Archive for September, 2005
· September 27, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
Sure copying a URL to save or post somewhere else is nothing new right? We have been doing it for years now, and there is no better way of getting it done. On that point, I have to say you are wrong. There is a better way to do it, and with the Firefox extension Copy URL Plus, you can do just that. Just what? You can get it done in a “better” way.
Still a little confused? Here it is, so easy anybody could understand it.
The Copy URL Plus extension enables you to copy to the clipboard the current document’s address along with additional information such as the document’s title, the current selection or both.
You might find this behavior useful when you want to send (IM, email) an interesting link to a friend and out of convenience you don’t want to copy the link and an explanation of what the link is in a single step. The explanation can be as short as the document’s title or it can be a descriptive text from the document.
You never would realize how much you have been missing this tool till you finally have your fingers on it. After using it, I can’t remember how I survived without it. This is definitely one Firefox extension that has not gotten its proper time in the spotlight.
· September 26, 2005 at 3:17 pm · Odds & Ends
Monday is here and that can only mean one of two things. You either need to go put the trash out from the party you had this weekend or you need to go listen to the Web Hosting Show. I can promise you that listening to the Web Hosting Show will be a little more fun, so let us leave the trash for somebody else to handle. Along with the rest of the Web hosting goodness we produce week after week, on this week’s show we talked about ISPCON’s new blog and the Web hosting industry’s new interest in VoIP.
Download the Web Hosting Show, Podcast 31!
Running Time: 19 minutes | File Size: 4.44 MB
For those of you who do not know, ISPCON is the event for both wired and wireless ISPs out there. Every year it seems like Web hosting is playing a bigger part in the event. They now have a blog as well, it is called Inside ISPCON.
The Web site looks very nice, it has the look of your standard blog. I like the idea that the folks at ISPCON are blogging because it makes me feel like I have an easier place to understand what it is they are doing there. ISPCON is not just a big event for ISPs out there. It is also a big event for the Web hosting world as well. They even have a section marked for podcasts, so I can’t wait to see what they produce.
Now why are Web hosts getting so excited about offering VoIP solutions? What do I mean? Well read part of this press release I got delivered to me today.
MonsterHosting.ca, a Canadian web hosting and e-commerce solutions provider, announced today that it plans to launch a Voice over Internet Protocol service, making it the first Canadian web host to do so, and opening a new chapter for the British Columbia based company.
This seems to be a slow trend in the Web hosting world. I see more and more Web hosting companies moving into the area of VoIP (Voice Over IP). What do I think about it all? I think it is a smart business solution for the companies out there who can afford to move down that road. It is obvious that VoIP is going to be the way of the future and I am happy to see that once again Web hosting is playing a key part in the world’s innovations.
The thing that keeps this from being big news is the fact that nobody knows exactly why these companies are doing it. How is my Web hosting company going to benefit from moving into the Voice over Internet Protocol world? Untill that is easy to explain as Web hosting itself, then I don’t know how much media hype is there for such an event. Right now it seems as exciting to the public as a Web host buying a new server. What I want the Web hosting world to do is explain it to me and give me a reason to get excited about it.
· September 26, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
If Internet Explorer and Firefox had a love child, then it would look a lot like Firexplorer. This marriage made in Mozilla labs is an odd one to say the least. What if you wanted all the form and functionality of Firefox, but you wanted it to look like Internet Explorer?
Here is what the creators had to say about the project:
The Firexplorer began when Andy (Cobaltfish) and I were working at a large accountants, we wanted to install Firefox on a batch of new PCs yet still have our users think they were using Internet Explorer. It was a real pain in getting it to work, and we eventually gave up but started adding our findings to this website. From there corporate sponsors became interested, and we currently have a version of Firefox 1.0 repackaged very nicely.
This is a good idea if you have friends that are not ready to make a big shift in the way they surf the Internet. It is also nice for those folks out there who might actually like IE’s interface better than the standard Firefox one. The screenshots are well worth check out if you are interested as well.
· September 25, 2005 at 6:37 pm · Odds & Ends
Now I’m not one to usually bash other Web hosting related Web sites, but this one takes the cake. I was over on Web Hosting Talk this morning, reading a thread about WHIR TV. It seemed like not that many people liked what they were seeing, so I posted on the thread asking for folks to compare the Web Hosting Show with WHIR TV. Seems simple enough right? I’m giving back to the conversation.
Around 20 minutes later I get this in my E-mail from Web Hosting Talk:
This is an important message from WebHostingTalk containing information about how your post has violated Forum Guidelines.
This e-mail is to inform you that you have received 10 warning points, which are set to expire at midnight US EST on 2005-12-24, for “Self-Promotion.”
You now have a total of 10 warning points. If your aggregate point value reaches 30 or more, your account will be disabled until enough points expire that it falls below the 30 points banning threshold.
Anybody have any good ways for me to spend my other “20 warning points”?
Gee, and people wonder why alternative Web hosting forums are getting more popular? I’ll take Web Hosting Chat over this crap any day of the week. It isn’t like I was saying, “Hey folks! Click here! Click here!”. I was just listing another option that is out there. It just happens that I am the other option.
· September 25, 2005 at 3:51 pm · Odds & Ends
Slawesome (link via TechCrunch) is still in the alpha stages right now but it looks like it will be a really promising application for the future. What Slawesome allows you to do is send voice mail messages to E-mail addresses, after registration of course. The thing I am really happy with is that you don’t need to register to hear the messages.
Much of the back end recording and playing looks like it is controlled in flash. After you record a message you can select to have it public or private. Private messages will just be for you and the person who you send your message to via E-mail. Public messages have the chance of appearing on the front page, and also get dumped into an RSS feed.
Click here to listen to my first public message while testing out Slawesome!
Not the best audio experience in the world, but it does get the job done. I can’t wait to see how Slawesome will continue to grow and expand into the future!
· September 23, 2005 at 3:01 pm · Odds & Ends
Remember going to see the magic shows when you were a kid, or even seeing them on television. I used to like when they would saw the woman in half, and then put her back together again. Now what if we did an experiment and sawed off some parts of Skype and put them into Firefox, as an extension? Then you would have Skyfox.
What Skyfox does is by no way going to revolutionize the way you use a computer. Not everything you read has to be that life changing though. This extension does one simple job and it does it well. After you install the Skyfox. extension, you just need to give it your login name to Skype and it will give you a drop down menu of all your contacts. Want talk to somebody? Just select their name, and you are good to go.
Now I would have liked to of seen a sidebar for Skype to sit in and maybe a little more merging of the two. Maybe in the next release we will see a little more functionality. Another thing worth bringing up is the fact that you do have to have Skype running in the background to get the full use of the Skyfox. extension. For now though, Skyfox does a good job at making my Skype contacts a little more handy.
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