Am I the only one who is getting enough of those third party Twitter Api services that all use (i)tter in their domain name? Despite it’s pretty silly name Monitter, which apparently stands for Monitor Twitter, offers an interesting service.

Users can enter up to three terms in the three columned main interface which from then on will be monitored by the service. When a user on Twitter uses the phrase it will be shown in one of the columns as well. The updates pretty much appear in real time on the website.

The most interesting aspect of Monitter is however the area filter. You can specify to only receive updates if the sender is located a maximum x kilometers from your location. That’s great if you want to catch up on local news, say New York only.

continue reading "Twitter Monitor Monitter"

I switched to Google Reader after using various other online RSS News Feed Readers like Netvibes, desktop applications and Firefox extensions. I would say it is the best overall news reader that I tried so far but it is having a few quirks that annoy the hell out of me.

The first thing that I was frantically searching for was a way to sort the subscriptions alphabetically in Google Reader. After searching through all settings and various Internet search engines I came up with nothing. Yes, that’s right. There is no way to sort the subscriptions automatically in Google Reader.

The only thing that you can do is drag and drop them around so that they are listed in alphabetical order. Imagine doing that with 200+ RSS News Feeds. That would take a while. Most users probably import their first batch of RSS News Feeds using an OPML file which could be sorted alphabetically.

continue reading "Sort Subscriptions Alphabetically in Google Reader"

Most people I know use YouTube to watch a few videos online. While YouTube definitely has the best collection of videos on the Internet, the quality of most of their videos leaves a lot to be desired. Then again, you can’t really blame them since they’re catering to a wide range of internet connections.

The problem is that it can be very frustrating for a broadband viewer. If you do have the bandwidth to spare and want high definition (HD) video, then Veetle is for you. It’s a Silicon Valley based firm who’s USP is to let the average viewer watch and broadcast HD quality video.

Veetle works a lot like popular video-sharing site Veoh. Before you can watch a video, you have to download and install the VeetleTV software on your computer. After that, you can watch the videos in your browser itself. VeetleTV works on Windows, Linux, and Mac so there are no OS compatibility problems here.

continue reading "Watch High Definition Videos with Veetle"

Users sometimes ask me how I manage the software updates list that I maintain and publish on every Wednesday and I always reply that I use mostly RSS News Feeds for it. I never mentioned that I can use them for almost any website I come across no matter if it offers an RSS News Feed or not. If the website does not offer a Feed I simply create a custom one and use that.

The service that I’m using to create custom RSS News Feeds is called Dapper. Dapper can do much more than merely creating a RSS News Feed but that is what I want to concentrate on.

The example that I’m going to use is a RSS News Feed for software updates at Nirsoft, one of the most popular software programmers out there who is not offering an RSS News Feed. We start by loading the Dapper website.

continue reading "Create Your Own Custom RSS News Feed"

The Yahoo-Microsoft-Ichan soap opera got pretty damn annoying for a while there. In fact It wasn’t even so much Yahoo and Microsoft, it was billionaire investor Ichan who really made it all so stupid.

I got nothing wrong with people making money, lots of money. In fact I wish I could. However I do resent billionaires constantly bitching about the evils of corporate America and why it’s difficult for them to gain control of any company the want.

“The poison pill prevents any shareholder, or a group of shareholders acting in concert, from owning more than a certain percentage of a company by allowing all other shareholders to purchase shares at a lower price in the event one chooses to cross the ownership line (typically 15%) without prior permission from the company. This effectively kills the value of their investment – hence the name, "poison pill". Public companies refer to a poison pill as a "shareholder rights plan". Does anyone else find that amusing? If anything, it undermines shareholder rights rather than supporting them.”

Sure, CEO’s and businessmen making multi-million dollar salaries while their companies go down the pooper is pretty lame, but wresting control of companies and forcing your ego on them to make yourself a quick buck is equally so. Considering how Ichan has reacted in this whole situation, can you blame any company for wanting to prevent it also happening to them?

continue reading "Yahoo, sick of them yet?"