Internet Grazing

Visualize The Internet! Interesting Web Maps and Diagrams

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:18:00 +0000

It's difficult to visualize the Internet. With millions of servers, hubs, ports, etc... The Internet may sound more like an advanced road infrastructure. However, when examining many of these charts below, [which are showing only fractions of the Internet]. The Internet appears to be its own little galaxy. With millions and millions of components all intertwined to create it's whole.

I don't think these maps are too accurate, however they are very entertaining to look at and examine.

Enjoy.

Webnode - Google, Look out!

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:03:00 +0000

Ajax-Based Website Builder WebNode delivers an innovative way of creating and editing websites that redefines the industry with website building technology that is easy to use. Users can create active content (articles, polls, FAQ, dynamic lists, e-commerce, site maps and photo galleries) via drag-and-drop from the toolbar, wherever the user wants them to display on the page.

I have used many free hosting websites, and this one beats them all. By a mile [and a half]. It may even be safe to say that Webnode is ahead of google in free website hosting. They have a very simple, straight forward user interface for the beginners; and open css for the more advanced users. They have 20 or so very impressive templates, all of which are completely customizable. Webnode also provides cname and dns information for FREE. Yep, you heard right. Go buy a domain, and have a very impressive website up in under an hour.

You should probably go create a few webnode accounts soon, because as its popularity increases, webnode may have to start charging some users for some of its services.

Overall 5/5. Yeah, this is the first perfect score I have given out, you should probably go check it out!

WebWare 100 - Who Will You Vote For?

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:45:00 +0000

Webware continuously stirs up the web 2.0 mixing pot with the Webware 100. They bring forward some of the newest and most unique software and applications pieces to the table, and let the users vote for their favorites. I highly encourage you to head on over and vote in the Webware 100!

Voting is now open for the 2008 Webware 100!

Today we are opening up the user voting on the 2008 Webware 100. This is our yearly awards program where Webware users vote for their favorite Web 2.0 apps. In the 2007 Webware 100, there were more than 480,000 votes cast. And this year we have an even stronger lineup of finalists, so we expect very active voting.

Go vote now or read on for more about the 2008 Webware 100.

As we did in 2007, this year we collected products nominations from users.... [to continue reading this selection please visit the WebWare Website]

Cellular Age - Mobilize Your Blog In Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:29:00 +0000

Have a popular blog? Get a lot of hits? Have a list of email addresses that goes on for pages? Want to expand? Have a cell phone? If you answered yes to most of these questions, you should probably check out Mofuse.

Mofuse allows its users to expand there blog/website to a mobile location in just a few seconds! They also provide you with the option to purchase your own domain and monetization opotions! So now you can shoot a text to all of your loyal fans with the url of your mobile blog! How cool is that!?

Mofuse is easy to set up, and they have a very straight forward website! I highly suggest that anyone who is looking for ways to get ahead of their blogger rivals, try this out. Who knows, maybe it's the next big thing!

Overall 4/5 - What a cool tool! Check it out!

Internet Explorer 8

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:10:00 +0000

Microsoft to launch beta of Internet Explorer 8
By Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:48 AM
Microsoft will shortly make available the test version of Internet Explorer 8, which is set for final release in the first half of this year.

The Web site ActiveWin on Monday published the contents of a beta invitation, which said Microsoft is nearing a launch date for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, which will be available for download and testing.

According to the Internet Explorer blog, the next version of Microsoft's Web browser is set for release in the first half of the year.

Microsoft executives are expected to reveal further details about the browser's features at the software maker's upcoming Mix conference in Las Vegas next week.

Last year at Mix, Microsoft outlined some of the features planned for IE 8, including standards compliance and tools to ease Web development.

This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.

App Jet - Host and Modify Applications - Free

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:24:00 +0000

App Jet may be one of the most usefull websites I have ever run across. App Jet allows its users to upload Java scripts and other variation of codes to their website, and they will host them for you, for free! They have a gallry of existing [usefull] applications which you can copy, and modify for your own use!

In fact, for demonstration purposes I will create several applications for my blog! Here is a chat/text box, go ahead, write a comment!

Here are some more usefull applications!
[IP Scanner]

There are a lot of fun applications that are VERY usefull! What are you waiting for? Get over to appjet!

Gimp - Photoshop, Be Gone!

