBrokeniPod.com several years ago when we first wrote about them a couple of years ago.  Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength and have expanded to cover all forms of consumer electronics and they have one the highest payouts around. 

It has a brilliant search-as-you-type interface which makes it absolutely a breeze to find whatever you’re looking for and the payout rates are among the best.  I guess a good testament to how their service is, is that if you go back to that old post we did 2 years ago, all the other services we wrote about have shut down, while BuyMyTronics now turns over a million dollars in revenue, and have expanded into multiple categories (all that while being 100% windmill powered too). 

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD206
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD65
• Nokia 1110 USD0

2. How to come together as a group to combat e-waste: RecyclingFundraiser

RecyclingFundraiser is a service which also takes in all kinds of electronics, and even accepts jewelry for trade-in!  What I really like about them is the fact that they mainly promote community recycling.  In fact they have a whole resource library for running your own recycling fundraiser, so now you can help the environment, raise awareness about e-waste and trade in for cash to help another good cause at the same time.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD75
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD25
• Nokia 1110 USD3

3. How to get store credit with your old gadgets : C.Exchange

This service has pretty decent payouts, and also ties into a large selection of retailers including Radioshack and CompUSA for store credit.  Just a note that when I tested, I noticed you in many cases, you get a better payout opting for cash rather than store credit.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD191.74
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD57.39
• Nokia 1110 : NA

4. How to get money even when your friends trade in old gadgets: EZTradein

EZTradein is like a typical trade-in site, but it also has an affiliate program which offers 3% of all sales made to the center coming from your affiliate link.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD106
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD48.78
• Nokia 1110 : NA

5. How to get the best trade-in deals and help plant a tree: Flipswap

Flipswap or Greenphone offers some of the best trade-in prices as well.  They also have a separate program which ties up with retailers and plants a tree for every transaction made with their instore program.  This is expected to result in 250,000 trees planted in 2009.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD230.75
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD49
• Nokia 1110 USD USD5.60

6. How to recycle gadgets and help a good cause: YouRenew

Aside from the typical trade-ins, YouRenew will also donate towards a Renewable Energy Certificate, or plant a tree on top of paying you for your goods. 

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD179
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD55
• Nokia 1110 : NA

7. How to sell in bulk: Gazelle

On top of the usual gadget trade-ins Gazelle also caters to volume selling so if you’re an organization, school or business, you may be able to get a better bulk deal there.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD196
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD48
• Nokia 1110 : USD0

Other online recycle centers:

8. MyBoneYard

A basic recycling site.  Average payouts.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD148
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD51
• Nokia 1110 : USD0

9. ecoNew

Econew ties into a few retailers but it’s not as flexible as some of the other services here.

Acid Test Results:  What you get for trading in…

• iPhone 3G 16GB USD85
• Blackberry Curve 8310 USD51
• Nokia 1110 USD0

VERDICT:

Bottom line:

The top two choices based on payout seem to be BuyMyTronics and Flipswap, both which give the best trade-in rates based on our acid test. 

However, do check out the other services as well because most of them offer their own unique spin.  No matter what you pick however, give yourself a pat on the back for keeping one more gadget out of the landfill.

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Aspiring writers, freelancers, bloggers and students take note! There’s a new war against plagiarism heightened by the recent rash of content theft, more notably amongst bloggers and freelance journalists.  Here are 5 simple detect plagiarism of your content.

1. How to Look for Copies of your Work Online

Undoubtedly the most well known in the field for fast, accurate searches, Copyscape is every plagiarist’s nightmare! It functions by finding sites that have copied content without permission simply by typing in your URL.  Copyscape is free, but has a premium edition that allows more powerful tools like batch Search, which you can use to check your entire site for copies in a single click, up to 10,000 pages.

