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britster: The New MySpace For The UK?

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 britster I came across a post over at Paul Enderson's blog 'Reflections' today that caught my interest; he is working to set up a new social network that will be aimed primarily at the British. Sounds good to me, seeing as I am British. At the moment he is preparing it for a private Beta and looking for some help in geting the bugs out, so if you have any experience with the inner workings of a social networking site and would like to lend a hand let him know over at his site, Reflections. If all goes well, those of us who are not as technically minded can sign on for a public beta of the network which should go live in August. With the continued growth of social networks on the web with sites like MySpace and Facebook this could be a great success. Also, as sites like YouTube are see the need to allow each country to set up their own community there is obviously an increasing need for more niche social networking sites. It will also be nice to be on a site where all the features are available to me, unlike the 'other' sites with their "currently only available in the US" applications. Wishing you well with this one, Paul, let's hope it all comes together. :-)
clipped from paulenderson.com

Britster Beta Testing
I’ve been working on Britster now for a number of months now, and the project is finally nearing completion! Everything’s in place to make this the biggest thing to happen to Social Networking in England for a long time - and I for one can’t wait to see this baby fly! ;)
During the first week of July the site will enter a ‘Private Beta’ phase, during which all of the little niggles will be resolved. Once this is done, the site will move to a ‘Public Beta’ a month later - which will see the doors open to members of the public.
So… Do you think you’ve got what it takes to help me? I’m looking for technically-minded people, who understand how social networking sites work, and who can help me to take this project to the next level. There won’t be any payment for your time at this stage, but you will get your name and a link to your website placed in a prominent position once the site goes live.


Google Reader Now Available Offline

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 I was just checking my Google RSS feed and noticed that there is now has a new feature available, Google Gears, that you can use offline to read your 2000 most recent articles, which is more than you should need unless you're Robert Scoble. ;-) I haven't had a chance to fully check this feature out yet, but if it up to Google's usual standard it should be pretty nifty. Is this a feature you think you will use? Do you use Google for your feeds or do you prefer to use another application? Let me know in the comments if you think online or offline is the best way to read your feeds.

Google Reader Offline



Online Image Editing: It’s A Picnik

Friday, May 18th, 2007 One of the tools I find myself using more often these days is the Picnik online image editor. It's a pretty nifty editor that can be used for your images on your own computer or those you find as you browse the web. It integrates well with your Flickr and Picasa accounts, allowing you to save your images direct to your profile or save straight on to your computer. You can also email your images to individuals and even certain websites that can be configured to receive images via email such as Photobucket, ImageShack and Typepad. The site is still in Beta but runs very smoothly, though you do have to have Flash 9 installed. Just about any image you find online can be pulled in to Picnik, either through using the images url or using a tool such as the Firefox Picnik extension that adds a menu option and/or a toolbar icon to make importing images into Picnik that much easier. Just what can it do for you? Apart from the usual resize, rotate, and crop it can take care of red-eye in your own pictures, fix your colours and contrast/brightness, sharpen and even add some special effects on their "Creative Tools" page. There are plenty of great effects to play around with at the moment, though a few of these will only be part of their "Premium" package once the site is out of Beta. Picnik, alongside of Faststone Capture, takes care of just about all my web image needs. I recommend you go give it a try, you don't even need to join up to test it out, so go have some fun! Seeing as there are quite a few online image editors out there, are there any you use and would recommend? Let us know in the comments.

Joost- The Next Step In TV Evolution?

