Archive for June, 2006
Flock, The Browser: Go Get It!
Last fall, Flock hit the blogosphere in a developer pre-release version. We played with it, and it had some great featuers…but it was buggy (as you might expect), and it didn’t make the "everyday use" test.
Last week, Flock announced a Beta release of their browser…and we’re proud to say that it rocks our socks off.
The premise of Flock is slightly different than we’ve become accustomed to with browsers. Sure, it’s got tabs, extensions, pop-up blocking, all that…because it’s based on Firefox. What it does that Firefox doesn’t do is integrate the social side of the web directly into the browser.
Do you use Flickr or PhotoBucket? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could browse photos from your favorite users without having to visit the site? How about if you could drag and drop images from the web directly into your albums, without loading an external uploader? Flock does that.
What about del.icio.us? If you’ve been around the web much, you’ve probably seen the social bookmarking tool…you could even be an active user. What if, instead of an extension buried in a menu, you had del.icio.us integration with your bookmarks? Flock does that.
I’ll bet you use RSS feeds, in some form or another. Flock has a built in news aggregator that makes browsing feeds pleasurable. It creates a summary/snapshot page of recently updated articles, by category, giving you a quick glimpse of what’s going on in your feeds. You can always delve into the meat and potatoes of each source, but it saves you the time of sorting through the "stuff."
Do you blog? Or better yet, do you get lazy on your blogging because it’s inconvenient to post? What if your browser had a built in blog composition utility, letting you drag and drop content within your browser, giving you a spot to write up your article, and publish it…without ever leaving the browser? Flock does that.
While we don’t use the blogging faculty of Flock (because of our fairly stringent, self-imposed guidelines), it’s incredibly handy for the every day blogger. Really.
They’ve incorporated desktop search in the search bar, providing localized results (much like Google Desktop) next to search engine results.
And best of all? We’ve been using it exclusively for the last week…and we haven’t crashed it once. It’s available for Windows, OS X and Linux, and because it’s built on the open source Firefox engine, you can trust its safety and compatibility.
Go get it…you’ll thank us.
Technorati Tags: browser, flock
Gmail Hosting: Part Deux
As we discussed in our last post, Google is now offering email domain hosting, and we took the plunge with Turnip Network last week.
The setup process was more or less straightforward, though we encountered a little speed bump when changing our MX records. We’d be interested in hearing some "tech guy" commentary on this, but if you use Yahoo! Domains (with a custom DNS pointing to your own server, or a server somewhere other than Yahoo!), there is no way to modify the mail server. According to Yahoo!, you must change the mail server information on the domain to whose nameservers you are forwarding your domain.
Let me boil it down. In our case, we needed to modify MX/mail server entries on our server - not with our registrar. This particular situation isn’t identified in any of the Google help documentation, and it wasn’t until after some extensive sifting in Google Groups that we actually found something. Regardless, after tweaking the server, we were good to go.
You get 25 addresses to assign, each of which come with just over 2 GBs of storage. The administrator account has an e-mail address, but also provides settings/control panel for the domain. Get ready to use a new URL for logging in; good old gmail.com or mail.google.com won’t cut it. You’re given a domain-specific login (which clearly explains whatís going on) at a location like mail.google.com/hosted/yourdomain.com.
After all is said and done, youíre going to be loving Gmail, and not hating the infamous "On Behalf of" attachment to your non-Gmail addresses. Bravo Gmail; now, let us pay extra for more storage, and we’ll give you our credit cards (2 gigs simply is NOT enough).
Tags: gmail hosting, gmail, webmail
Gmail…your taunting continues
I’ve spent a lot of time - most visibly in this series of posts [turnipville.com] - complaining about the shortcomings of Gmail’s "send from" feature. I found out the hard way just how Google’s message headers result in the infamous "On Behalf of" tag in front of your e-mail address…and I was devastated.