2. How to Detect Plagiarism in the Work of Others

Article Checker has been around for a long time, as its classic look belies. However, the adage “old is gold” certainly holds true, as this site has been time-tested to be reliable in what it claims to do. Simply copy and paste the text of the article you want to search for, and Article Checker will scour either Google, Yahoo, or both for signs of plagiarism online. This can be useful if you’re an editor trying to root out the “real” writers from the “copy & paste”-rs.

Alternatively you may also want to check out The Plagiarism Checker developed by the University of Maryland which processes documents and intelligently decides which phrases to searches on.

3. How to Remove the Possibility of being Falsely Accused of Plagiarism: College Students Alert!

Created with college students in mind, PlagiarismDetect is a relatively new site which requires registration for a free account. It promises detection for text and phrases to ensure assignments are 100% original, which means that students can now think ahead to prevent being wrongly accused of plagiarism. However, that’s not to say that others can’t benefit from its services as well.

It even supports document uploads so you can just send it your entire assignment for it to be processed.  The site has proven to be accurate and encourages users to use it on a regular basis as newer and more advanced features are being added to it by the day.

4. How to check for Plagiarism using Yahoo! Search

This site has received numerous recommendations all over the web, so it’s worth a shot. Plagium is a reliable site which has makes use of Yahoo’s Search API to search the Internet for plagiarism. As far as efficiency is concerned, ratings have shown that it does nearly as well as CopyScape Premium, so you can rest assured that it will deliver results.

It has a clean and simple interface which doesn’t support ads, so for all those ad-haters out there, this site is especially for you. Just make sure to donate a little to support their cause.

5. How to Root Out Plagiarism Offenders…and Get Your Fair Share of Money!

Fair Share is a free service site that helps detect plagiarism via RSS feeds. In a matter of seconds, you’ll get results in a personalized RSS feed encompassing billions of websites. Targeted at bloggers and Webmasters who want to keep track of how their content is being used, by whom and where, Fair Share works with Creative Commons licenses to sniff out where content reappears, how often it is used and whether the content is linked or not.

An excellent choice for bloggers and others who can’t afford or don’t have the time to use a more advanced system. Plus, as the above picture suggests, you can even demand payment from the ad networks who run the plagiarized content!

Bonus Links for Reference

• 13 Simple Tactics to Prevent, Detect Content Plagiarism – A great preventive guide on how to deal with content plagiarism
• WordPress Plugin: Digital Fingerprint — detecting content theft – An awesome wordpress plugin which helps you track down content stolen from you
• Reduce Content Theft with WP-CopyRight Pro Wordpress Plugin – A wordpress plugin which disables copying from your site (I’ll leave it to you to decide if it’s too extreme and whether it hurts you more in the long run)
• How to Report Abuse to WordPress.com – A guide to reporting spam and abuse to Wordpress.com
• How to Deal with Online Plagiarism: When People Copy your Blog Articles Without Permission – An excellent step by step manual on how to deal with plagiarism when it happens to you.
• Plagiarism Today – An up to date resource on the topic

This article was written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang.  Contact me if you wish to become a writer for this blog.

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A Blast From The Past… 5 Useful Web Services

Everyone knows how to tell how much battery power their iPhone has.  Just look at the battery meter – and read :)

What most people don’t know however is what that number actually means when it comes to usage.  Let’s say you have 40% battery power remaining. 

• Do you know how many songs you can listen to?
• or how much you can surf the web?
• or how many videos you can watch?

The awesome app

BattPowr is an iPhone app which tells you exactly that. 

Here are some key features:

• calculates the remaining time for different usages, including: audio playback, video playback, web browsing on Wi-Fi, EDGE and 3G, as well as talk time on both 2G and 3G networks
• accurate information on remaining battery time
• checks device type before estimating remaining time
• beautifully designed interface, multiple skins & large visual indicators
• battery image animates while device is charging
• always on mode when charging, see your device charge itself
• support for ALL iPhone & iPod touch models

The giveaway

This app goes for USD$1.99 but the kind folks at xcoolapps, have kindly given me 20 FREE copies to distribute to readers of this blog :)

How to win it? – All you have to do is drop a comment below indicating that you want this app and I’ll send you the redemption code.

