Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 03 Issue 02
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 3, Issue 2
Today I was watching after Kaylie while Lisa was on a conference
call. We've got a section of our downstairs kind of blockaded
off. Within that area we've done a pretty good job of making
things "child-safe" ... or so we thought. I had ducked out to
the kitchen to put some dishes in the dishwasher. I could still
hear her playing with her toys, so I figured things were OK.
Then it got quiet.
Every parent knows that silence is one of the best indicators
that trouble's a-brewin' and my darling daughter is no exception.
Sure enough, when I peeked in the other room, I found her
standing on the window seat (a place where she had never reached
before), licking the window. She must have used her toy chest as
a lift to get up that high. Needless to say, I'm looking forward
to more excitement in the future.
Similar to my daughter, tools on the Web change and develop all
the time. Some add new capabilities. Others work faster. Still
others, unfortunately, make a turn for the worse. I thought I
would take an issue or two to review some of the tools I've
talked about over the last year or so. Some I still use, others
fell by the wayside. I'll let you know which and why.
----------------------------------------------------------------
In This Issue...
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Article: Looking Back, Part 1
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
3. The Fine Print
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Article: Looking Back, Part 1
----------------------------------------------------------------
Where have all the cool tools of yesteryear gone? Am I still
using them? Did I replace them with something better? Or did
they just fade away -- an unnecessary toy in a cluttered world?
Here are a few for which I've seen some changes recently.
Google Notebook:
(http://cyberdatasolutionsllc.com/ezine/20070717.txt)
Google has decided to shutter a number of its applications which
weren't really doing anything. Google Notebook, while it is
still going to be live, will be losing all of its developers.
That means stagnation which, on the Web, means eventual death.
As far as alternatives, if you are just trying to keep track of
URLs, del.icio.us does a pretty good job. It allows you to store
tagging information and notes about a URL. Google Docs is a
fairly convenient way of grabbing and organizing clips of
information from websites.
To tell you the truth, I had kind of stopped using Notebook quite
a while ago. I guess it began to feel a little superfluous to
me. Of course, I still enjoy my paper notebooks so I might be a
bit of a dinosaur there.
Jott:
(http://cyberdatasolutionsllc.com/ezine/20080129.txt)
OK, this one really hurt. Jott is a pretty cool service which
allows you to call a toll-free number and record a message. That
message would then be transcribed and sent to a destination you
chose. Most of the time, I just had it email the messages to
myself, but at one point you could even send things to Google
Calendar or to your Remember The Milk task list. Unfortunately,
this apparently didn't make much money. When the service came
out of beta, they made it so you had to go to their site in order
to read your message or you could purchase a premium membership
which would allow you to maintain all of the features that it had
before. Now you have to pay for any usage. As of February 2nd,
their minimum service will cost $3.95 per month.
I really loved the Jott service. It was great when I was in my
car or when I didn't have a notepad handy, I could just give them
a quick call and suddenly I would have a reminder wherever I
needed it. Maybe they will go back to having a free version in
the future, but for now I can't justify the cost for the amount I
would use it.
JW FLV Media Player
(http://cyberdatasolutionsllc.com/ezine/20081202.txt)
This is the player that I set up on Kaylie's site to show high
quality video. Unlike the previous two tools, I will still be
continuing to use this one. In fact the only real change in this
are that the developer moved it to a new location. You can now
download the tool at http://longtailvideo.com. Other than that,
it's still a great solution for video on your website.
As long as I'm bringing it up, though, I thought that I would
mention that a number of people had complained that they weren't
able to view the world-famous "Whack-a-Mole" video:
http://kaylie.cyberdatasolutionsllc.com/videos.php?v=0
The problem turned out to be that I had selected a particular
video format which had only recently been supported by the Flash
player. If you hadn't updated your player in over a year, then
you couldn't view the video. Of course, the solution is simply
to head over to the Adobe site
(http://flashplayer.10-downloadcenter.com/), download the updated
plugin and install it on your machine (actually a very easy task
to accomplish). This will also give you the ability to view
video from the Hulu website (http://Hulu.com)
That's all for this time. I'll revisit a few more updated or
outdated tools and toys for next time. In the meantime, I would
love to hear from you about any of the tools which I've talked
about that you might still use.
Copyright 2009, Greg Peters
----------------------------------------------------------------
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
----------------------------------------------------------------
The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
----------------------------------------------------------------
3. The Fine Print
----------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe:
You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at:
http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine
Questions:
If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the
Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at:
gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com
This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact
information intact, without specific permission, when used only
in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired,
permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with
notification to the original author.
We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited,
and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your
privacy is safe with us.