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:41:00 +0000

That's right, you heard me! I am longing for those days where EVERYTHING is open source and FREE. I love 2.0 because thats where the internet is [sort of] heading. Well, today's review is on GIMP, a raster editor which is completely free! Yes you heard right! Go get it, this minute! You can get it HERE!

If you are familiar with photoshop at all, you should probably be able to pick GIMP up in under an hour. It uses the same tools, many of the same filters, and it works almost the same way. In fact, many of the shortcut keys are the same! The only major diference is a little bit of power [yeah, for 400 dollars cheaper though, thats ok!] and GIMP uses several windows in its user interface [compared to Photoshops 1 window].

But first, for those of you where wondering what is GIMP and/or photoshop?

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs. Typical uses include creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, altering colors, combining multiple images, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image formats

Color Support

GIMP's manipulation tools can be accessed via the toolbox, menu paths, and dialog boxes (which can be grouped in docks). They include filters and brushes, as well as transformation, selection, layer and masking tools.

For example, GIMP comes with 48 standard brushes, plus facilities to create new ones. Brushes (and brush tools) can be used in hard-edged, soft-edged, or eraser modes, be applied at different opacities, or used with different modes for composition.

Selection and masking tools

Animation showing three docked and tabbed dialogs: layers, channels, and paths.GIMP can perform rectangular or circular selection, freehand selection, and "by color" selection. Alternatively, the Smart Selection tool, known as the "Magic Wand", can be used to select contiguous regions. The Intelligent Scissors (iScissors) tool can be used to auto-create paths between regions defined by strong color-changes.

GIMP has support for layers, including transparent layers, which can be shown, hidden, or made semitransparent. It also supports transparent and semitransparent images. Channels add different types of opacity and color effects to images.

Paths

Paths containing line segments or Bezier curves can be created using the Path tool. Paths can be named, saved, and painted (or "stroked") with brushes, patterns, or various line styles. Paths can also be used to create complex selections.

Future

GIMP is primarily developed by unpaid volunteers. The GIMP project uses a development branch of GIMP where new features are added regularly and a stable branch which only receives bug fixes between major versions. Like some other Free software projects the stable and development branches are denoted with even and odd numbers respectively after the first decimal point in the version number. The current stable version of GIMP is 2.4.4.0 (January 30, 2008 (2008-01-30), 26 days ago). The next development version of GIMP will be 2.5.0. Major changes from version 1.2 to version 2.2 included a more polished user interface, further separation of the user interface and back-end and the ability to use brushes that would normally only be able to be used on Photoshop programs. Major changes from version 2.2 to version 2.4 included color management support, scalable brushes, new and rewritten selection tools and overall user interface changes.
For the future it is planned to base GIMP on a more generic graphical library called GEGL, thereby addressing some fundamental design limitations that prevent many enhancements such as native CMYK support. Implementation of this plan was continually put off from 2000 until October 2006, when developer Øyvind Kolås demonstrated a limited working version of GEGL, including a new graphical interface, that had been developed by Sven Neumann, Michael Natterer, and Kolås.
GIMP's user interface is built using GTK+, a widget toolkit originally written for the program. GTK+, as the GIMP Toolkit, was initially a part of the GIMP source tree, but has since been refactored due to its usefulness outside the scope of GIMP. GTK+ is also used as the widget toolkit for the GNOME desktop environment. GTK+ was intended as a replacement for Motif, a proprietary toolkit on which GIMP originally depended. GIMP and GTK+ were originally designed for the X Window System running on Unix-like operating systems, but have since been ported to Microsoft Windows, OS X, and SkyOS.

Citations Wikipedia

Web 2.0 Politics - If I'm President

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000

If I'm President is a network that lets your share your political views with others. It's the youtube for politics.

However this site does through in a blog/news mix, making more like a myspace, video, facebook for politics. Although there weren't very many responses on many of the polls, videos, and news articles, I feel that this site has been well built, and will likely grow in popularity in the comming months.

This site also provides great widget features, which allows users to easily follow thier favorite political leader or story in their own blogs/websites.

Overall 4/5 Go check it out!

Web 2.0 Button Creator!

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:57:00 +0000

My Cool Button is a great tool for those of you who are unfamiliar with Adobe flash, photoshop, etc.

Heres a tutorial on how to use this site effectively

Photosynth Beta - Next Gen Surfing

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:22:00 +0000

This stuff is really incredible and I incourage you to take a minute to watch this vid

Geek Hierarchy

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:09:00 +0000

This is too good not to show you guys!!

