technorati tags:google, gmail

Blogged with Flock

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

First of all, I am wishing Flock QA engineer Lloyd luck in all his future endeavours. Unfortunatley for the flock team, Lloyd is moving back to Canada with his bride. I wish him luck in all his future endeavours. I am sure almost every flockstar will be very sad to see him go considering how helpful and considerate he is.  We will all miss him. Good luck Lloyd and have fun in Canada.

Secondly, I would have thought most flock users will have heard of it but apprently not. Mr. McTones (thats the only part of his name I know) has released his MiniMapper flock extension. This extension adds support for google maps in the maps topbar. So for all of you who have been complaining about how “sucky” Yahoo maps is(or you just dont like Yahoo Maps), please go download this extension. The extension also gives you a choice in choosing which map service you will like to use(google or yahoo) and also view places nearby in platial.com  McTones has written a whole changelog here so go see it for any additional features.

Also, finally, Flock is getting youtube support. Right now, its really crude but its a step in the right direction. For now in the hourly builds, you can browse youtube videos through the photo topbar. Just go to “All public photos on” and choose youtube. *PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE HOURLY BUILDS ARE NOT STABLE AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR COMPUTER SUDDENLY DECIDES TO GOBBLE UP YOUR DINNER* .

Ok, so its goodbye for now. More flock news and other news coming later on. Oh and if do have some spare ALLPEERS beta invites. Send me a note thorugh the contact page and i will shoot you one.

Blogged with Flock

PS: Rob Lord is a Flockstar!!!!!

Blogged with Flock

Blogged with Flock

technorati tags: hiatus

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

The ipod phone(iphone)

Originally uploaded by Killeroid.

Info has hit the net that Apple is creating a phone equipped ipod.Apple has been talking to various Tiawanese phone maunfacturers in efforts to get a manufacturing deal.

(sorry for messy post.Remind me later on that,drinks and blogging dont mix)

]]> http://killeroid.wordpress.com/2006/02/25/flock-0512-the-update/feed/ 2 killeroid http://killeroid.wordpress.com/2006/02/23/flock-0511/ http://killeroid.wordpress.com/2006/02/23/flock-0511/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:16:13 +0000 killeroid http://killeroid.wordpress.com/2006/02/23/flock-0511/ ]]> Flock 0.5.11 has been released with quite a number of improvements. Toolinux.com (A french site) has a headline that sums up what i fell about this new release.The headline says  “Flock 0.5.11 est encore plus….sexy” . I guess there is no need to translate that into english because it pretty much is very easy to understand.

Some of the new features/improvements included in this release are

1. The addition of private favorite service,Shadows
2. Importation of Firefox settings
3. Flickr Photo Uploader
4. A new blog engine,TinyMCE

The whole list can be found here.

My favorite new feature is the addition of Shadows to the bookmarking/favorites service.In the previous release,we had only del.icio.us as the online bookmarking/favorite service.I love del.ico.us but I hate its inability to let you have both public and private bookmarks. This new Flock release supports both Shadows and del.ico.us so you can choose between the two. Also,you can choose to store the favorite online or locally.

Another new feature that I love is the addition of so more topbars.There is now a maps topbar that allows to drag an adress to it and it will map for you. Unfortunately, the topbar uses yahoo maps so users in europe and other continents wont find much use for it since yahoo maps has limited coverage in europe and other continents.Also,the shelf has been added to the topbar menu and your can store tidbits there

Also, Flock has now bundled TinyMCE as the blog editor.Much better better than the old blog editor but Performancing has more features than it has so  I will stick to Performancing for now.

There is also a Flickr photo Uploader topbar which allows you to upload images from your computer to Flickr via it.My only qualm with it is that,you can’t upload images from web images directly to flickr from it.

Also with the Flickr photo browser topbar,you can now search by text or tags or by user.

So far,though Flock is my primary browser and I use for long streaches of time each day,it hasnt yet crashed on me.

I will in a later post, blog about the extensions that I can’t live without in Flock.

Please download the Flock Browser here.

Gotta go now,Sorry for the shitty post.

PS: This post reflects what I found and thought to be important in the new release but I am sure lots of you have other new features that you love.Sorry,I couldn’t talk more about those features.