Thursday, May 10th, 2007 Joost TV Have you heard of Joost? It has had quite a lot of publicity of late and it looks like it may well be the next step in the evolution of on-line entertainment. If you are not sure what Joost is, here is a description from their website:
Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping. You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection.
It is the brain-child of created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the founders of founders of Skype and Kazaa, so these guys have some experience in the development of web technology. The original financing for the development of Joost was from the sale of Skype to eBay, but more recently they have also raised an additional $45m in funding from five backers (Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS and Viacom) in exchange for a minority share in the company. The application works as a P2P TV client, which if you are a bit of a technology dummy like me doesn't mean much, so here is the explanation from Wikipedia:
As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.
Which means, as far as I can tell, the more people that use it the better the service is, as there is less strain on the original file. To download the application itself you need to receive an invitation from someone who already has it, similar to the way Gmail used to work. The invites were limited to only 3 per participant but as of the beginning of this month invitations to join Joost have been made unlimited, though it is still in Beta. I have been using it for the last month or so and it seems to work pretty well, and with more and more channels being added it seems to have something for everyone. If you would like to try this out you can receive an invite from me by letting me know in the comments below. With a reasonably fast connection the download only takes a couple of minutes and the set-up takes even less time. Listed below are the channels available and the areas they are available in as of the 10th May 2007.
  • 88HipHop: Worldwide
  • Aardman Animation: Worldwide
  • Adult Swim: United States
  • Alliance Atlantis Sci-Fi: Worldwide excluding Canada
  • Atlantic Street: United States
  • AXN: United States
  • Bad Boy Records Presents: United States
  • Beauty TV: Worldwide
  • Best of National Geographic: United States, Canada
  • Beyond the Pit: United States
  • Bite TV: Worldwide
  • BoomChicago: Worldwide
  • Braindead: Worldwide
  • Brazilian Music Channel: Worldwide
  • Bridezillas: Worldwide excluding United States
  • Bugeye Music: Worldwide
  • Channel Frederator: Worldwide
  • Chat the Planet: Worldwide
  • Classica Channel: Worldwide excluding Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland
  • Comedy Central: United States
  • Critical Shorts: Worldwide
  • DR: Worldwide
  • Explora Channel: Worldwide
  • Fabchannel Concerts: Worldwide
  • Fifth Gear: United States
  • Fifth Gear Shortcuts: Worldwide
  • Fight Network: Worldwide
  • Floating Worlds: Worldwide
  • Fueled by Ramen: United States
  • Funny Bone: United States
  • G.I. Joe: United States
  • GameStar: Worldwide
  • Gametrailers: United States
  • GONG: North America, Europe
  • Guinness World Records TV: Worldwide
  • Havoc Action Sports TV: Worldwide excluding Japan
  • Havoc Music TV: Worldwide excluding Japan
  • HealthiNation: Worldwide
  • Heavy Animation: United States
  • Hollyoaks: United States
  • Hot & Wet Worldwide
  • i-concerts: United Kingdom
  • IMF Asia: Worldwide
  • IMF Australia: Worldwide
  • IMF France: Worldwide
  • IMF Germany: Worldwide
  • IMF Hip Hop Society: Worldwide
  • IMF Italy: Worldwide
  • IMF Journey to the Centre of the Rock: Worldwide
  • IMF Mexico: Worldwide
  • IMF One World: Worldwide
  • IMF Passage To India: Worldwide
  • IMF Puerto Rico: Worldwide
  • IMF Scandinavia: Worldwide
  • IMF Spain: Worldwide
  • IMF The Bridge- Latin America: Worldwide
  • IMF The World's Best Music: Worldwide
  • IMF UK: Worldwide
  • IndieFlix Premier Hits: Worldwide
  • Indy 500 Films: Worldwide
  • IndyCar Series: Worldwide
  • Intimate & Interactive: Worldwide
  • Joost Suggests Worldwide
  • Jump Off TV: Worldwide
  • Jump TV Arabia: Worldwide excluding Middle East
  • Jump TV Latino: Worldwide excluding Latin America, Canada
  • Lassie: United States
  • Lazy TV: United States
  • Lazy TV UK: Worldwide
  • Lime: Worldwide
  • Live @ Much: Worldwide
  • Logo: United States
  • LXTV: Worldwide
  • Ministry of Sound TV- Access All Areas: Worldwide
  • Ministry of Sound TV- Music Videos: Worldwide
  • MTV: United States
  • MTV (International): Selected countries in Europe, South America, US and Japan
  • MTV Staying Alive: Worldwide excluding United Kingdom, Ireland
  • Much Does Wakestock: Worldwide
  • MuchAdrenaline: Worldwide
  • MuchMusic Video Awards: Worldwide
  • MuchNews Weekly: Worldwide
  • MuchOnDemand: Worldwide
  • Music Nation: Worldwide
  • Nardwuar: Worldwide
  • National Geographic History and Exploration: United States, Canada
  • National Geographic People and Places: United States, Canada
  • National Geographic Wild: United States, Canada
  • National Geographic Animals and Nature: United States, Canada
  • Nettwerk: Worldwide
  • New Atlantis: Worldwide
  • Off the Fence Docs: Worldwide
  • OnSet: Worldwide
  • PokerHeaven TV: Worldwide
  • Red Bull: Worldwide
  • Rehearsals.com: Worldwide
  • Ren and Stimpy: United States
  • Reuters: Worldwide
  • Rhino Records: United States
  • Roadrunner Records: United States
  • Saavn: Worldwide
  • Saturday Morning TV: Worldwide
  • SecondsOut.tv: Worldwide
  • SHORTSTV: Worldwide
  • SHORTSTV Corto: Worldwide
  • SHORTSTV France: Worldwide
  • Snowvision: Worldwide
  • Spike TV: United States
  • Sports Illustrated Swimsuit on Demand: Worldwide
  • Terra: Worldwide
  • The Circus Channel: Worldwide excluding Italy
  • The Fit Show: Worldwide
  • The Hobby Channel: Worldwide
  • The Horror Channel: Worldwide
  • The New Music: Worldwide
  • The Recipe Channel: Worldwide excluding Spain, Portugal
  • The Roger Sisters: Worldwide
  • The Silent Movies Channel: Worldwide
  • The Soccer Channel: Europe, United States, Middle East
  • The Trance Channel: Worldwide
  • The Westside Eclectic: Worldwide
  • Transformers: United States
  • Travelistic: Worldwide
  • U.S. Soccer: Worldwide
  • VH1: United States
  • Virgin Fest 2006: Worldwide
  • VOY TV: Worldwide
  • Wall to Wall Documentary: Worldwide
  • Wall to Wall Lifestyle: Worldwide
  • Warner Bros. Records: United States
  • Watchmojo.com: Worldwide
  • Whereitast.tv: Worldwide
  • WildLight: Worldwide
  • Witness: Worldwide
  • World Championship Sports Network: United States
  • World Poker Tour: Worldwide excluding United States
  • World's Strongest Man: Worldwide
  • XL Recordings Channel: Worldwide
Take it for a test run and be part of the next step in TV evolution.

