Archive for July, 2007
Energy saving search…
Use Google for all your searching? Concerned about the environment? If the answer to both of those is yes then you need to try Blackle.
Apparently it takes more enegy to display a white screen than a black one so the people at Heap Media created Blackle which delivers the same results from Google but on a black background. As of writing this 123,591.010 Watt hours had been saved.
They make use of the Google custom search engine (which is something that Optiem has done for certain clients) but take it in an interesting direction by tailoring it specifically to a certain set of internet users.
Technorati tags: search, google, conservation, green
Beef up Firebug with YSlow…
So now we have extensions to add-ons in Firefox. You can download YSlow now from the Yahoo! Developer Network and boost the results you get out of the excellent Firebug add-on. With YSlow you can analyze web pages that you are working on listing such things as:
- number of components (including their type)
- total size of the web page
- changes to make the page performance better
If you haven’t already downloaded the latest version of Firebug, do it now and then add YSlow. Also watch the creator of Firebug talk at the excellent YUI Theater.
Technorati tags: firebug, yslow, firebug, extension, addon, development, web, coding
Number 1 in Google…
My blog post that mentions the story of the 40Gb per second connection is number 1 in Google for the term “40Gb per second”.
Not bad out of 47,000 results – I’m chuffed to bits 
Technorati tags: google, “top ranked”, blog, search
Popfly could let everyone mash-up…
There’s something new over at the Microsoft camp, it could be very cool, and it’s name is Popfly.
Now I don’t have an invite so I’m only going by what I’ve read on the Popfly site and other blogs but it does seem that this is a lot like Yahoo! Pipes on steroids.
The promise is that you will use the set of online visual tools to create mashups, gadets and even web pages. You’ll be able to share them with other users by grabbing the code and getting the user to add them within an Iframe on their site (something I personally hate but if it’s good enough for Google). Making use of Silverlight, is a step forward and makes the whole thing look slick. There is also the Popfly Explorer which works with Visual Studio.
Watch the Popfly how-to video for a better look at how it works.
I’m strangely divided about this offering from Microsoft. Personal experience with the software they’ve offered, in the past, for building anything on the web has never put out anything but a ton of over-complicated junk, but their tools are easy to pick up and ubiquitous and the teams have now made great strides in cleaning up their output. This could be a great tool to extend the web from the root users up, but it could also be the arbiter harbinger of the return of sensory overload homepages so prevalent in the 90′s.
Mapping the trends of Web2.0
Strangemaps has this great look at Web2.0 trends based on the map of the Japanese subway. The company that produced it also has a clickable online version.
iPhone & Safari3 CSS not the same…
John Allsopp has been testing iPhone CSS against that of Safari3 and, quelle surprise, they aren’t the same!
This document, along with CSS3 are great bookmarks to test your new CSS against.
Swedish Granny gets 40Gb-per-second Internet…
Sigbritt Lothberg is a 75-year-old from Sweden who possibly has the fastest residential uplink in the world courtesy of her son, a networking expert.
Yahoo! News has the whole story.
Technorati tags: internet, swedish, connection
Problem with Technorati talking to ma.gnolia
Since starting this blog I have had a couple of hiccups with Technorati. Not big things, don’t get me wrong. I thinks it’s more of a result of the web moving as fast as it is at the moment.
First thing was getting Technorati to notice my bookmarks on ma.gnolia.com. Ma.gnolia has instructions for this using the “embed claim” method. Technorati does not use that method anymore and have now gone over to a widget approach. Add to this, the only option I got when trying to claim my bookmarks URL was “post a claim” – no “quick claim” which only requires a username & password.
A couple of emails with Todd Sieling at ma.gnolia alerted them to the problem. Todd was helpful but we could find a solution. Then a little late-night lateral thinking on my part and bingo! Would Technorati look at the URL they issue within the claim post, if I added it manually as a new bookmark in ma.gnolia? YES!
1. Copy the URL of my ma.gnolia link blog
2. Log into Technorati > My Account > blogs
3. Paste the URL in the “Claim a blog” field at the bottom
4. I then only got the “post claim” so choose that
5. Copy the URL from the piece of code that Technorati displays
6. Manually add that as a bookmark into your ma.gnolia account
7. Back to Technorati and “release the spiders”You can see it at http://www.technorati.com
/people/technorati/davidmead .
So if you have tried to claim your links in ma.gnolia and didn’t get anywhere, try that.
My other problem I had was that this blog had no authority after running for a few weeks (I’m not expecting Tantek status here, but something surely). My posts were showing up but still nada on the love. Then I looked under http://www.viewfromw6th.com/ instead of http://optiemdave.blogpost.com/ and success! But the downside is I can’t edit the URL claimed and I can’t seem to find a way to merge the two. So I had to claim both and replace the widget on the site. The other part of this particular problem was I had to manually go in and get Technorati to ping the blog. The information was out of date on their site since Blogger has changed how they do things. I’m hoping this change in claimed URLs helps that.
As I said, not big things, but enough to cause me some frustration. I did check everyone’s FAQ’s and send in requests for help using the appropriate forms but just a standard reply from Technorati so far.
I suppose it just goes to show that even the big boys are having trouble keeping up with our breakneck world of tubes.
Technorati tags: technorati, ma.gnolia, blogger, problems, web2.0, claim
Print stickers using your images
MOO | Stickers – Print stickers using your images – Jeremy Keith posted his own on Flickr.