raphSabb's Tech bLoG

The next Social Networking Service you Should consider Using: Cliqset

2009-10-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Most of us are getting tired of all the new "social networking" services that keep popping up out of nowhere. "I dont want to sign up for another thing!", "Doesnt Facebook do that already?", "I really dont get
twitter..." are some of the many responses I get when I speak to people about joining other services. I admit that, in the past, I pretty much felt the same way: You had to fill out all these forms, make up another password that you were going to have to try to remember, start your "friends list" from scratch, and try to remind yourself to visit the site all the time until it became a habit.

Well if you can relate to all the stuff mentioned above then I have to inform you that they are no longer problems. You no longer have to go through the long signup process. Between facebook connect, openid and such services you will almost never need to fill out forms to open another account online. Your friends list is handled almost the same way. All that really remains relevant is the need for the service.

So do you need cliqset?
I'll tell you why I need it and you can decide whether or not the same implies to you. I have tons of services I use: facebook, twitter, digg, blogger, stumbleupon, youtube(to name a few). I don't come online everyday, sign into each, and go about my business, that would be insane! How do I expect my friends and family to "follow" and keep up with my online activities? With over 70 different social services, how does anyone?

Cliqset lets you aggregate your information from other social services, communicate and share in real-time, and create individual conversations around different items that you or a friend shares with the service. Cliqset succeeds where friendfeed failed by allowing you to control what gets seen and what doesnt without having to create "custom feeds". You decide what updates get posted on cliqset and you can even control what cliqset sends to your other services. With the addition to Boxee support and an adobe air app, cliqset unifies your social identities way better than any other service has ever done before. Check out this mashable article for more info or just head over to cliqset to signup.
I'll see u there :)

Hulu Desktop is now on Linux!!

2009-10-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

This is not great news for most, but for all the linux users out there this is wonderful! Hulu Desktop is now on linux. Check out the lifehacker article or go directly to the download page. I know I've been waiting for this since they stopped supporting Boxee, no more browser viewing now I'm back to the full screen experience! YaY!!!

By the way, If anyone from Hulu reads this, you should really bring back the Boxee support. Thanx

A Comeback Is Brewing

2009-10-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

I am coming back folks. I took a long break but its time to come back. Too many things going in the Tech world to keep me quiet. I am trying out a new layout, make sure to let me know what you guys think. And if you want send me emails about anything you need me to talk about or explain. I will be covering Google Wave
in the days to come. If you dont know anything about it, check out the vid below brought to us by lifehacker. I think it does the best job at describing what is google wave and why we should wave. I will also be talking about the various improvements to Boxee. If your still not using it you definitely have a problem!! Expect some more gmail tips, a list of my new firefox extensions, google chrome, and many more...

My list of Ubiquity Commands

2009-01-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

If you don't know what ubiquity is, check out my previous post here. I've been using ubiquity since August and I don't think I'll ever use a browser without it.

Here is the list of Commands I recommend(there's a ton of other commands found at the herd, if you can think of one I didn't list, feel free to comment. If you would like to see one that doesn't exist, submit a suggestion over at mozilla labs or leave a comment here and I'll try to whip it up for you/or get help):

- add-to-calendar Adds an event to your calendar(it only works with google calendar at the moment, no problem since thats what I use)

- amazon-search Searches Amazon for books matching your words

-check-calendar Checks what events are on your calendar for a given date.

- convert Converts a selection to a PDF, to rich text, or to html.

- define Gives the meaning of a word.

- delete Deletes the selected chunk of HTML from the page.

- digg If not yet submitted, submits the page to Digg. Otherwise, it takes you to the story's Digg page.

- ebay-search Searches EBay for auctions matching the given words.

-email Begins composing an email to a person from your contact list.(again only works with gmail)

- flickr Searches Flickr for pictures matching your words.

- google-image-search Browse and embed pictures from Google Images

- highlight Highlights your current selection(Very useful for pages you bookmark or add to ReaditLater)

- imdb Searches the Internet Movie Database for your words.

- lh SearchLifehacker.com for the given words.( I wrote this one so show me some love and subscribe to it here. UPDATE: Check my gist page for new my new commands or revisions)

- lmgtfy Replaces the selected words with a TinyUrl of the Let Me Google That For You link

- map Turns an address or location name into a Google Map.

- map-these Maps multiple selected addresses or links onto a single Google Map.

