ajaxOS coming soon

AJAX is proving to be popular on Web 2.0-type websites. Now, it sees like AJAX is to be applied to an operating system. Called ajaxOS, it is a fully functional AJAX-aware operating system. The most exciting feature in ajaxOS is the ability to store to a remote server, with full access to file navigation on this remote server as well as your computer's hard disk. Sounds cool? Then check out the demo.

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Site for Users Manual/Guide

So, you've accidentally thrown away your manual with the packaging? Fear not. This site called UsersManualGuide.com collects together plenty of User Manuals ranging from aircons to even microwave. Of course, next time, don't just throw away your manual, keep them in a safe place.

Thinkfree: Online Office suite

AJAX-based office suites running online is all the rage. Now, there's another one to add to the list. Thinkfree Online claims to be the "best online office on earth" with the ability to create MS-compatible word files, spreadsheets, and even presentation files. They've also thrown in a gigabyte worth of file storage space. It's now in beta so we'll have to wait and see how it shapes up in the future. But it sure sounds good.

New Media & politics in Singapore

New Media, politics and the law. These three elements are certainly a potent mix when you consider that they push the limits of what is acceptable into uncharted territories. Cherian George, an academic in Singapore, has a blog that looks at issues in this areas. This description on the site summarises what the blog is all about.

Since the mid-1990s, technology (mainly but not only the internet) has allowed individuals and groups to have their say in ways hitherto impossible. The government has been playing legislative catch-up, but loopholes remain for small independent producers. Many of the rules are new and untested. This site is an attempt to clarify the terrain. Please note that I am not a legal expert, and some of my interpretations may be incorrect.

Good read if you are interested in the development of law and the new media in Singapore.

Google Calendar Notifier available as a Firefox Extension

Since the release of Google Calendar, it has become quite popular for those who wants an online shared calender. Now, there's a Firefox extension that'll notify you of your upcoming events even if you're not looking at the calendar itself. Pretty useful if you use Firefox and like to enhance the function of your browser with extensions.

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Star Wars lightsabre fight with the Revolution controller

Some folks who are Star Wars-cum-Nintendo fans have put together a cool and funny video that features a lightsabre fight using the controller of the Nintendo Revolution as weapons. Go look see, it brought a smile to my face.

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Fans sharing music are not thieves

For too long, folks from RIAA have branded those who share their music files as thieves. It's a good thing that some important musicians from Canada are standing up and speaking out against that view. Musicians like Barenaked Ladies and Avril Lavigne have formed the Canadian Music Creators Coalition to, among other things, support fans being sued by the Big Four Organized Music cartel. In their first white paper, the artists say, "Fans who share music are not thieves or pirates. Sharing music has been happening for decades." Way to good!

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DiggUpdate v2.0 Released

If you're using a Mac and you want to really be updated with what's happening on Digg.com, here's a hnady software called DiggUpdate for the Mac and it will instantly keep you updated of new Digg stories from your menu bar. Nice, and it's free and open source.

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Watermelon squares

Cubic melons? Yes, you're right. But at 50 clams for one, I'll think twice about buying one.

6 Year old drummer

A 6 year-old drummer was spotted at Orchard Road. He plays the drums quite well for a kid. Cool kiddo.

XboxMediaCenter Widget

If you use OS X and have a modded Xbox, this may be of interest to you. There is a Mac OS X Dashboard Widget available that allows you to send media URLs to the XBMC web server for streaming. Incredible, the usefulness of XBMC and a modded Xbox.

Build a Mac Mini Media Center

This site is called the Media Center Macintosh Project and it is useful for those who want to turn their Mac Mini into a Media Center-type computer. All you need is a Mac Mini (quite obvious), extra hard disk space, and a TV tuner (in this case an Elgato EyeTV EZ).

Intel Mac Benchmarks compared

Interested in knowing how well Intel Macs running Windows compare against other machines? Macologist has posted plenty of benchmarks comparing Macs with other computers and you can see how well they do, especially in games.