Technorati Tags: flock, flock 0.5.11, browser, topbar, TinyMCE, Shadows, del.ico.us,

Technorati Tags: flock, browser, firefox,

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

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

Technorati Tags: blummy, bookmarklets, javascript, ajax

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

Ladies and Gentlemen, its time for a classic UNEASYsilence giveaway and this is the best one we have ever done.

We are giving away iPods, but not just ANY iPod. This giveaway is for a limited edition UNEASYsilence iPod nano. This iPod nano has the UNEASYsilence logo beautifully anodized on the back, and comes with an generous iTunes music store gift certificate. I am making an extremely limited number of these iPods – but the number is dictated based on buzz. Not even Derek or I will have one, this will only go out to our loyal readers.

What are the rules? Well you have to subscribe to the feed, that is how the winners in round one will find out who won. This is only required for the first round of giveaways. Also, since this is based on buzz, leave a comment on THIS entry saying who or other site you told about this giveaway. The greater the buzz, the more iPods we give away.

Enjoy and good luck. Contest open to the world, UNEASYsilence will foot the domestic shipping charges, if someone outside the UNited States wins, they have the option to pay for the additional shipping (Which should be nominal). The winners will be announced on Friday Feb 10th via our feed.

Don’t have a feed reader? Get the headlines delivered to you via email or view them in any web browser. See our other feed options in the left column of the screen.

Any questions, please write us at tips@uneasysilence.com

Winners will be choosen at random from the comments below…

Also for the love of god, keep those pods at less then 85 decibels

So please grab your feedreaders and run off to grab the feeds and hope you are a winner.

Technorati Tags: giveaway, ipod, free, blog, uneasysilence,

*END OF PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT*

Technorati Tags: ma.gnlia, chatsum, gtalkr, social bookmarking

You can sign up for it here.

Technorati Tags: music, pandora, last.fm, web radio,

UPDATE:replaced created with saw.Really bad mistake.Should learn to focus when typing and not write whatever is in my mind and also proofread.

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 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

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.

January 16, 2006

Paul Eibeler, CEO
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. and Rockstar Games
622 Broadway
New York, New York 10012 C/o Blank Rome

Dear Mr. Eibeler:

As you may know, three homeless men in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, were beaten with baseball bats last week by two teenagers. One of the victims, an African American gentleman, died because of the attacks. This has made headlines around the globe, as has discussion of a likely video game connection to these baseball bat beatings.

Your company has made and distributed the most popular violent video game series of all time—the Grand Theft Auto games. In these GTA games, beating innocent people to death with baseball bats is a featured entertainment activity. Your company has also distributed Manhunt which features the same kind of virtual reality baseball bat beatings. This game is so sociopathic that it has been banned from certain countries. Additionally, your company, during this past holiday buying season, launched the incredibly brutal “brawler� game called The Warriors, which also features death by baseball bat. The Warriors is based upon the 1979 movie of the same name that was yanked, in effect, by Paramount Pictures because of all the copycat violence it was spawning.

You also know, Mr. Eibeler, that huge numbers of academic, scientific, and medical studies prove that violent video games like this, when played by teens, lead to specific acts of teen violence. There are no studies that rebut these findings. You also know that your company has designed and marketed the aforementioned violent games for sale to minors. Your company even went so far as to embed explicit sex scenes in the GTA: San Andreas game which criminal deception resulted in a vote of 355-21 by the US House of Representatives to condemn your company’s acts. That also garnered you the “Worst American CEO of 2005 Award� by MediaWatch.

Finally, you need to know, Mr. Eibeler, that there have been many, many killings linked by law enforcement officials and others to your company’s violent murder simulation games sold to teens. Most significantly, Mr Eibeler, there have been killings of homeless people directly linked to your company’s Grand Theft Auto games. Baseball bats have been used in some of them.

You have until five o’clock p.m., Tuesday, January 17, 2006, to announce a recall from all retailers of all of the aforementioned three game titles—The Warriors, Manhunt, and all versions of the Grand Theft Auto games—or I and others shall proceed to secure appropriate remedies against your company in these regards.

