Google Apps for Your Domain

Apparently, it is not very difficult to get into the “Google Apps for your Domain” beta testing. I heard about it this morning and signed up. Luckily for me, I was granted access immediately. For those of you who dont know “Google Apps for your Domain” is, its google’s new venture. Your domain gets private-labeled email(gmail),IM(google calendar) and calendar tools(google calendar) and also you are able to use google page creator to create pages and post them to your website. Everything is hosted by google and for calendar,gtalk and gmail to work, all you have to do is change some dns settings for your domain.You get email addresses folowing the format email@yourdomain.com .  You sign into your email at https://www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com  . So far, as far as I can see, its the same gmail(that everyone uses) which has been bundled into this offer. Right now, I am slighly concerned about privacy. Will google be permanently storing all my mail like how they do it for gmail? If pushed by the government, are they going to release my mail to the government? 

technorati tags:google, gmail

Blogged with Flock

My favorite Linux(Ubuntu) apps

After getting asked by some of my friends new to Linux(Ubuntu) what some of my favorite software were, I have decided to compile (no pun intended) a list  of my favorite software on Linux. I am sure some of you out there have better alternatives to some of the software I am going to list. Please feel free to leave a comment telling me,I would be glad to find new and better alternatives. Also feel free to leave comments telling me about some other software that you guys use and love a lot that aren’t listed here. I will try and incorporate all suggestions into this list. Please remember that the software are not listed in terms of how much I prefer them to the other software in the list. So here we go:

1. XChat:  My favorite IRC client for Linux. It is heavily extensible and is user friendly.
2. Rhythmbox: One of my favorite music players. Most people prefer xmms but I have this weird problem of xmms policing my soundcard and preventing other programs from using the soundcard when xmms is in use.
3. gFTP: My favorite FTP client. I supports regular FTP and all other secure FTP protocols and even SSH2.
4. Flock: Favorite web browser.Based on firebox and uses firefox code, Flock is a social browser. It has soo much inbuilt features.
5. Liferea: The offline feed reader. Liferea distinguishes itself from other feed readers by allowing you  to read your feeds even when you are offline.
6. Gaim: The all inclusive IM/IRC client for Linux. It allows you to communicate with friends on almost all the other IM protocols.
7. Thunderbird: The email client. It is a kickass email client from the good folks at Mozilla.
8. Skype: Skype caters all my VOIP needs. It even allows me to call any number in the USA for free.
9. Tomboy: A desktop note taking app for gnome.
10. Automatix: Install some basic software easily. (A good tool for newbies)
11. Gedit: A simple text editor
12. Streamtuner: Listen to a variety of internet radio stations
13. Dvdrip: Rip and backup your dvds
14. Mplayer: Watch any type of movie
15. Open Office: Make spreadsheets, write documents and make presentations easily
16. Audacity: A voice recording suite
17. Avidemux: Video authoring
18. Gimp: Image authoring and manipulation tool
19. Amule: P2P client
20. Bittorrent: Bittorrent client (I would have preferred if there were a Linux version of utorrent)
21. Screem: Web authoring tool

I probably left out a lot of other important tools so don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

technorati tags:gnome, Linux, Liferea, Tomboy

Blogged with Flock

Peekko:Chat the web

As most of my readers have noted, I am a sucker for an app related to “social web” . I was among the first people to blog about and try out Chatsum. So,I found out about Peekko from a friend and decided to try it out. First of all,Peekko is also a firefox/flock extension  that allows you to chat with other Peekko users about a common website/page. Peekko runs over an irc chat server. Here is a screenshot of Peekko runnig in firefox:

As you can see Peekko is craddled at the bottom of the browser window so as to conserve screen real estate. You can customize the chat window. Also,you are allowed to register your nickname but not a channel. The Peekko toolbar shows you the number of people chatting on a channel and you can toggle both the toolbar and chat window on and off. For those privacy nuts,you can browse without getting any info sent to the Peekko server by just checking the browse invisibly button. Also, you can embed a chat window in your website so that visitors can see what is being said in a channel. Almost all irc commands work here. Though,I have been using chatsum for some time,I very much prefer peekko becuase it has more users onlnie and i am assured to find someone in the main peekko window anytime of the day. Another feature that clinches the deal for Peekko is its translation bot,rbot. You just need to register yourself  for the language you speak and rbot will translate all the chat transcripts into that language. Right now, transaltion is supported for about 8 languages including frech,spanish,portuguese,italian and russian.