Check this out!!!

Email - What You'll Be Using In Five Years

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:44:00 +0000

Yeah, we all know that gmail, hotmail, and yahoo are some of the major contenders in the email tug of war. But what will be the next thing in Email? What tools will the vast majority of the internet users be using in five years? I can't predict the future, but I'll give it a shot! Here are some Web2.0 Email applications I predict to become very popular!

Linkblip is sort of an online marketers dream. It allows the senders of the emails to track which links get hit, by whom, and how many times. Really smart bloggers and online advertisers will take advantage of this service, and it will probably give them a head start in what ever industry they may be in.

Spy Pig will probably also become very popular. It alerts users when emails are opened, and by who. If used alongside linkblip, this application could prove to be very powerful.

Pronto combines Email, IM, and Chat all into one sleek user friendly application. I can't tell you how annoying it gets logging into IM, Hotmail, and Chat. Although Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo have started to combine these applications, Pronto’s interface appears to be a bit more promising.

Fuzzmail allows visitors to send email instantly. No sign ups, no registration. This is great for sending junk anonymously, however I can see it becoming a shelter for spammers and hackers who want to hide their identify.

Mail Big File is pretty much self explanatory, you are allowed to send rather large files over the internet. But wait [I sound like an infomercial!] there is no registering/logging in/accounts, you just simply choose the file, and its location [right on the home page!]. I loved this application and it took the gold for this list [so far :)].

1st Grazer Award - Web Innovations

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:10:00 +0000

A Grazer Award is given to a website or application that exceeds the rest, something that stands out from the crowd... We will be giving grazer awards out every month or so from this point forward.

This months Grazer Award goes to Web 2 Innovations. They have a great website filled with hours upon hours of fun reading material. We highly recommend that you check these guys out ASAP!

Email - How It Began

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:23:00 +0000

I found a very interesting article I would like to share with you!!!
[Citations follow the body]

Electronic mail, better known as Email, has changed the face of communication over several decades. Email can be defined as a method for composing, sending, storing and receiving messages via electronic communication systems. The word "email" is used as both a noun and a verb, and applies to all Internet email systems based on SMTP, X.400 systems and intranet systems.

How did it all begin?

Before the Internet, there was email: it was probably the most crucial tool in developing the Internet in the late 80s. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology first exhibited the CTSS (Compatible Time Sharing System) in 1961. The CTSS allowed many simultaneous users to log into the IBM 7094 from remote dial-up machines, and to store online files on as diskette. This incredible development encouraged users to share information in a variety of ways. The birth of email was in 1965, when multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer started to communicate remotely and electronically.

While the complete history and exact dates are somewhat hazy in detail, the very first systems to have basic email facilities were System Development Corporation's Q32 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's CTSS. By 1966, email had rapidly expanded to become network email, allowing users to pass electronic message between different computers.

The ARPANET was undoubtedly a good contributor to the development of email. History reports say there were experiments on inter-system email transfers just after it was created in 1969. Ray Tomlinson, a programmer involved in developing a time-sharing system named the TENEX , was the first person to discover that the various hosts can be differentiated by using the @ sign to separate the user's name and their machine. Until 1971, when the actual "email" was discovered, machines could only send messages to the users within its own system.

The popularity of email was boosted through the ARPANET and in time, email became the core technology of Internet communication.

Ray Tomlinson - Discovering the Network Email

The first person to discover the possibility of sending a receiving message between different computers through a network, Ray Tomlinson is the person to thank for the revolutionary outcome of the "email". Although there were many instances where messages passed between different users within the same computer and created quite an impression among users, the true email we know today began with the first network email.

Ray Tomlinson was involved in a group developing a time-sharing system named TENEX that ran on Digital PDP-10 computers, and he was working on the Network Control Protocol for both TENEX and CPYNET (experimental file transfer program). While making improvements on SNDMSG, the local inter-user mail program available at that time, Ray Tomlinson realized that he could easily incorporate the code from CPYNET in to SNDMSG and transfer messages through a network connection to remote mailboxes, as well as attach messages to local mailbox files.

By incorporating the features of SNDMSG and CPYNET, he managed to develop a network- emailing program and tested it on two machine literally set side by side. He used @ sign to distinguish the different machines in a very simpler manner, such as "from: me@thismachine to: you@thatmachine". After testing the program several times by sending message back and forth between the two computers, he sent a general message to his group explaining how to send message through the network. And that was how the first network email came to existence.