-mininova Search mininova for the LEGAL torrents you are looking for.

-movies Does a zip-code based movie search and displays nearby theaters and movie times

- netflix Search netflix for the movie you type or select on a page.

- remove-annotations Resets any annotation changes you've made to the page your on(such as highlighting, bold, ...).

- sparkline Graphs the current selection, turning it into a sparkline.

- syntax-highlight Treats your selection as program source code, guesses its language, and colors it based on syntax.(Programmers delight).

- tab Switches to the tab that matches the given name.(If you have a million of them open, this saves lives)

- tinyurl Replaces the selected URL with a TinyUrl.

-track Tracks a UPS, USPS, or FedEx package(just enter the tracking number)

- translate Translates from one language to another.

- twitter Sets your Twitter status to a message of at most 160 characters.

- weather Checks the weather for a given location.(It doesn't take you to a website with the weather, it actually displays the weather inside Ubiquity. Take a look at the forecast command if you need more detailed weather reports).

- wikipedia Searches Wikipedia for your words, in a given language.

- youtube Searches YouTube for videos matching your words.

To get any of the commands I listed, just type their name into the search box over at the herd. Give this add-on a try, let me know what you guys think of it.

Let me Google that for You

2009-01-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you guys, but I always get these 2 minute calls from friends or relatives asking me the most random/pointless questions for which a simple google search could have gotten them a satisfactory answer. And this normally pisses me off but, what can you do, I open a google search and I give them the answer and hang up. This genius, coderifous, felt the same way I did and came up with this brilliant site called: let me google that for you.

To understand what the site does: Just imagine you called me and asked me where to go to download AVG. I would then goto the site, type in AVG and it would fabricate a link for me that I could send to you.
Here is the link you would get(make sure to click on the link to understand what happens).

I am dying right now! I can't wait to use it on someone!

Google Calendar Tips and Tricks

2009-01-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

I found out, after last week's post, that many of my gmail friends don't even know about goggle calendar. So here I am to bring them a little information on a great product. GC(google calendar) is an awesome tool given to you free of charge. It is especially designed for people like me, who cannot remember jack. If you have a gmail account or any account with google, you automatically have access to your own calendar. You can add events, share calendars between friends/groups/co-workers/etc. . You can even search for public calendars to add to your own.

For example: I love the UEFA Champions League. But I always found myself missing alot of games because football is not a big deal in the US(the games aren't advertised on TV or anything). Some time last year, I added a Champions League public calendar that I found and I have never missed a game ever since.
Go Barça!!!!
I also add public calendars of my favorite TV shows that way I dont have to search through the net to find out when they start or end.

You can setup GC to send you an email or even an SMS to remind you of anything you have on your calendar. The best for me is the "Daily Agenda" feature. I get all my reminders for the day bunched up together in one email everyday at 7AM. What more do you need?

If you've never given GC a try, or you have but never really checked all it's features, try it out sometime this weekend. I don't think you will be disappointed. Send me an email or comment if you are having trouble with your calendar setup. And don't forget to subscribe to the blog if you like the content. Thanx

Add your Facebook Events and Birthdays to Google Calendar

2009-01-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

During this time of the year, everyone normally makes resolutions and tries to organize their life more. So I'm here to help with a little calendar optimization(if you don't already use a calendar shame on you). I love facebook's birthday reminders but since I don't log on everyday, sometimes I miss some of my friends birthdays. The people over at fbcal thought the same way I did so they made an application to remedy the situation. With fbcal you can add your friends birthdays and even your facebook events to a calendar of your choice(they support almost all of them).

To set it up with google calender goto fbcal and follow their guideline. When you get to the last step click on the google calendar button. You will then be redirected to your google calendar. You will be asked to add the calendar(click to add) and you are all set. You can go and change the color of the feed and you can even set it up to email you reminders everyday. For more google calendar tricks and tips, come back next week or subscribe to the blog. Don't forget to leave questions and/or comments.

Pardon the Dust

2008-12-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

I have not posted in a while and will not be posting again until the new year. I wanted to let you guys know that I have not forgotten nor dropped my blog. I will be back in full force next year but until then I will leave you with a few updates.

Update 1: Boxee
I have blogged a few times about Boxee and they have grown tremendously since. From big investments to Netflix support, the people over at Boxee have been working overtime to bring us the best tv/entertainment experience out there. If you have not given the app a try, do so now. I still have beta invites so email me if you need one. If my word is not enough, give this article a read: It's Living Room 2.0.