Technorati Tags: peekko.firefox, extensions, flock

µTorrent is creating a WebUI

       I just found out that the  µTorrent development team is creating a Web based graphic interface for  µTorrent. The project is in its alpha testing phase and it allows you to remotely monitor your bittorent downloads. This webUI can be accesed through the port on which you run  µTorrent.  You would access the webUI through your IP.So, if your IP address is 64.233.167.99, and you run µTorrent on port 666, you can run µTorrent on port 666 through your web browser at  http://64.233.167.99:666/gui/index.html   from any PC.
       The webUI will be locked with a configurable password to allow only authorised people to remotely monitor and control your downloads. The webUI is accessible through Firefox 1.5.1 and through Opera 9.0TP2 and also through IE.

Here is a screenshot,someone took of it whilst using the webUI in Opera 9.0TP2:

More can be found out about this here.

Technorati Tags: µTorrent, bittorent, webUI, torrent, filesharing, utorrent

SONGBIRD: A BOOT IN ITUNES’ ASS

Before I say a word about Songbird,here is a screenshot to feast your eyes on: Are you done feasting your eyes on it? If you are done then read on.As I said earlier,Songbird was released this morning as a proof of concept.The first word I muttered when I saw it was WOW!!! The shiny black alone won many people over to download it.So,..Songbird is a media player just like Apple’s iTunes (Songbird likes almost exactly like iTunes) but with a twist. Unlike Apple’s iTunes which connects you to one store and makes you buy all your music needs from that store, Songbird gives you many choices in search of a music shop.Songbird allows you to connect to and buy music from a very wide range of shops.Songbird allows you to connect to 9(nine) music stores by default but more are going to be added,I am sure.Also,since Songbird is built on the same platform (XULRunner) as Firefox,Songbird functions as a special web browser that detects available media on websites that you visit.Songbird plays any kind of music file that you can throw at it.Also,Songbird is extensible.Modules called extensions can be added to it to be enhanced.Some people are claiming it is a memory hog and it crashes when you start it and open its window immediately,but that hasn’t yet happened to me.When I start Songbird and I maximise the window immediately,nothing happens.Also,its memory footprint is really small on my pc even though I have lots of processes running.The only time Songbird crashed on my pc was when I tried to change the defualt theme whilst I was playing a music file. Also,another bug i noticed in Songbird is that,sometimes the playback time exceeds the specified time.For example,if I am playing Rammstein’s-Du Hast,the file is shown to be 3 minutes long but sometimes playback goes on for about 30 seconds more.Also,a preferences or another tab should be made available to allow configuration of Songbird because not all users know that you can also edit Songbird by going to about:config Songbird is a proof-of-concept so users shouldn’t expect really high standards from it.Also Songbird is for only Windows right now but versions of it for other OSes are in the making and will be released real soon. Though,i hope it moves beyond a proof of concept really soon. The Songbird website was fatally ravished by the traffic so the website is offline but you can download it on different mirrors.Here is a mirror.Boing Boing had an interview with the leader of the dev team here. PS: You got to love the Songbird logo.It shows a birds with headphones on listening to music and farting.I can only guess why the bird is not smiling and is farting.Here is a picture of the logo.

Technorati Tags: songbird, free, itunes, music, XULRunner, DRM

THE SONGBIRD HAS ARRIVED

Finally,the long awaited release of the Songbird media player has arrived.For you who don’t know what it is(duh),it is a media player built on firefox’s browser engine.It is open source and will run on all platforms but currently runs on only Windows.It is highly customizable with moudules created by users called extensions.I am testing it out and will blog more about it later in the day.It looks and acts like iTunes on steroids. Here is a screenshot of it : Technorati Tags: songbird, open source, media player, itunes, gecko, free,

NEW FEATURES IN CHATSUM

Chatsum,the awesome firefox extension that I wrote about here and here has implemented some new features that it previously lacked.The Chatsum community has been crying for these features and more in chatsum since chatsum was released. So the Chatsum developers have introduced :

1. Scrolling in chat window
2. User preferences(eg. For openong likns in same window or new tab)
3. Live “Users in this room” list
4. Dynamic transcript timestamps

The absence of scrolling in the chat window was a major pain in the rear ends of most chatsum users and its implementation is a huge relief.
As George,one of the devs say,let the stalking begin!!!