My frustration was substantial enough that it sent me running to to a premium Yahoo! account, then to Runbox, over to a small stint with Mail.app, and finally back to Yahoo!.
Well, it’s all clear now. Google’s launched domain e-mail hosting. Like everything else they do, it’s in Beta…but they’ve approved mine, and I’m giving it a run.
I’ve moved all of the turnipnetwork.com e-mail over to Gmail, and will be testing it over the next several weeks. My first impressions are simple: it looks like Gmail, and I can send e-mail from turnipnetwork.com addresses WITHOUT the dreaded "On Behalf of".
This is an excellent solution for organizations that have several accounts, and want some quality e-mail options. It’s not the answer for people who are looking for a way to manage several different e-mail addresses.
It’s probably perfect for those of you who are starting up your own websites, but don’t have the time or budget to wage a full-scale e-mail campaign.
Instant Messenger Wars
How is it that there are so many instant messenger protocols, and that they’ve ALL got substantial support?
I’m reminded of VHS/Beta (and the impending Blu-Ray/HDVD) battles every time someone says "what’s your IM?"
"Hey, send me an e-mail and we’ll set it up."
"Why don’t you just IM me?"
"Ok..gimme your screen name."
"x391jf93ltricks22"
"That’s AOL, right?"
"No, Yahoo!"
"I don’t have Yahoo!…do you have an MSN account?"
"No. You’ve got Skype though, right?"
"I used to…just send me an e-mail, and I’ll call you."
Now, thanks to things like Trillian and Adium, people are able to combine their different IM accounts in one interface…but you’re still using three or four different protocols. Is there really a difference?
I’ve heard that it’s almost a geographic thing: U.S.A. uses AIM, Canada uses MSN, Australia uses Yahoo!…
…but how the hell did that happen?
My official proposition: since I use AIM primarily, I would ask all internet users to either convince me of the benefits of Yahoo! or MSN, or begin using AIM exclusively.
Thank you. I’ll be waiting.
Tags: IM, Instant Messenger, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, AIM
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
I’m an RPG fan - which means that I spent my obligatory half a year entrenched in Everquest, and the next several years trying to find something to replace it.
For whatever reason, the video game industry seems to have a difficult time delineating between role-playing games and adventure games. There are lots of great action games released as RPG’s (see Fable, Jade Empire, etc.), but it’s been a while since a real RPG hit the streets.
Thank you for relieving our misery, Bethesda.
My daugher and I have now logged over 50 hours in Oblivion, and recently reached level 9. We’ve taken two or three steps along the main quest…but that doesn’t much matter. Sure, we want to save the world, and shut down the Oblivion Gates, but there are lots of little tasks that we need to help people with along the way.
We’re members of the Fighters Guild, the Mages Guild, and the Thieves Guild. While we’ve achieved a fairly high rank in the Fighters Guild, we still need to get recommendations from a few guild leaders to advance in the Mages Guild (we ask for one every time we’re in a new city). The Thieves Guild quests also prove to be a great time, as they don’t seem to involve fighting…but quite a bit of trickery.
Even though one of the friars near Chorrol gave us a horse early in the game, we found him to be a little too slow…and eventually upgraded to a speedy black horse from Cheydinhal. Our house is going to need upgrade soon as well, as the little shack we bought in the Imperial City is something of a dump (the rent’s free, though).
All told, this game is awesome. The fighting engine could be better, but that’s about where the constructive criticism stops and becomes impractical whining.
This is a serious hit, and almost reason - in itself - to own a 360.
Welcome!
If you love geekery, but your real life precludes full dedication to said geekery, Martini Geek is the place for you.
This isn’t a repository for martini recipes; if you’re looking for those, I’d suggest asking these guys.
No, this is the part of the Turnip Network where we talk about gadgetry…in our hobbyist sort of way.
We need to thank the author of the “CorporateLook” WP theme, as we’ve shamelessly employed it, tweaked it, and published it. Well done, amigo.
Now, get down to it.