The first 20 people get this app for FREE!  Hurry and drop your comment now!

ps. If you like the app, please make sure you give it a good review on iTunes!

ps. This offer is only valid for a US iTunes account.  If you don’t live in the US, you can still set up a US iTunes account in 2 minutes for free by following this tutorial.

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Smart people never stop learning new things. They’re naturally curious, and self-improvement is simply a part of their make up.  There’s plenty of free apps and web sites where you can learn anything you want – from a new language to cooking techniques.

Here are five of my favorite learning tools available for the asking. (Just log on and learn!)

1. How to read faster

Spreeder will have you gobbling up information faster than you ever thought possible using the site’s unique speed reading tutorial. You can set the speed text appears and gradually improve your speed reading skills – eye scan drills, key points, etc.

Another use? Let’s say you have a paper due for school tomorrow. It’s late and you don’t have time to read that 50-page white paper on the eating habits of the dreaded El Wanco wombat. No problem. Cut and paste that intriguing article into Spreeder’s text box and Spreeder extracts key points so you don’t have to read all those pages to get to the “meat” of the article, report, white paper or other academic research. Spreeder is a time-saver and a learning tool – one you’ll keep on your desktop. I do. It cuts research chores down to size.

2. How to quickly research a subject

Designed as a starting point for research, Schoolr is a research specialized search engine which points you to Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, Google, dictionary sites and other helpful web spaces looking for the latest information on the topic of your search.

3. How to type faster

Rapid Typing is all about keyboards and entering data faster and more reliably.

There’s a typing tutor download (free), an on-line typing “school,” a stat sheet to record your progress, a typing lessons editor for teachers and a “play” area for kids that turns learning to type into a game that’ll have you and the whole family touch typing in just a couple of hours.

If you’re a “hunt-and-peck” typist, learning to type without staring at the keyboard will increase your productivity and fast. It’s fun and easy, and you can work on- or off-line, whichever makes you most comfortable.

4. How to sit in on university lectures

Lecturefox is a free web service that allows you to sit in on lectures on all kinds of topics given by professors and other scholars from major learning institutions like MIT, Yale University and other schools – all from the comfort of your laptop.

For example, today there are recorded lectures from Yale on “France since 1871,” “Introduction to Literature Theory,” the “Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food” and other things that’ll get you thinking and make you sound smart at your next lodge meeting. Just log in, scroll through the lectures and learn something new everyday. Free.

New topics are uploaded daily so bookmark the site. In just a few visits, you’ll discover your favorite professors and lecturers who provide the latest information in the most detail.

You don’t have to be an egghead to learn about Roman architecture. Just bookmark Lecturefox and learn for the fun of it. You don’t even have to “know this for the quiz” because there are no quizzes.

5. How to learn languages at your own pace

Livemocha is a combination of social media and language learning. You learn by communicating with others interested in learning your native language. You’ll make friends who share your interest in learning and, “si, hablo español” as you get to know more about interesting, educated people from around the world.

Simply type in your native language into the form field. Then, type in the language you want to learn. With a click, you’ll be sent to a chat room where people are bi- and even tri-lingual. And, instead of learning a foreign language from a book or boring audio disks, at Livemocha, you learn by carrying on discussions that interest you with people who want to learn your native tongue.

Think of it as a language swap meet. “I’ll teach you English if you teach me Swahili.” It’s that simple.

So, if you’re curious. If you’re into self-improvement. If you want better grades at school, there are lots of applications and web sites that’ll set you on the path to a bigger brain.

This was a guest post by Edward Khoo who writes about blogging tips, internet marketing, and web 2.0.  Want to guest post on this blog?  Just drop me a line.

What other learning apps and websites do you use?  Tell us in the comments!

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Have you ever come across websites which seem to take…for..e..ver….to load? They can be an annoyance, right? And with the way the Internet highway is designed, slow websites with smashing artwork and attractive bling often drive away more people than simple, and clean websites attract.