Six cool Quicksilver plugins

43 Folders has something that will be of interest to Quicksilver users. If you want to tap into the power of this nifty free app, check out the 6 plug-ins for QS, including one that will let you upload images to Flickr.

I want a Freeware Utility to...

There are quite a number of freeware lists out there. This list on econsultant is rather unique because it's not just a plain list. It presents the freewares by what you would want to do. There are more than 300+ items for you to try out. Neat.

Media on a Senator's iPod

iPac is a project that seeks to send US senators iPods loaded with Creative Commons and other free content. If you're interested in getting these free content, you can check out the website in this link. The only problem is that it seems that the site is loading pretty slowing. Maybe plenty of folks are interested in getting the same free stuff.

One Legged DDR

So you think those kids in the arcade are great at Dance Dance Revolution? You haven't seen nothing yet. In this video, the guy doing DDR has only one leg! Ok, so he has the help of two crutches, still it's amazing that he has the spirit and passion to play DDR even with his disability. I'm amazed.

Simply Google: Google services on a page

Want to see all the Google services on a single page and start searching things you want? There's a page called Simply Google that lists all the services that Google provides and also various boxes where you can enter your search term depending on which part of Google you want to search. Just to throw in a few other things, you can also search on IMDB, Wikipedia, among others.

The Most Controversial Game Ads

GamePro has a feature looking at some of the most controversial game ads that were ever ran. Some of them are quite amusing and one does wonder what those creatives were taking when they thought of those ideas. In any case, you can see all of them on the site.

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Secure Windows on a Mac

Now that you can use Boot Camp to run Windows on a Mac, you also have to accept that if you run Windows, your Mac will be open to attacks from all the viruses, spyware, and other nasty stuff. CNET has come up with a guide that will certainly be useful for Mac fans who wants to use WinXP on their Macs. Useful read.

Crazy USB stuff

This is a crazy German site. It's a site showcasing some wacky things that has a USB plug attached to them. Some of the things which they have added a USB plug to include a tie, a syringe, and get this... a bra?

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Singapore in E3 = success?

Gaming is big business. That's why Singapore is trying to gain a foothold in this area, and one of the main thrusts helping to put Singapore on the map is the island's participation in this year's E3. But does having a presence in E3 means that we are going to make a mark?

On GameAxis, there is a piece looking at the milestone of having a Singapore Pavilion at E3. However, it's not just a fluff, PR-type piece celebrating this achievement, but a thoughtful look at what it means. Worth reading if you're interested in gaming in Singapore.

The day when I feel proud of the fact that there’s a Singapore Pavilion at E3 is the day when I shown genuine admiration for products created by our local developers that meet my high expectations, and that of other game journalists around the world. That’s not to say that it has to be a AAA title, because even a modest title the likes of British indie developers like Introversion who were inspired enough to create Darwinia is good enough for me, just as long as they are creating games with a lot of heart and innovation, and not with financial figures first and foremost on their mind.

Digg Tools to check out

Using Digg is fun. To enhance your usage of Digg, here's a large list of various digg tools/links collected from around the web. Check it out if you want to get more involved in the Digg experience.

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Comparison of Legal Music Downloads

If you need some advice on where to legally get your music besides the famed iTunes Music Store, check this out. TechCrunch compares iTunes and its competitors. In the comparison, the Russian semi-legal Allofmp3 wins on all counts, but number of songs. They also offer the highest quality. Other stores reviewed include BuyMusic, MSN Music, Napster, Rhapsody, Walmart and Yahoo. Too bad they are not Singapore-based music download stores.

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Using Boot Camp

MacWorld has this article that runs you through the process of installing and running of WinXP using Boot Camp. It seems really really simple to do. The article also has some comments on running games. Comments are actually quite positive and someone has also tried running Half-Life 2 on an iMac. Performance-wise, they run great. Another reason why my next PC purchase might very well be an iMac, since I CAN PLAY PC GAMES ON IT!

My bro, Copperblue, has also posted picts of the installation of WinXP on a MacBook Pro. Sweet.