Gary San is a best practices activist and advocate for Benchmark Email http://www.benchmarkemail.com/email-marketing.aspx a leading Web and permission-based email marketing service.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_San

Web 2.0 Applications For Kids!

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:42:00 +0000

Have kids but wonder what websites are acceptable for their use? Wonder what new sites are out there that will provide them hours of fun [and hours of relaxation fo r you]? Well I've done it again, yep I know, thank me later. I have created a list of 15 or so really great kids websites. I will probably continue to keep adding material to this list, because I feel this has really solid content.

Enjoy [safely with your kid!]

Imbee
Your friends. Your stuff. Your social networkThe first secure social networking and blogging destination for kids.

Pixton
Create Comic Scenes
Pixton is an online user-generated comic strip. Without having to draw, people of all ages can share their ideas, opinions, and stories - publishing them instantly to a worldwide web audience.

Yoyo Games
Do you want to develop computer games without spending countless hours learning how to become a programmer? Then you've come to the right place. Game Maker allows you to make exciting computer games, without the need to write a single line of code.

Stardoll
is a paper doll dress-up community site for everyone who enjoys fun, fashion and making friends. At Stardoll you can create your own doll or choose from our always growing collection of celebrity dolls and dress them up in our virtual fashions. Every celebrity doll has a wardrobe full of unique clothes and outfits, each month there are new and there are new dolls released every week.

Pikifx
Make your Images Professional Pikifx is a website that allows users to upload their image and add a range of cool effects. Basically you can make your images look cool without having any desktop software installed or the knowledge on how to use the software.

Kindersay
Preschool Learning Kindersay is a web-based program designed to help preschoolers (Ages 1 to 4) learn English words. Over 500 words, images and English-speaking videos are featured in Kindersay interactive "Word Shows

Instasaver
Create Animated Slideshow Screensaver Online InstaSaver is as easy as 1-2-3. Just specify the name, get photos from Flickr or upload your favorite pictures, and the screensaver with over 150 animation effects and transitions is ready. You will get a fully standalone distribution package that enables you to easily install and/or distribute your screensaver.

Kerpoof
Kerpoof’s flagship activity, now called the Kerpoof Art Studio, allows children to create artwork in a variety of themes and styles that they can print, e-mail, create greeting cards or coloring pages. There are more than 45 Kerpoof settings available in the Art Studio ranging from wacky cartoon worlds to historical worlds, animal habitats
and many more.

Mydrawings
MyDrawings provides you with a huge and never ending virtual canvas to draw on. Its also a great way to browse other drawings. Simply scroll around the canvas to the left and find a place you'd like to draw. Then just right click and choose edit to begin your drawing.

Genoom
Genoom is a web application to create a meeting place for your family. By forming your family tree you can start a family network where you can invite your relatives to join you in discovering, remembering and sharing your moments. Both past and present.

My Game
Allows users to play and create Online Games Create your very own games in less than 2 minutes. It´s easy and fun, all you have to do is upload a photo, adjust it and then publish it to the world.

Go 3D
enables the creation and display of interactive 3D models on any standard web browser without requiring extra 3D graphics Hardware, Software and/or rendering, using Adobe Flash Player. Users can embed the Interactive 3D Model in blogs and web sites.
The Web Site also enables users to upload 3D models, as well as to create 3D models from Images or drawings, and download Flash Interactive 3D Files to Flash, Flash Lite and Screensavers

Toondoo
Is a cool, comic-creating tool. ToonDoo is a unique place for free and customizable online games of educational value for children of all abilities. You can now just drag-drop or click to create comic strips that express your views, opinions, angst or to just have fun.

Yudomagic!
is a niche community offering a network for magic lovers. Their main focus is community produced magic performances and tutorials. This service allows you to watch, learn and share cool magic tricks. Community members can share their performances by uploading their own magic videos to the site. However uploaded performance videos will be reviewed by site administrators prior to availability in the YUDOmagic Player.

Descriptions used for websites are from www.go2web20.net, check them out!

Helium - Write For Cash!

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:30:00 +0000

Helium is a website that encourages users to submit articles of their own and pays them for doing so. The setup took maybe a minute. Maybe. This site has a really straightforward user interface, and is relatively easy to navigate.