1. How to Optimize Style: Use CSS as often as you can, and tone down on Javascript

Javascript can add a lot of flair to your website, but more often than not we tend to borrow lines of code from other fellow developers rather than reinvent the wheel. Sounds logical, right? Well, the problem with using other people’s JS is that they usually contain lots of code which we ourselves don’t need. Borrowing CSS, however, doesn’t present that problem as much. So if you want your website to display smoothly on dial-up lines, try switching styles a little.

Also check out this excellent post on 53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without

2. How to Optimize Images: Focus your Format

GIF? PNG? JPG? …JPEG? One drawback of the widespread availability of the Internet is that practically anybody can contribute to its development. This leads to overchoice, which consequently is good, but not so good at the same time, and image optimization is no exception. Knowing what type of format to use for your digital images can save you a lot of hard drive estate. Use GIF for flat-tone colors, JPG for bright snazzy photographs with millions of colors, and alternate between either GIF and JPG for PNG when you feel it’ll give you better quality. Basically, different formats handle different images better, so you can expect a sizable difference in image size when you use the correct type. Also, be sure to use the “Save for Web” options in image editors.

Also check out this excellent post on 4 free tools to optimize and compress PNG images without losing quality

3. How to Minimize Latency: Group Files Together – United We Stand

When you write your website, do you write it page by page starting from the bottom up, or with a bird’s eye view? In most cases, the latter method is better, as you’ll get to save time and space when you code. For instance, CSS and JavaScript both allow you the option to save standalone files for reference by your other pages. This allows you to write a single CSS batch file and share it two to a million webpages, instead of having to rewrite the code every time you start a new page. Can you imagine how much space Google saves by having just one CSS reference file?

4. How to Squeeze the Sponge Dry: Extra Tips to counter Time-Lag

There are a certain number of things you can do to reduce the waiting time your website’s visitors have to endure; some which still not many may know of. Make sure to add a slash to the end of your links: “www.myname.com/about/”, as opposed to “www.myname.com/about”. This tells the server that it’s reached the end of the road, so it doesn’t have to waste (milli)seconds detouring when you click on a link. It may not be landing on the moon, but well, you take what you can get.

5. How to optimize your cache for Wordpress sites: Use super-cache

SuperCache is a free Wordpress plugin that caches your page as a static html file. When your visitors arrive at your site, they will be served the static page instead of the actual page.  This usually makes it much faster for your visitors, and more importantly it creates less strain and burden for your servers.

This article was written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang.  Contact me if you wish to become a writer for this blog.

Those were 5 simple tips to get started.  What other tips do you have for speeding up websites?  Tell us in the comments!

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I got this in my Google Wave mailbox today:

“Invite others to Google Wave

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.  Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.

Happy waving!”

So what is Google Wave?

Currently an exclusive invite-only service, Google wave is a whole new way of communicating online!

“Google Wave is an online communication and collaboration tool that makes real-time interactions more seamless — in one place, you can communicate and collaborate using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is a conversation with multiple participants — participants are people added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.”

via Google Wave Support

Here’s a video do you get a better idea of this cool service:

Anyhow, Google Wave is currently under development, and they’ve released a limited number of private invites to their fully usable preview edition.

Want a free super exclusive private invite to Google Wave?  (CLOSED)

Just drop a comment on what your favorite Google Wave feature is, and how you would use it, and I’ll pick 10 lucky winners by the end of this week!

Update: here are our 10 lucky winners, and why they want to use Google Wave!:

1. Rebecca

I am a math coach at an elementary school, and I am really intrigued by the real-time communication tool, especially with the translator robot. I spend a lot of time discussing solution strategies with my students. Instead of watching me solve a problem, they collaborate with each other about how to solve problems. This practice helps them build real-life problem solving skills. There is a lot of talk in education today (especially in math) about comparisons between US students and students from other countries. I would love to be able to bring my students into this conversation by allowing them to share their solution strategies with students from other countries! I think this would be a powerful use of the technology, and one that would really drive home an important social concept to my math students.