Please govern yourself accordingly—for a change.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Here is a letter a lawyer sent to TAKE-TWO makers of GTA and other so called violent games.This is one of the dumbest letters ever written. Is this guy really a lawyer? If so then he is a disgrace to the Florida bar.Common,my pet lizard is even wiser than he is.Lol,whats so hilarious is that he doesnt even have facts to prove his claim of studies revealing that such video games lead to specific acts of teen violence.

Ah well,I guess it is his way of getting publicity.
Well Mr John B. “Jackass” Thompson,come to my house for my GTA games and you will see what a baseball bat can do to such a dumb like you.

Pirated of this website.

Technorati Tags: gta, videogames, violence, humor, vidoegameviolence, gta, games, rockstargames,

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

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

1. Goowy -
   

   My start page.It has a flash based interface and includes traditional webservices such as   email,contacts,widgets,calender,games,etc.It has a widget that allows you to access feeds from your favorite websites.Go check here for more on it.

2. Meebo -
   

   A web based instant messenger application.I use it for all the other networks except MSN.Check here for reviews.

3. TechCrunch -
   

   A weblog dedicated to profiling web 2.0 products and companies.It is usuallyy updated a coupla times a day.

4. Gmail -
   

   I cant live without my email.

5. Digg -
   

   A technology news site that allows users to suggest content.Some of you may prefer Slashdot.I visit both of them but I prefer Digg.

6. Writely -
   

   It is a web based word processor. I use it for all those word documents that I have to edit in school with patners. Check here for reviews.

7. WordPress -
   

   My blog is based here. So I always check it first thing in the morning and read/moderate all comments.

8. Livewire Forums -
   

   One of the best teen forums around.A personal quirk,I visit it every morning.

9. SolutionWatch -
   

   Another weblog devoted to profiling web 2.0 products. It isnt updated as much as TechCrunch.

Please leave comments and tell me more about any similar or better sites.And I hope can send me an invite to Newsvine.I desperately need one.Whoever does it gets a WLM invite,a Kahuna(New Hotmail) invite and a Wallop invite.Thanks.

Technorati Tags: favorite, goowy, startpages, ajax, IM, web2.0

That is a picture of the OPTIMUS keyboard.It is a next-gen keyboard which has every key being a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at the very moment.It is like having a fully customizable keyboard without shelling extra bucks to buy kits and extra keys.Since each key has its own individual screen it can display any image almost instantly.
Here is a shot of the keyboard being used to play quake:

Here’s to hoping that it wouldn’t be that expensive when it comes out.

Damn,I still cant stop drolling.More can be found out about it here or here.

Technorati Tags: next-gen, keyboard,

Imagine that you have a mobile device that can store and play back music files, for example a mobile phone with an MP3 player. As you encounter various people, the devices you are carrying connect to each other wirelessly and media agents from the other nearby devices check the status of your media collection. Based on what you have been listening to in the past and which files you already own, new music might spontaneously and autonomously “jump� from another device to yours (and vice versa). Later, when you listen to your songs, your Push!Music player also plays some newly obtained tunes that you had not heard before.

More can be found out about here.
This should scare the RIAA .You guys at the RIAA,suck on this. Here’s to hoping they make it open source so that others can add even more features to it.

1. Picasa – Photo Organizer
2. Google Desktop – Desktop Companion
3. Google Talk – VOIP and IM application
4. Google Toolbar – Search toolbar
5. Google Earth – 3D Earth browser
6. Google Pack Screensaver – Photo screensaver

ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE:

1. Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar – Web browser
2. Trillian – Multiplatform Instant messenger
3. Ad-Aware SE Personal – Antispyware Utility
4. Adobe Reader 7 – PDF reader
5. Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition – AntiVirus utility
6. GalleryPlayer HD Images – Images
7. Realplayer – Media Player

Though all the software in the google pack is free,some of the software may offer paid versions that provide additional features or ongoing updates.What I know of is the Norton AntiVirus,it come 6 months of free updates but after that you have to get a paid subscription to get more updates from Symantec.

Also you can get a Windows Live Messenger invite here on this blog on this page.

See more screenshots of Windows Live here.

• Send all your familiar winks and emoticons, plus some cool new ones
• Have real-time text, video and voice conversations*
• Call your friends’ mobile or land-line telephones by signing up with a designated Microsoft partner to make affordable domestic and international calls
• Easily share documents of all kinds with Sharing Folders
• Make free PC-to-PC calls with other Messenger users

Download Windows Live Beta

NOTE: UNEASYsilence is not hosting this file, and is merely providing a link to the Microsoft download site.