Update 2: Backblaze
Backblaze offers unlimited backup just like Mozy and others with an extra touch. Instead of having to pick what you want to backup(you can still do that), at $5 a month you get unlimited space and the software backs up only the data you need, ignoring unnecessary files like operating system files, applications, and temporary files.

Update 3: Have a wonderful Holiday
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Help the fight against Poverty by getting rid of your old PC

2008-10-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's Blog Action Day and the theme this year is poverty. I was born and raised in Haiti, so the topic is not new to me. Everyone can and should help fight against poverty and here is an easy way to start: Donate your old computer.

I know most of you have an old Desktop PC or even a laptop just gathering dust somewhere in your house. Get rid of it! It's for a good cause. This computer your giving away can help educate a child or keep a father informed with the internet. There are many organizations up in running that provide this service and they have been waiting for that old computer of yours.

I have setup a list of websites that point you in the right direction, if you know of a better website let me know in the comments or an email so that I can update the list.

http://www.cristina.org/
http://www.computerswithcauses.org/
http://sharetechnology.org/np-reuse.html
http://www.freebyte.com/free_computers/

Fight against Poverty!!

Share files from within Facebook with Drop.io

2008-09-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Drop.io, one of the simplest ways to share files online, has released a Facebook app that allows you to share files from within the site. With this you will be able to quickly and privately share pics, vids, music, and docs from within the social network. Head over to drop.io/facebook to read more about it and let me know what you think.

Firefox Extensions I cannot live Without

2008-09-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago Google released their browser named Chrome. I love Google and all but I didn't like the idea of a browser. I just think that having their own browser means that other browsers are going to lack Google support eventually. Having a new product to develop means there will be some slacking with their other products. And, that's one more browser entering the unnecessary Browser Wars.

Since everyone has been blogging about Chrome ever since the release, I decided to talk about Firefox instead. Here is the list of Firefox Extensions I cannot live without:

StumbleUpon Discovers web sites based on your interests. I had no idea how HUGE the web was untill I installed this extension and started playing with it. Just sign up, fill in the information about what your interested about, install the extension and start Stumbling!
ReaditLater Whenever you land/Stumble on a page that you want to read but might not neccesarily want to bookmark, add it to your readitlater list. If you use more than one computer, this extension can be installed on each of them and will keep the list current accross your computers.
Foxmarks Again if you use many machines, foxmarks will keep your bookmarks synchronised accross all of them seamlessly. You can even access your bookmarks online if you are on a lab computer or something similar.
DownThemAll Ever been on a page with 20 pictures that you wanted to download? Instead of going through each of them one by one, just DownThemAll!
Cooliris Formerly known as Piclens, this extension makes browsing(pics and vids) a wonderful 3D experience. Check it out, trust me, you will never look at Facebook pictures the same way again!

I know there are plenty of great extensions out there that I did not mention. I would love to hear about what you guys(the readers) use. Let me know in the comments.

Moving Towards a Better Use of Gmail [part3]

2008-09-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

By now, you guys should have mastered some keyboard shortcuts. Some of you probably created a few filters and labels(I doubt it). Today I was setting up a few things for my upcoming trip to Boston(Celtics and Patriots pride baby!!!) and I remembered a very important gmail feature that most of you probably don't know about: the Vacation Responder.

When you are going on vacation and will not be accessing your email, you don't need a secretary to reply to them, you need vacation responder.
To create a vacation responder, click on “Settings” at the very top of the page on the right-hand side. Scroll down until you see the section entitled “Vacation responder”. Click on “Vacation responder on”. Next, type a custom message in the boxes provided to let others know that you are away on vacation. In your message, you may want to include when you will be back so they can get a better idea of when they can expect a response from you. Then click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.
Now you can go away and not have to worry about that Employer trying to reach you for a position, or that client that needs your help ASAP.

I also wanted to talk about the search bar today. I was helping a lady out the other day with an attachment she was trying to send out. She was looking for an old email but instead of searching for it through gmail's search form, she was going page by page looking for something sent to her last year!

I stopped her and asked:

"You know that you can search for an email by typing some of it's credentials in the search form right?"