2. byflipper

Due to multinational projects I am leading, i often need to communicate with people speaking other languages than my own. So, that instantly translating service of Wave amazed me with one word! I’d be pleased to be invited and be a part of this revolution!

3. cho

i really love the fact that it will enable better communication within members of group projects. I have been apart of multiple group assignments where there was a mess of the emails passed back and forth whilst certain members missed out on important information altogether. That’s why I’m really excited about Google wave since it changes the way we collectively communicate and recieve information ( and real-time adds a factor of cool) and that was my mini essay…

4. Jessie

I’m a student journalist, and my college newspaper is working on developing its online presence. As a leader within the newspaper, I would like to be able to collaborate with other students at my paper, along with other journalists, to discuss the future of journalism and how the web plays into it. However, none of the people using Wave at my newspaper received any invitations, so I can’t join their conversation. :( It would be beneficial to me and our newspaper if I could join in the discussion!

5. Ron

As a pastor, I’m always sending emails, documents and spreadsheets to others for worship planning. With input from several staff people, our Admin. Assistant cobbles together the Sunday worship bulletin. I think Wave will make our lives easier and our communication better.

6. Claes

I want to get a head start on using Wave to help edit stories. I would post a document and have all the people who need to comment it or edit it to do it without having to send different versions back and forth in an average of 10 emails for one story! It is very frustrating and confusing and wastes lots of time.

7. Daniel Coopsammy

I would like a chance to start using Google wave because i have a lot of team project for college that require team members to share information, a lot of the times requiring us to edit the same document multiply times. Google wave seems like a perfect fit in terms of giving us the ability to share information real time and without the need of sending 30 different emails for the same project.

8. Mrs Banka

As a math teacher, I think Google Wave could revolutionize group projects by lowering the classroom walls so that students can converse with students all over the world. The real-time display of typing will only be pertinent for those students in relatively close time zones, but think about a group of students set up to solve a common, real-life problem. I’d also like to see how the Wave would boost the digital PLN. I just graduated in May with my B.S. in Math Ed and am currently in graduate school for Curriculum and Instruction… but I can already tell, I want to be a change agent in the schools. And what better way than to already be armed with the technology experience to incorporate in my classroom. I want to make math real, meaningful and understandable and I think group projects with students outside of the classroom would be phenomenal!

9. John Lombaerde

I think that education and training is one of the greatest applications for Google Wave. I deal with complex technology subjects on a regular basis, and I always try to use layman’s terms in my explanation, but sometimes the written or spoken word is just not enough. The Multimedia drag and drop capabilities of Google Wave seem to have great potential, as well as the playback feature. These would both be very valuable in a technology training session. The asset Google Wave could bring to online education is very significant, and one for which I would have an immediate use

10. Patrick

I’m currently getting my masters in multimedia and am looking at using Google Wave heavily within my graduate project. I plan on incorporating it into an online educational model aimed towards kids with learning disabilities. It is such a cool and useful tool.

For all those who didn’t win, thanks for participating – and if I do get another bunch of invites, I’ll post them up online again!

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Ever wondered how some people manage to take beautiful pictures of their desktops or games and post it on the Facebook or LinkedIn profile? Well, it isn’t that hard actually, and with a few handy tools in mind, you’ll be able to do the same. Here are some nifty and interesting ways to capture screenshots of your desktop.

1. How to screen capture in free-form

Snipping Tool is Window’s very own answer to the legions of Microsoft fans (and critics) who have long been demanding for a way to capture custom screenshots. There are a few options for you to choose from when you make a snip: you can make a rectangular screenshot, dictate the shape and area of your capture by using the free-form snip, or just capture a regular full-screen one. One drawback is that Snipping Tool is only available on Windows Vista and 7, so XP users might feel a little left behind.