Read these instructions carefully. And be sure you download the REAL version of the messenger from Microsoft

Try It [via]

I found this on uneasysilence.com and wanted to share it with my readers.I tried it out myself and I will blog about it tommorow.Right now,I am too sleepy to do anything else but yawn.

Many of you have probably already seen this in forwarded email form,
but it’s actually one of the funnier things I’ve been
forwarded. Everything you always wanted to know about Chuck Norris but
were afraid to ask. Enjoy.

22 Chuck Norris Facts

1. Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
2. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
3. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
4. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
5. Chuck Norris defines love as the reluctance to murder. If
you’re still alive, it’s because Chuck Norris loves you.
6. Chuck Norris isn’t hung like a horse. Horses are hung like Chuck Norris.
7. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
8. Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother’s womb.
9. There are no disabled people. Only people who have met Chuck Norris.
10. Chuck Norris can win a game of Monopoly without owning any property.
11. There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.

12. In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World
Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and
those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone has ever gotten.
13. Chuck Norris invented cancer because he was tired of killing people
14. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.
15. Chuck Norris is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.
16. Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
17. When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
18. Chuck Norris has two speeds: walk and kill.
19.When Chuck Norris jumps into a body of water, he doesn’t get wet. The water gets Chuck Norris instead.
20. Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
21. Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
22. When Chuck Norris runs with scissors, other people get hurt.

Update (12.13.05): Click here to read new original Chuck Norris facts.

Technorati Tags: funny,

Though,I saw this website a long time ago,I have given it much thought or gone to take a closer look at it since I thought it would be like all those other start pages.Being bored yesterday,I went there to take a look at it.I signed up for an account and it was created for me instantly.The page has a really nice interface.You can add your own feeds to it.You can also choose to display the already preconfigured feeds.The already preconfigured feeds include,web 2.0 blogs,major new sites,major sports sites among others. Overall,it is really easy to add a site’s feed.You just need to click on the add a feed button,then enter the url of the feed,and you are done.
Also,there is an online calender,game and a 2GB mailbox for every user.The mail system is really fast.
Overall,i would give it a 10 out of 10 just because it is really easy to use and configure and it has a really nice look.

On the left in the smaller panel,all your groups are listed.Those you created and those you joined are listed under the private tab.Meaning,only people in those groups can see and download the files you share in the group.In theory,this works really well because only your people you trust can see your files to download.But in the real world,people you trust dont have all the files you want to download and so you have to invite strangers to your groups or join groups made by strangers to get the content you want.You can also choose to share your files publicly.This way,everyone can download them without being a member of the group inwhich you share them.Every user of grouper has a profile and a signature video which you can watch.Grouper also has tools which help you create your own homemade videos.
Grouper is very easy to use.A new user gets the hang of it really easily and thier support system is really fast.
Unfortunately,Grouper has no mechanism in place to stop the spread of viruses and spyware.Five minutes after starting to use Grouper,I got popups on my screen.I will suggest to anyone switching to grouper to be really wary of files downloaded of grouper.Also,another disadvantage of grouper is that,during the morning and early evening,most people are not online.Most of grouper users come online at night.Meaning,connections are really slow due to the fact that almost everyone does their download and uploads at the same time.Technorati Tags: filesharing, grouper, music, musicpiracy, RIAA, mp3, privvatefilesharing, network, grouper

Hmm,so this is a screenshot showing the visual style I use on my pc.it is called the Longhorn Inspirati and can be found at DeviantART.com It is really awesome.Download it and apply it and then tell me you hate it.PS:Sorry for this subpar post but I am at this really boring family get together and I am using my cousins laptop to blog.I am just tired of listening to all my relatives yappering and yappering so I decided just to blog about this visual style since i use it and have even convinced my gf to use it since it looks really awesome.

Technorati Tags: Windows, desktop, visualstyle

1. Greasemonkey
2. Adblock
3. Performancing
4. Gmail Space
   
5. Fasterfox
   
6. Restart Firefox
   
7. Sage
   
8. Statusbar Clock
   
9. Foxy Tunes
   
10. Gmail Manager
    
11. Del.icio.us
    
12. Customize Google
    
13. StumbleUpon
    
14. Tab Mix Plus
    
15. IE Tab

These are the first extensions I always get for firefox on new machines.They are not listed in any order.And I will update them from time to time.