Helium claims you will receive [on average] 15 dollars per article, depending on how well it was written and what type of views your article receives. Well, I wrote an article 2 or 3 weeks ago regarding young entrepreneurs. You can read it here. It has been ranked 2nd and 3rd over most of that period, and I even drove in some traffic of my own using digg, and other peer to peer networks. Helium owes me .21 cents. So maybe the time you spent driving traffic and working for Helium would have been better spent driving traffic to your own site or blog. Unless you want to wait 10 years to claim the minimum 25.00 payment, you should probably go out and find a part time job, or something that pays a bit better.

However it's still a great website, and its fun reading through other peoples articles. Not to mention, it's a great way to improve your grammar and writing skills!

Overall 3/5 You probably shouldn't attempt making any type of money here, however you may find it a fun hobby which pays you [very little]!

Stickk - Make A Promise To Yourself!

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:24:00 +0000

StickK is a web-based company that helps you achieve your personal goals through "Commitment Contracts." You create a contract obliging you to achieve a specific goal within a specific time-frame. By doing so, you put your reputation at stake. You may also choose to wager money to give yourself added incentive to succeed. If you do succeed, you get your money back. If you fail, the money is forfeited to charity, or to one of several causes, or to a person of your choosing.

Now this is an interesting website. But I absolutley love it! I've bookmarked it and actually created a few goals for myself. Please don't email me asking what they are, I won't tell! Anyways, what a creative application! Now you have no excuse for not paying your taxes!

The sign up is very easy, in fact you do not even have to verify your account through an email (which i hate doing). You just give it a little bit of contact information, and away you go!

This website works through leveriging its users by giving up a sum of money which will go towards a charity if you fail to complete your task. Which is great, if you don't meet your goals, you loose, orphins win. This site seems like a great way to improve upon self determination and execution skills.

Overall 3/5 This application seems like it has a lot of potential, yet I can see myself (and other users) finding it easy to push aside it's alerts or finding ways to lie to the application.

Sullr - Reverse Phone Number Lookup

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Sullr is a tool for obtaining information from telephone lines in reverse mode. Very quickly, it will allow you to know the name of the person responsible and find on the map the address where he is.

This website is awesome. If you have ever tried using reverse lookups, you'll know how much of a pain it can be to find a free one. Most lookup sites want your personal information, or want you to pay to access the service. Not Sullr. This is by far the simplest tool of its kind on the web. I highly recommend this service to anyone!

It's super easy to use thanks to the lack of menus, and no advanced user interface, there’s just one box to fill in, the phone number. I laughed at this (because I can't remember when a website didn't want to know anything about me, and just perform its specified task).

However, I noticed that Sullr does not pick up on many of the cell phones I entered. It works great with land lines, however it told me that most my cell phones were unavailable but where based somewhere out of Utah.

Overall 4/5 For simplicity and the amount of potential behind this application

Qtrax Review

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 03:42:00 +0000

Qtrax is the world’s first free and legal peer-to-peer (P2P) digital music site. Music lovers can discover new music and legally download full-length, high-quality versions of their favorite songs while compensating both the artists and the record labels through non-intrusive and relevant advertising. Qtrax has the unparalleled support of the major record labels and all of their respective publishing divisions.

My first response: Say goodbye to limewire! Since the moment the site was launched, it has been well recieved. In fact, the first day I was unable to even view the page on the schools computers (due to the overload of visitors trying access the page). This site seems to answers all of the loose ends regarding music piracee. Everyone gets paid, their are no harmful files on the servers, and free music. Wow!

The setup was easy, and took only a few minutes to complete. Once inside the Qtrax browser, you could easily move about song downloads, the internet, and your own media. Very cool. However I found out that many (if not MOST) of the songs are unavailable to download currently. I suppose it is a "Beta" but it would be nice to see everything completely working (and have full access to their 25,000,000 songs).

Overall 4.5/5 It has a lot of potential... The next google of music downloads.

Internet Grazing

noreply@blogger.com (ClaytonJenkins) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:50:00 +0000

Hello, my name is Clayton Jenkins. This blog which I have just created will be dedicated to reviewing online web 2.0 applications, widgets, usefull websites, etc. I have named this blog "Internet Grazing." Why? Because I felt it sounded right, and quite frankly it sounded cool.

Don't like it? Sue me. You probably won't agree with a lot of things that I have to say.

Maybe you will. I just try to say things how I see it.

So, welcome to my blog, and let the grazing begin!