She looked at me like I was speaking Portuguese and said no.
Im guessing that most of you are in the same boat so I am going over a few examples:

Let's say you get messages from john on a regular but your looking for a specific message that has a recipe in it. Goto the search bar and enter: "from: john has: recipe"
You need an email that you recieved between february and march 2007. Goto the search bar enter: "after:2007/02/01 before:2007/03/01"
You can get an email by just typing one of the words that were in the email. You're looking for the message you got that contains your insurance information. Just type "insurance" in the search bar and you will get a list of messages that match the criteria.
You can even pulll up all the emails from a specific email address. Just type "from: jojo55447@gmail.com" and you will get all the emails you've ever recieved from him.

Hopefully you understand now how easy it is to use the search bar. Give it try, leave me a message if you have a question. If your query has no results just add more criteria or approach it from another angle. See you guys next time.

Ubiquity: New Web Tool that Makes Sense

2008-08-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

The guys over at mozilla labs are at it again. They have just released a prototype of Ubiquity, a Firefox extension that allows you to perform tasks using various web services without having to leave the page your on.

Scenario:
You are writing an email to a friend to give him directions to a place. Normally you would have to open another page, map the address on a map site, copy the link and then return to your email page and paste it. But he stills has to open your email, click the link which will open another page, and then finally see the directions.

Now let's see how this gets done using Ubiquity:

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Must-Have Windows Mobile Apps List

2008-08-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

If you own a Windows Mobile Device you have to check lifehacker's article. There is no way you won't find something in there. Make sure you read the comments, they have more sites and apps too!

Boxee Just Released a New Version of the Alpha

2008-08-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

If you've been trying out Boxee, this is news for you. The new release has a HUGE list of new stuff and bug fixes. I've been running Boxee for a few weeks now and I have to say: "Pretty Nice!".
Check it out, if you need an invite I still have some. For more info, head over to the boxee blog or read lifehacker's article on this bad boy.

Come Join me for Blog Action Day

2008-08-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I will be participating in Blog Action Day on October 15th, which focuses on the issue of poverty this year. If you guys have any ideas about what I should write, leave me a comment or email. I want to also encourage my fellow bloggers to participate in this event, it's for a good cause.

How to Add Your Miro Content to Boxee

2008-08-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

If you use Miro as your TiVo for Internet Video and the previously mentioned Boxee, read on.
I have Miro installed on my Mac Mini and I've been using it for a while now. Miro has a lot of video content and the coolest factor(for me) is that you can create dynamic, keyword-based channels. For example: I have a YouTube channel with the keywords: fc barcelona, football, soccer. I can navigate to that channel and download the videos that I wish to watch. The cool part is that from the moment the channel is set, Miro will automatically download new uploaded videos that match my keywords. I can watch them, delete them or let Miro delete them after a "user-defined" amount of days.
Anyways, I got Boxee setup like two weeks ago on my linux-based laptop and I'm in love. I realized that there was no need to watch my vids on Miro anymore if I was able to get Boxee to grab them. This is obviously easier if your Miro setup is on the same machine as your Boxee. But if it isn't, this is what you do:

Make sure the computer running Miro has sharing enabled.
Make sure the folder with the Miro content is being shared.

In Boxee: Goto Video-->My Videos-->Network Sources-->Add New Source
If your machine is not listed, then enter the ip address manually. Make sure you specify username and password if that's needed to access your shares. Once you are able to get in, select the appropriate folder, name it and select update.

Here is what the process will look like in Boxee:

Moving Towards a Better Use of Gmail [part2]

2008-08-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Im back, as promised, and this time I will teach you about Filters and Labels. I also want to remind everyone that this is not the only way of setting these things up. If you need or have a different approach, you can leave a comment or link for the readers. The screenshots are a little small so if you really want to see what is going on, you can click on them and you will be directed to the full screen version.

I am going to use a sample mailbox that I've setup a while ago to catch my spam and random subscriptions. Here is what it looks like before we start:

Now I want to add a label to all the messages from TechRepublic.

-First I select the messages that I want to label( I end up missing some but I'm just using it as an example so don't freak out)
-Then I create a label by clicking on the More Actions drop down menu and choosing New Label. Click here for the video demonstration.

Unfortunately there are a few limitations to this method:
1 You have to manually pick the emails you want labeled.
2 You would have to repeat the process every time you get new email.