Sharing The Link Love

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 Do Follow A topic I have been following recently is that of whether to use the “rel=nofollow” command, which by default most blogging software adds to all links in comments. Undoubtedly the intentions behind this are good - to prevent spammers benefiting from the link juice they could gain from commenting on your blog. But with the arrival of such anti-spam plugins as Akismet and Bad Behavior is there any real need to keep using this command? Many feel that it is time to move on, that it is time to allow those that comment on our blogs the opportunity to share some of the SEO benefits that Google can give through those links. Having read the article over at MiLienzo calling for more bloggers to join the "revolution" I have decided to try out the plugin from Semilogic that should override the default setting. That's if I have installed it right, anyways. If you notice a problem with this plugin please let me know and I will do what I can to correct it. I have added the U COMMENT I FOLLOW badge to my sidebar to let people know that this is now a "Do Follow" blog, it was originally created by Randa Clay and she has made it available in several colours to suit your blogs design. If you are not sure about whether to change your blog over, take a look at the 13 reasons given to do so by Loren Baker on his blog Search Engine Journal.

Performancing Goes pMetric

Sunday, April 29th, 2007 Over at Performancing they have relaunched their pMetrics service, this looks as though it could be very useful little service. I have been using a couple of plugins to monitor my site and so far they have been pretty useful, especially Counterize II, but I realize if I want to expand my blog at all I obviously need to look at something a bit more powerful. Having taken a brief look at the service it definitely seems to one of the more comprehensive out there, even more so than Google analytics that I have been considering trying out. The basic service is free, you just need to have set up an account with performancing.com, but this is not the full package and limits you to only 1000 page views per day, though that's hardly a problem for a site of my size. The main benefits of paying out the $14.99 for a year (or $1.99 a month) is having an allowance for 10,000 page views per day, acess to your statistics via RSS, "Spy", outbound link tracking, and download tracking. You also get to have the text ads removed from your pMetrics homepage. No doubt as new features are introduced they will mainly be for premium users, but lets hope there will also be some additions for the basic users. This is hardly a complaint though as the service they provide for free is already excellent. Performancing have also allowed all new users a 21 day trial of the premium service, a very good way to find out which service is best for you. They are also offering a free 12 month upgrade to the first 100 blogs that post a review of pMetrics, making sure it is of adequate length (250+ words) and is left up for the duration. All in all this seems to be a very good service that I would recommend to any bloggers that are serious about their stats. Thanks to the Blog Herald for the heads-up.

Twitter While You “Drive”

Sunday, April 15th, 2007 TwitterI had been resisting the urge to sign up for the latest web phenomenon, "Twitter", but no longer! Tonight Greg Yaitanes, the Director and executive producer of the new TV series "Drive", will be Twittering during the premiere of the show, basically a live commentary, and as I am a big fan of the star of this series, Nathan Fillion, and of the co-creator Tim Minear, I could no longer resist! This seems to me to be by far one of the best ways this new service has been utilized so far, and I wonder what other new uses people will find for this. For more information about "Drive" check out my Joss Whedon blog. Do you Twitter? What is the best use you have found for this service so far?

New In Opera 9.2

Sunday, April 15th, 2007 Opera LogoI installed the latest version of the Opera browser yesterday, I usually stick to Firefox but I like to check out how my blog looks in Opera when I make a few CSS changes or add a new plugin. With this latest version I must say that I like their new "Speed Dial" page that opens up when you click for a new tab. :smile:

Opera Speed Dial Page

The idea is obviously to keep your favourite pages at your fingertips, and I must say it seems to work pretty smoothly. The idea of using a webpage as you would the speed ial on your phone seems so obvious. . . once someone else has done it. The set-up is easy, you can just drag-and-drop your open tabs in to the numbered positions or just right click in the box and choose the url you want to add from your most frequently visited pages, you can even set it up so that the thumbnails reload every few seconds or whatever time you customize it to so you can keep an eye on several web pages at once if you feel the need to.

So far I haven't found a setting to be able to turn it off, some might still prefer to be able to just open to a blank page, but maybe they will build that option in to a later version.

Overall I was quite impressed with this update, though I think it will still remain my second option as a browser rather than my primary, I just love my Firefox too much! :wink:

Which is your favourite browser? Have you tried the latest Opera? If so what do you make of it?



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