PS:All of them are also compatible with flock but right now,the links point to the firefox version.

So,Christmas is here again. Time to get out the gifts and drinks and have a good jolly time.I wish you all a merry Christmas especially you folks at flock. Have fun with your friends,get drunk and be safe,I’m out.

So there’s been some more talk lately about Flock and extensions and relevancy and Performancing’s new blogging tool for Firefox. I’m all for it. The more we talk about open source, about Firefox, about Flock, about coming up with better, cooler, faster and more usable technology, the more we’re inclined to just go build it. And in doing so, make sure that it’s relevant and actually meets the needs of real people.

I have to admit though, the potshots at Flock are becoming a little … tiresome.

So ok, I’m all about being skeptical. I’m all about looking a gift horse in the mouth, in its eyes, and … elsewhere… yah. (Y’know, you gotta make sure there’s no sneaky Trojans lurking about or whatever.)

And this post was going to about that old information autobahn thing and how there’s plenty of room for one more automobile manufacturer. And that was going to be my analogy for why Flock is a good thing for drivers, etc, etc. But I decided that’s a dumb idea. And boring to write. So let me get right down to it.

Here’s the thing. We’ve actually been pretty certain for some time that most of the features that we build into Flock will be eventually be ported back over to Firefox as extensions. Or become commodity features in other browsers. That’s the way open source should work — and the way software develops plays off itself — and we’re totally in support of that! The point is not to make a bunch of proprietary tools that only work in Flock. That would be rediculous and counterproductive. I mean, our goal is to make using all the great tools now available on the web easier to use by building a more consistent user experience. Yeah, that’s our big top secret plan.

So why build our own browser if we’re in support of this whole extension model anyway? Well, let me paint a picture of my vision for Flock and why it at all makes sense that we continue doing what we’re doing, no matter how many extensions come out and attempt to mirror our featureset.

Queue lights … cameras rolling… pull curtains … 5, 4, 3…

So in the olden days, there was a web of interconnected computers and file servers and yada yada that were conceived of as a massive network of libraries containing all kinds of hyperlinked data and information. Now, pieces of that data had individual addresses, just like booksin libraries had unique identifiers called Dewey decimal numbers. Thus pieces had a static position in the system and you used a web browser to pull up thaose pieces of data. So when someone added a piece of information to the network, say an online shrine about their cat, it got its own address, acronymically known as a URL.

So so so, jump forward in time a bit. Welcome to today, a time of spheres… blaw-go…spheres… where currency is measured by one’s attention-magnetism and linkification, where if you don’t have a blog, you don’t have a pulse and you’re dead, kaput, worse than history, see ya later, sayanaro, did you even exist in the first place? Oh yeah and what’s your feed?

Hmm. So let’s slow it down a second here. Get this, here it comes, I’ve got a visual metaphor to sink yourself into: so say you’re walking down the street, a crowded street. Let’s put you in Manhattan, or Boston, DC, Copenhagen, Tokyo whereever. Look, it’s busy. 10,000 people trampling the sidewalk concrete and they’re all in chaos, no no, wait, calm, but y’know, this is chaos theory in motion.

This is 100,000 people walking down the concrete towards you, you, you’re walking the other way — who knows why? you just are — and there are these crescendoing voices around you, swirling, smashing conversations. You’re grasping at words, sounds; the ring of cell phones, change being dropped between high heels and rubber soles. A cacophonic masterpiece of human communication.

So listen, you hear something, it piques your interest, you think to yourself, “Aha.“

Moving towards it, crowd parting in front of you, shoulders meeting; you sideways, all arms and elbows, towards the sound. One motion, you blur, find the source. Listen, speak, are heard, enlightenment and voice. This is conversation. This is fleeting. This is connection and this is what sustains you.

Now there are ten of you. Ten. Or maybe ten hundred. And each one of you is having this experience. As you weave your way in and out of throng, you’re merging and joining ongoing; nascent; 1,000 year old conversations. Say your piece, move on. Don’t stay too long, surely something else as interesting is being said … just around the corner.