Technorati Tags: chat, firefox, firefox extensions, chatsum

MA.GNOLIA:Social bookmarking with a twist

I got an invite to the private beta test of Ma.gnolia somewhere last week. Ma.gnolia is a new social bookmarking service with a twist. Ma.gnolia describes itself as “Found in the new search”. When I first saw it,I thought,it was one of those ridiculous del.icio.us wannabees with extra dots and vowels.(As someone asked,”Where does that darned dot go again?”) . But that isn’t so, Ma.gnolia does have a twist indeed.It allows you to save your bookmarks publicly and privately.Then, Ma.gnolia also allows you to interact with other users in the community by joining groups,making contacts,creating member profiles and sharing boomarks in groups. It is extremely easy to make contacts with other users.You just go to their profile pages and click on an icon to make them your contacts.From then,you can see their recent bookmarks on your page.You can also create groups or join some groups.After you join a group or create one,you can also see the most recent bookmarks from the group on your frontpage.You can aslo see the most recent bookamarks from the Ma.gnolia community. Each bookmark on Ma.gnolia has it owns page you can rate it and also see a preview of the webpage.Also the page shows the name of users that have it on their bookmarks.Also,when bookmarking pages,you can add tags to these pages.Ma.gnolia has a tags page which allows you to see you tags,your contact’s tags,your group’s tags and everyone’s top tags.Most used tags are in bold and in bigger fonts. Also on the profile pages of each Ma.gnolia user,you can find his/her top tags,a bio that the user wrote about him/herself,the user’s recent bookmarks,his/her contacts and groups. Finally,Ma.gnolia allows you to import bookamarks from your browser.Currently,you cannot import bookamrks from Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Furl or Simpy though plans are in place to allow this soon.Ma.gnolia is also creating an API. My only gripes with Ma.gnolia is that,it takes some time before the bookmarks you upload appear on your bookmarks.There is a bookmarklet for your borwser that allows you to add bookmarks to Ma.gnolia from your borwser. There are rumors in the works saying that a toolbar/bookmarklet like the del.icio.us one is being created. Ma.gnolia is currently an invite only beta. You can sign up for an invite on its webpage. A more indepth review can be found here. A screenshot of Ma.gnolia: Technorati Tags: ma.gnolia, social bookmarking, web 2.0, bookmarking,

SHAKE YOUR BOOTY

I dont know why i found it remarkable.Ah well, “SHAKE YOUR BOOTY AND WAVE YOUR SWORDS AT THE RIAA.“

FLICKRBOX

I have been using this Greasemonkey Script for a very longtime and so I was stunned when I found out that most firefox/flock flickr users didn’t know much about it.The name of this script is Flickrbox.The function of this userscript is to fully preview an image in your browser when you click on the link to the image.Flickrbox is an adaptation of the Lightbox.js script.I can’t really explain it.You gotta see it in action.Here is a screenshot I took of it in action:

You can also watch the demo to see it in action here.I think all flickr users will love it.More can be found about it here and here.
You can download it here.Of ocurse,you need Greasemonkey and Firefox or Flock to use it.

Technorati Tags: greasemonkey, firefox, flock, lightbox.js, flickr

JELLYBARN

Jellybarn is a photosharing social community. It allows you to create free and private communities for friends and family. The communites are created through Jellybarn’s website or through your site with the use of their API. Jellybarn is based on flash instead of Ajax but it is fast. The interface is really slick. The above screenshot is my profile before I had uploaded any pictures.You can upload pictures,save contacts and create groups,create projects,maintain events,email photos and have an onlnie journal.
There are lots of options for uploading images.There is a java uploader,a jellybarn uploader client for Windows and Mac.You can also upload images by email and through your cell phone.
You can create projects with your pictures such as DVD movies, postcards and photo books.
Jellybarn is an excellent service for an alpha service but it still has a lot of road to cover. Jellybarn is currently an invite only beta.I do have a few invites to share.
A more thorough review can be found here.