If this is fine for what you want to do, so be it. For anyone else who thinks this would not be the best setup, I present to you: Filters.

Filters can do a whole lot more than just selecting your messages and labeling them. You can set filters to forward your filtered email, to delete them, to mark them as unread, to star them, to archive them and even arrange that they are never sent to your spam folder.

Ok so let's create a filter that will:

-Label messages from kayak.com
-Skip the inbox(only applies to future messages). That way I don't have to see them when I login. And I can click on the Kayak label anytime I feel like checking flight discounts instead.

Click on the Create a filter link next to the Search the web button:

Next we set the criteria. I entered kayak.com both in the From field and in the Has the words field. Then I clicked on Test Search to see which messages would have been filtered using my criteria.

If the results aren't picking up everything you want, try to add more criteria. When you are satisfied with the results, you can click Next Step.

Next we decide what to do with our filtered messages.
As you will see in the image below, I chose:

Skip the Inbox (this only applies to future messages)
Apply the Label (Kayak, you can actually create a label right from the drop down menu)
Apply filter to the 33 conversations below(to make sure the previous messages get labeled too)

Then I click on Create filter and my filter has been created. The screen that follows allows you to edit, delete, or create new filters. You can access that page anytime by clicking on the settings link in the top right corner, then selecting the filters tab.

If you guys have any questions or comments just leave me a note. If you need to email me, my email is raphsabb+blog [at] gmail. See you next time.

Quick and Easy Way To Make Your Photo's Look Ancient

2008-08-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

If you don't have photoshop skills(even if you do), making a photo look old is not necessarily easy nor quick. That's not a problem anymore thanks to The Wanokoto Labs website. You can either upload an image to the site from your computer or point it to an image URL online, then just click Convert. After a few seconds, you get an old-school style version of the picture(just like the one I used above). To save your new image, right click on it and select "save image as..." and you can download it right to your computer. Voila!!

UPDATE!! You can also check the original picture I used if you click on the thumbnail above.

The Wanokoto Labs [taken from lifehacker]

Part 3 & 4 of the Aurora Video

2008-08-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Looks like the complete series is out and awaiting your approval. I don't like how the interface is so crowded, but the overall idea is neat. Go check out the vids over at lifehacker.

Part 2 of the Aurora Video

2008-08-06T17:39:00.001-07:00

The guys over at Mozilla Labs aren't wasting time. Part 2 is out and is quite impressive. The video might actually lag since everyone is trying to watch it so give it a little time. I think that a lot of the functionality mentioned there is around right now, just not as nice.

Update:
I replaced the actual video with this link to it(the video was slowing things down around here).

Moving Towards a Better Use of Gmail [part 1]

2008-08-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

I have plenty of friends on gmail but most of them know nothing when it comes to gmail's feature-rich and powerful interface. So I will attempt, once or twice a week, to change that horrible fact. If you don't have a gmail account yet, please go get one right now!

I will be gathering my information from personal experiences, various articles and such found on the web (there's plenty). If something does not work, just leave a comment and we well try to figure it out together. If you know about a cool trick and want to share it, don't be affraid to leave a comment or an email.

Part 1: Navigation
Navigating through gmail is pretty easy with a mouse. But did you know that it is not only easy, but also faster with the keyboard?
Don't take my word for it though. Try it out for yourself and let me know.

To turn the shortcuts on:
Goto your settings tab in gmail, then locate keyboard shortcuts. Turn them on, go to the bottom of the page and hit save.

I have an embedded list of gmail shortcuts for you down below. Print it or Save it and try out a few things. Click here for a direct link to the document.

Let me know how it works for you.

My favorite Linux Commercial(for the moment)

2008-08-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

I just had to share this one...

Aurora: The Future of the Web?

2008-08-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what the web will look like years from now?
Jesse James Garrett (the guy who coined the term AJAX) designed and narrated part one of a video series demonstrating what the future of the web might look like.Check the video out below and let me know what you think.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Boxee now on Linux

2008-07-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

Boxee, which used to be XBMC(Xbox Media Center), has just released support for linux. You will need to signup for the alpha testing to get an invite. I am actually waiting on mine...can't wait hopefully this is my project for next weekend, YEAAA!!

If you want to see screenshots and what not, check out lifehacker's article here.

UPDATE!!
I got an invite today from some good people over at boxee. I will actually start playing with it tonight. If anyone needs an invite just send me an email.