2. How to get a portable screencapture tool

FSCapture, otherwise known as FastStone Capture, is one of the most versatile screenshot capture tools on the block. At 1.5 Megabytes, it’s small enough to fit on even the smallest of portable flash drives. Plus, it comes as a standalone program, or an executable, so you can use it straight out of the box, without having to go through the hassle of installing it first. Take note that FSCapture is only freeware from versions 5.3 and below, as the producers have started charging for the higher updates. However, I’ve been using version 5.2 for awhile now, and it seems to be good enough.

3. How to capture multiple screenshots in-game without having to minimize

Ever saw pictures of other players performing Monster Kills posted online, and wanted to do the same? Tired of having to hit the PrtScn button and minimizing your full screen game just to paste the photo in Paint? If you’ve answered yes to any of that, Gadwin Printscreen is a freeware version of Snipping Tool that will cause you to salivate over. It’s pretty much like Snipping Tool, but if you run it in the background, you can customize it to take multiple screenshots while you are in-game, and worry about saving the screenshots later. Just remember turn off the notifications before you start playing.

4. How to capture screenshots, screencasts, and webcam photos and store them all online

Jing has to be one of the gaudiest looking screenshot capture programs available. Unlike its many counterparts, Jing tries to make things look awesome at the same time by providing a really nice-looking interface. And while you can use Jing only for its screen capture abilities, you may enjoy the other functions which Jing provides, namely the screencasting and webcam capture options. In addition, Jing automatically synchronizes with Screencast.com, so you can store your captures online immediately.

5. How to Screencapture effectively in Linux

Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program. You can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website – apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window (Only for Linux). 

Bonus Link: 5 Alternative Screen Capture Tools For Your Mac

This post was written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang

What screencapture tools do you use?  Tell us in the comments!

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In conjunction with Blog Action Day, here are 3 tech-savvy ways to help with one of the most serious issues of our generation – Climate Change.

1. How to have fun while saving the world

Carbon Rally is a eco-community where people can discover and commit to small, positive actions over time. People on the site could propose great ideas for saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and the community would choose the best ideas to pursue as a team.

The collective impacts are tracked, and it can show the power of many people getting the job done together.  You can ‘compete’ with friends or people from around the world to take up these small challenges and see how you can make a difference.

2. How to easily find green products

Ecoseek is a search engine for eco friendly and green products. Their mission is to connect consumers with eco-friendly products, manufacturers and local earth-conscious retailers.  Here you’ll find everything from baby products to furniture. 

All items listed are tagged to show how it’s eco friendly.  For example, you’ll be able to gauge whether it’s recycled, manufactured in a sustainable process, organic etc.  All so it’s much easier for you can make an environmentally conscious purchase.

3. How to easily find carpool buddies on facebook

Carpool is a facebook app which allows you to cut down your carbon emissions by sharing rides.  It’s quite robust in functionality and allows you to:

• view rides in your network
• search them
• manage your frequent locations using Google Maps
• determine how far a detour you need to drive to pick someone up
• Track all the rides you’ve shared, and the miles you’ve traveled and calculate your reduction in CO2 emissions

Always a useful green app if you want to help cut down your carbon footprint when you travel.

Remember, green vanity apps are important, but they don’t mean anything until you do something about it.  Go out, and change the world, and Happy Blog Action Day!

Are you participating in Blog Action Day?  Tell us your blog post in the comments!

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Say what you will about the up-to-date twitters and chat away on your instant messengers, but web users will always come back to their email. With many types to choose from, including various webmails and POP3 emails, it’s no wonder that most users will have more than one email account.

Checking each and every account regularly just to see if there’s any new mail becomes tedious very fast, which is why email notifiers have become such a big hit with many users.  Here are 5 of the best email notifiers for your perusal.

1. How to effectively manage 16 email accounts

ePrompter is a free service that allows you to easily handle up to 16 email accounts at one time.  ePrompter lets you read, delete and respond to any of your messages with a simple click on the account of your choice – without ever having to launch your email program or go to your webmail’s site. Importantly, when ePrompter retrieves messages, it leaves the original messages on your various email accounts’ servers and/or webmail sites.