Generate your own Dummies book cover

You know those "For Dummies" books? Well, those can be really useful and well, you can see it everywhere and they cover plenty of topics under the sun. Sure, they may not have some more wacky topics, that's why you can use this fun tool to generate your own Dummies book cover, and hope that one day, someone, maybe even yourself, can write such a dummies book. You can also send the cover to your pals from the site. In the spirit of fun, I've generated my own wacky "Dummies" book. Enjoy!

Windows on a Mac is here

It's official. With the news of hackers booting Windows on a Mac, Apple has come out of the woodwork to announce that they will make available something called Boot Camp. It is something that is now in beta and will enable WinXP to run natively on Intel-based Macs. There's even a page on the Apple site that gives you instructions on how to install WinXP using the beta of Boot Camp. Hmmm... with this amazing news, I may not even have to think of getting another PC machine and just get a Mac.

Best home made lightsaber duel ever!

The best thing in Star Wars has to be the lightsaber duels. In this video, two guys have probably created one of the best, if not the best lightsaber duel ever. It's well choreographed and it's about 5 minutes long. It's just amazing what some imagination and a whole lot of Star Wars fanaticism can do.

Your own Web 2.0 homepage

Netvibes is really, really cool. It uses Web 2.0-type tech and it allows you to create your own personal page. On the page, you can add RSS feeds, pictures from Flickr, Gmail notification, and plenty more. You've got to try it to believe how amazing this thing is.

TiddlyWiki - your personal web wiki

TiddlyWiki is a really interesting thing. It's what the folks who did it call "a reusable non-linear personal web notebook". It's written in HTML, CSS and also JavaScript and it can become your own wiki. Based on a tutorial, you can even save the entire wiki as a single file can carry it with you on a USB stick. Well, the best way to describe what TiddlyWiki does is just to quote what is on the site. It's quite cool.

A TiddlyWiki is like a blog because it's divided up into neat little chunks, but it encourages you to read it by hyperlinking rather than sequentially: if you like, a non-linear blog analogue that binds the individual microcontent items into a cohesive whole.

ajaxSketch: Sketching in a browser

First there's ajaxWrite. Now, the same folks that brought you that are bringing to you ajaxSketch. It allows you to do flow charts and simple drawings within your browser. Seems like the days of an AJAX-based presentation software may not be such a wild dream after all.

Online Feed Readers compared

Feedlounge... Newsgator... Rojo... and my fave Bloglines. These are online feed readers and they help many to keep track of their RSS feeds anywhere they are, as long as there is a Net connection. Techcrunch has done a comparison table of these web-based readers and if you don't know which to go with, check this out. Me? I'm sticking with Bloglines.

Find music with Audiri

The RIAA backlash has begun. Audiri is a site that can help you look for music. You can bypass RIAA such that you can connect to the artistes themselves. The site's philosophy is

...to help you find music you like, easily. This means organizing music conveniently into genres, advanced search functionality, and a radio suggest system that can optionally play songs based on what our computers think you will like.

Sounds good for music lovers indeed.

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So many Linux distros, so little time

There are many, many Linux distros out there. If you don't believe, check out the listing of Linux distros and open source apps that is on the OSDir.com site. There're plenty of distros you can try out, and screenies that you can check out.

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List of today's April Fools Jokes

Yes, it's April Fools. If you want a full list of the hilarities that various websites and media Wikipedia has concocted, head to Wikipedia. Using the power of user-edited content, it has a list of all of the big pranks that have happened, and the list is still growing. Oh, and no, this is not an April Fools post.

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Jiving your site with Gizoogle

Want to sound like you're speaking jive? You can use the site called Gizoogle to translate your words into jive. Just enter the webpage that you want translated and you'll get your text translated. Well, I've tested this and this is what this post will be like if it is written in jive.

Wizzy ta sound like you're speak'n jizzy? You can use tha site called Gizoogle ta translate yo words into jizzy. Just shot calla tha webpage that you wizzy translated n you'll git yo text translated. Wiznell, I've tested this n this is what this post wizzy be like if it is written in jive.