Ok.

Stop.

Curtain down, lights go on; watch your eyes, it’s bright.

Now that, that picture, that experience, that’s the web. Yeh, that’s the web today except imagine it with your eyes closed, with blinders on, with the sound fuzzed out, with orange icons all over the friggin’ place. And yes, every now and then some jack-in-the-box assclown pops up trying to sell you V_1agra.

It almosts make me want to go back to the old library model.

But no, see, that’s where Flock comes in. Or I don’t care, don’t call it Flock. Whatever you want, but that’s where the thing we’re building comes in. That’s why we exist, that’s why we matter, that’s what the point is.

Yeah, Firefox and Duct tape, it’ll help. Sure sure. It’ll get you some of the way there. But hell, when I’m talking to someone, engaged in a conversation that threatens my very existence, or that threatens to change the way I flip my omelettes, man, I do not want my mouth to fall off at the jaw because it wasn’t tested, wasn’t built right, didn’t have a million beedy eyes boring down on it while it was being fastened to my head, making sure the stupid thing would function in the real world without needing pliers or a tireiron to get it to function. No, I do not want my memory to hiccup, to recede, for me to lose my place in line, to have my line of thinking severed when I’m talking to someone else. I need to be there, fully, to be there in the conversation, as a whole, as one integrated thing, yes yes, a fully functioning machine. No, I don’t want to be some bootstrapped, schizophrenic, unintuitive, semi-confused and incomplete afterthought kludged together and mistaken for a vision of the real thing. No, I want more than that, I want to be as in the conversations that I have online as the ones I have offline — I want to get to the point where there is no difference, that a conversation is a conversation is a conversation. I need a tool that helps me achieve that. It needs to understand things the way I understand them; it needs to reflect the reality of what’s going on online today.

When was the last time you thought twice about the fact that you’re talking to a digital signal every time you use your cell phone?

Or how about the fact that your instant messages (which indeed seem so instant) actually travel over thousands of other people’s computers and servers before they reach you?

And your email? Even worse. If you think herding cows is messy, you should see the way email is schlopped all over the place.

The point is this. These technologies have become second nature vehicles for communication and expression. And blogging, podcasting, vlogging and the whole lot of recent “mecasting” technologies aren’t as integrated, aren’t as easy, aren’t as accessible as they need to be for them to be picked up and made as commonplace as the telephone (or cellphone, if you prefer). Point Four percent of the population is nothing (that’s 23.6 million blogs as a percentage of the world population by the way). And yet another extension is not the answer. I don’t even know if another browser is. But we need something that works to solve this problem… or at least to make it better.

Yep, we’ve got a vision for how a browser with a different understanding of the web can help. We wouldn’t be building it otherwise. This is what drives us to make Flock the best possible, most easy-to-use and most useful tool it can be, because we’re experiencing all the same problems as everyone else. Just coz us at Flock’re a tech savvy bunch doesn’t mean this stuff comes easy for us either. And for chrissake, it’s got to get easier, so much easier, if these conversations are going to include and be accessible to those who most need a voice.

So,today,as I was browsing some tech sites,I discovered news of a new firefox extension that allowed you to blog from your browser.Since I started using flock,I have been taking this tool for granted since flock has a blogging top bar.So,there is no need to actually go to the blog site just to update your entries.But since flock is still in its beta phase,it isnt quite ready to be used as default browser and so I use firefox.It is a pain in the ass just to go to the blog site and then add and entry.I tried a blogger extension for firefox but it didn’t work out so well.It wasn’t what I expected.It didn’t actually allow you to edit your blog from your browser without actually going to the site.So,I was elated when I heard the news that such an extension like flock’s blogging top bar had been developed for firefox.I downloaded and I am trying it out.It looks really awesome.It allows me to update my blogger,wordpress and other blogs right from the browser without actually going to the websites.The only problem that so far I heard it has is that since WordPress users can’t use inline CSS,using the performance tab with the option “User CSS for content style” enabled will cause problems when using the align buttons,etc
All the same,it is a great extension. Check out more about it from its website.

SO,the moral to all of you out there is that,dont download files from unknown sources,especially not from the irc warez crazed idiots.Ciao.