2. Where to get an email notifier which is portable

POP Peeper is free another system tray app that offers visual and audio alerts for when a new email arrives in your inbox. Working with POP3 and IMAP servers, it also responds well to Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail along with other major webmail services.  One key feature is that it is able to run directly off your portable storage device so you can take it anywhere and use it on any machine.

3. How to use email notifiers on Firefox

WebMail Notifier is a Firefox add-on that checks your webmail accounts and tells you the number of unread emails.  It handles most of the major webmail services and also allows you to set up user scripts for the webmail services that it doesn’t come preloaded with. It is however tied to Mozilla Firefox browsers only, so IE and Chrome users won’t be able to benefit from it. 

4. How to get notified about your webmail via Outlook

Released under the GNU GPL license, FreePOPs allows checking and downloading of e-mail from webmails from any conventional POP3 client program. This means it works in tandem with your normal POP3 email client like Outlook Express, allowing it to handle any POP3 email along with most webmail services.

While it isn’t exactly an email notifier per se, it does offer email checking services along with plenty of extra functions and plugins that allow it to be expanded for even more uses. FreePOPs is cross-platform and should work anywhere. It also works in the background, reducing system slowdown.

5. How to fight spam and get notified of email at the same time

The Chrysanth Email Notifier can handle POP3, IMAP4 and Gmail. More than just a notifier, it offers audio and visual alerts along with an internal email viewer. It can handle multiple email accounts and supports extra features like blacklists, whitelists and various customizable filters. For the most part, Chrysanth is quite easy to use with its most notable feature being its filters, minimizing the occurrence of spam to once in a blue moon. The app is freeware and runs in the background as a system tray icon.

This article written by Aaron Pek & James Yeang

Do you use email notifiers?  Tell us in the comments!

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People are increasingly turning to flash drives, little pen-sized blocks which somehow manage to store a briefcase full of information, to carry their work or personal details around. While they’re satisfyingly convenient, their petite dimensions ironically contribute to the worst thing about them: flash drives are frustratingly easy to misplace.

Whether it’s your favourite playlist or sensitive information, here are a few auto-backup solutions to ensure that you never find yourself hanging in unexpected circumstances.

1. How to Auto-Backup with Windows

SyncToy is a native Microsoft Tool that allows you to backup information located on your storage mediums with a single click. It works by “pairing” two folders in different locations and updating the files in each so that they have the same content inside.

It even comes with three options: updating the files from Left to Right without overwriting them, updating and overwriting them, or updating bi-directionally. By itself, SyncToy doesn’t automatically backup your files, but it comes with a handy tutorial which teaches you how to use Window’s very own Task Scheduler to do exactly that.

2. How to Schedule your Auto-Backups

As far as freeware comes, GoodSync is among the best you can get. It makes an effort to be classy (has a nice interface), is user-friendly, and does exactly what it says it will do. Like SyncToy, it makes use of the Left and Right concept to simplify the learning process.

Unlike SyncToy, GoodSync has a built-in synchronization setting which allows you to schedule when you’d like your backups to happen. This means that it backs-up your flash drive automatically as long as it’s plugged into your computer at the specified time (set it to whenever you frequent your computer).

3. How to Easily Customize your Auto-Backups

If you’re prefer a more classic touch or just want to keep things simple, DSynchronize is a great tool with a clean interface which flattens the learning curve. All the appropriate checkboxes and buttons are where they’re supposed to be, and its simplicity stands out so much that you get the hang of it simply by “muddling” through, or experimenting by yourself.

Like GoodSync, it has a built-in timer, and even makes useful options like Autostart and Shutdown at the end available on the front page so you don’t need to dig into the “Preferences” folder every time you want to tweak your…well, preferences.

This post was written by Aaron Pek.  Contact us to join our writing staff!

Do you back up your flash drives?  Tell us in the comments!

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