Technorati Tags: sharing, photosharing, imageesharing, social community, jellybarn

Chatsum

Finally,the long awaited(from last Sunday)release of Chatsum 0.3.If you do not know what Chatsum is,check my earlier post. So I just downloaded the Chatsum extension and started using it.Wow.It looks and feels awesome.Chatsum has a really nice color scheme that would complement every firefox theme.Chatsum is extremely fast.Typed entries appear almost immediately.This may be due to the fact that only a small number of testers are testing it right now.You can also check and see the most active sites(sites with the most chatsummers) and the most commented on sites.There is an option that allows to stick to the chat on one website but continue browsing.If not,chatsum tracks the url in the address bar(the site that you are biewing) and allows you to chat on the website that you are viewing.There is a site tab for chatting about the site and a page tab for page specific chatting.Also,chatsum has an easy way to report bugs. There is a button just under its logo that sends you to where to submit its bugs.Also,Chatsum has been made compatible with Flock.Therefor,flock users can also experience Chatsum in their sidebars. Since chatsum was released not long ago,it doesnt have a lot of features apart from basic chat and bug reporting. The developers of Chatsum, Lee and George, have posted a list of features that are going to be released really soon.The list includes:

• Scrolling in chat window
• Member log-in and “change details” page
• Member profile pages and links to them from the chat transcript
• Live “Users in the room” list
• User blocking
• Skins
• More complex spam reporting/moderating/blocking

The full list can be found here.And to all you privacy advocates,chatsum only sends the chat transcripts and the url that you are chatting on to the Chatsum server.
Lee,one of the developers says Chatsum will remain in closed beta testing for sometime before it is publicly available. Right,only 1000 beta invites have been sent out but Lee says ,later,some more invites will be sent. Go sign up for the next round of beta testing here.
Technorati Tags: chatsum, chat, free, beta, firefox, firefoxextensions

UPDATED ON JAN 24,06 at 5.43 am.

CHATSUM

I discovered this firefox extension just before christmas and because it was in its development/alpha stage,there were no screenshots or testimonials of it that I found so I decided not to blog about it.It is called Chatsum.It is a free extension for firefox that allows you to chat with other chatsum users that are looking at the same website as you. Emails were sent to those who had signed up to beta test it saying that Chatsum is going to be released on Wednesday. I am counting the number of hours till Wednesday. Though,I have not tested it,testimonials from people who accidentally got to try it out are glowing. Screenshots and the overall concept shows that this addon will be very welcome.

Here is what the authors said the fuction of Chatsum will be:

Chatsum lets you:

• Chat live with other people who are looking at the same website as you!
• Find out what other people think about the websites you’re looking at!
• Leave messages on any website you visit!
• Read messages left on websites by other Chatsum users!
• Browse the Chatsum community’s favourite websites!
• Hunt for treasure in our unique online treasure hunts!
• Find people that like the same sites as you and then CHAT TO THEM!

Here is a screenshot of Chatsum:

I will blog more about it when I try it out on Wednesday.Oh, and i just found out that,there will also be a Dashboard Widget which will work with MAC OS X Tiger.Also,there will be a version of Chatsum for Internet Explorer(lost half of my readers right now )
Technorati Tags: chatsum, firefox, firefoxextensions, widget, beta

Google Free Proxy: Access Restricted Websites

Yesterday I tried to access my website from a university computer. Unfotunately the entire domain blogspot.com was in the list of blocked websites. Luckily I remembered a recent article…

O’Reilly points out how to use Google translator service (language tools) as a free proxy to bypass the restrictions. Basically they provide a url which performs an english to english language translation, your connection is directed to a google.com page so this page won’t be blocked (unless google.com is on the black list, which is unlikely).

The en|en is an english to english translation. If you use fr|fr you get a french to french translation and so on. The proxy method helped me bypass the restriction and access my blog. But remember it does not hide your IP address.

Based on their idea, I simpy used this link to access my blog.
http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=http://killeroid…
You can replace the killeroid…. with your blocked url and bypass the block.

In the same page comments, they point to another quick way using the Google Mobile Search – a tools for searching and viewing the Web on your mobile phone (more info). Google may alter images, text formatting and/or certain aspects of web page functionality to suit best for mobile phone view. Based on this concept, the url which let me access my blog was
http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=killeroid.wordpress.com
Though the formatting, sidebar and css was gone, a limited amount of content was accessible.

Often some websites are blocked on university and office computers to prevent access to restricted websites with improper content. Although I was surprised that they had blocked all blogs from wordpress.com on the server, this tip helped me access my blog. Read more tips to privacy and security by protecting your IP address.

Courtesy of this website.

Technorati Tags: google, free, proxy, mobile, blog, restricted, restrictions