Yahoo Pipes is a very sophisticated online tool which might look intimidating at first glance but which provides a great interface that requires minimal input to create astonishing results. One major use of Yahoo Pipes is the customization of RSS News Feeds. It does not really matter if one RSS News Feed or multiple should be customized, both is possible.

The only requirement for using Yahoo Pipes is a Yahoo account which can be obtained freely if needed. I’m going to walk you through the customization of the Softpedia Windows RSS News Feed which lists freeware, demos, adware, trial and shareware software programs in its feed. Since I’m only interested in the free software I decided to use Yahoo Pipes to filter out all the other items.

You can use the same technique for your favorite website. Say you own a Windows PC and are subscribed to the Lifehacker RSS News Feed. You might want to filter out any item that describes software for an Apple Macintosh computer.

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Each webmasters has fears that his websites are getting hacked or that the server goes down. Happening usually in a moment when the webmaster is unaware of the problem (sleeping time). Server Monitoring can ease the mind of webmasters quite a bit.

I have already covered the server monitoring service that I’m using to monitor sites like Ghacks and other websites which offered various packages depending on the amount of servers / websites and response times that you demanded.

Observu is another server monitoring service and it is probably the most basic one that I have ever seen. Users register by entering an email address and password and can log into the website immediately.

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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.

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Is it just me, or are internet memes trying to hard these days?

An internet meme refers to some kind of “catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person”. A few which I can think of off the top of my head are rickrolling, the ‘Fail Whale’ and references to ‘bitchmemes’. Many good memes seem to arise organically becoming part of the internet language without too much thought involved.

“Jump the shark” was one such phrase. It must be over 25 years old now, a meme which came out of early discussion boards and ended up becoming a mainstream term. It typically refers to a TV show or series which reached a peak in originality, creativity, popularity or as the New York Times describes it; “past its prime”.

“Nuke the fridge” is a brand new meme which was inspired by the recent Indiana Jones film in reference to the character hiding inside a fridge to survive a nuclear explosion.

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Imo.im offers a way to connect to various Instant Messengers using their website or a client that can be downloaded and is currently available for Windows. Supported are many popular Instant Messenger networks like MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM and ICQ.

The Imo.im team was rather busy since my last review of the service and has added two additional services. The first is the addition of Skype. The user can login using his Skype user data and will see a tab with his buddies and their status. He can chat with his buddies and even call them without difficulties. That feature is both available in the web client and the local software program that is downloaded to the computer.

The only restriction is currently that outbound calls are not supported. The second addition is that of MySypace IM. If I’m honest I did not even know that something like MySpace IM existed until I found the reference at the Imo.im website.

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