Cliff Pavlovic » Web Tech

A New Way To Look At The World: Poverty and Health – TED Talks

Cliff — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:10:04 +0000

Found some great videos from TED (www.ted.com) on the topic of world poverty and health. A fascinating look at statistics (I’m not kidding, it was fun and interesting). Enjoy!

From 2006

From 2007

Facebook Off: The Movie (Trailer)

Cliff — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:07:02 +0000

If you use Facebook in any way, you will find this (fake) trailer quite amusing. If you don’t, well get Facebook and you’ll understand.

PC vs. Mac: Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs

Cliff — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:26:57 +0000

Here is a little video from SuperNews (http://www.current.tv/supernews). It’s a comical take on the rivalry between the Mac and the PC.

Ms. Dewey: Search with Attitude

Cliff — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 02:16:56 +0000

While listening to the Net@Nite podcast (more info at TWIT.tv), found out about Ms. Dewey (http://www.msdewey.com/), a web search page (based on Microsoft Live Search, http://www.live.com/). Every time you make a search, Ms. Dewey makes a “witty” comment (sometimes very good, sometimes really bad). She also reacts if you leave her alone (“knocks” on the computer screen, whines, etc.). The novelty wears off with time, but worth checking out at least once.

My del.icio.us links

Cliff — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:20:09 +0000

I have two sets of del.icio.us links. Del.icio.us is an online social bookmarking site, useful for discovering new sites and pages and a good place to put bookmarks if you use multiple computers.

The first one (thundros) is mainly used for personal links, whether they be tech related, fun links or just about anything I find interesting. The second one (cubickarma) is used for links related to my PhD research work (useful when preparing for work, paper writing, experiments, etc.).

Enjoy!

Paint.NET: MS Paint replacement and more

Cliff — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:41:35 +0000

There are a lot of image editing programs available today, some free (MS Paint) and some exorbitantly expensive (Photoshop) . One of them stands out as being feature rich (management of layers, support for diferent file formats) and free. Paint.NET (version 2.6 as of this writing) is an excellent MS Paint replacement and it can handle most image editing tasks very effectively.

Paint.NET started as a university project to replace MS Paint and became a full fledge image editing program. With each version more features have been added, without it become a huge program (installation file is around 4 MB and when running it uses about 23 MB), compared to other imaging heavyweights. In short, Paint.NET delivers as an excellent MS Paint replacement. It can handle layers and different image effects (usually the realm of Photoshop) and it can handle different file types with ease (JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, TGA and PDN). For a full description of features and changes to each version, just go to the Paint.NET homepage.

I use it and did I mention that it was free?

A Good Podcast: This WEEK in Tech

Cliff — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 16:35:06 +0000

Not having listened to radio in awhile, I’ve gotten back into it through a more hi-tech approach: Podcasts. One useful feature with podcasts is the ability to listened to the shows you want, when you want. Another plus, for now, is that you can get alot of free shows, commercial-free (which may change with time, as the tech becomes more popular). One show I have been listening to on a regular basis is "this WEEK in Tech" (TWiT). The show is lead by Leo Laporte, and he’s joined by a motely crew of ex-TechTV folks and tech experts to talk about the week’s top tech stories and the latest tech trends. It was good to hear the voices of all the old ScreenSavers guard and finally listen to a tech show that’s actually good (ok, Call for Help and DiggNation are great shows as well). You can easily find TWiT on iTunes or through the TWiT website.

Useful extensions for Firefox: An Opera user’s point of view

Cliff — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:39:30 +0000

I’m primarily a Opera user, but I do have Firefox installed on my computer. I use it when some sites give me trouble with Opera. Of course I have gotten use to some features that Opera has (such as saving your browsing session upon closing the browser). There are even a few features you can get on Firefox that you cannot get on Opera at this time (like the in-browser Gmail notifier). So I set out to make Firefox behave like Opera. I searched for different extensions which would mimic the features in Opera and which would work well together (no conflicts when having all the extensions loaded and Firefox staying stable during long-term use).

So here are my favorite extensions, in no particular order…

To speed up the net connection of FireFox, Tweak Network settings:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=1225&hl=tweak+network

To get a better tabbed browsing experience, Tabbrowser Preferences:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=112&hl=tabbrowser+pref

To save your last browsing session, Session Saver:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=166

To focus on the last selected tab (when you close your current one), Focus Last Selected Tab (FLST):
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=44&hl=flst

To control your browsing (forward, back, home, refresh) just using your mouse, Mouse Gestures:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=68&hl=mouse+gestures

To see the current weather conditions, try ForcastFox:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=705&hl=weather

There is also a Gmail notifier extension, but that’s only useful if you have a Gmail account (and you don’t want to use the official Gmail notifier from Google):
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=394&hl=gmail

These extensions should help you get the most out of Firefox, with the mindset of an Opera user. I use them all and they should work on the Mac version of Firefox as well (I’ve tested a few). I’ve obtained all of them from www.extensionsmirror.nl, a good site for Firefox (and Thunderbird) extensions. The site is better organized than Mozilla.org’s own update site (for now), which is why I picked it as my extension source (of course, most are also found on the official update site). You will probably need to allow the site to be able to install the extensions.

Enjoy!

Google Scholar: Another way to find scientific information

Cliff — Sun, 21 Nov 2004 02:29:08 +0000

I’ve used Google before to do searches for scientific articles and information, when PubMed had not been really effective. Now Google has come out with a search system geared towards researchers and people in the academic world looking for information: Google Scholar. It has no ads, is free and is very useful when it comes to getting the information you want (I’ve tried it a few times with great success). It can stand head to head with PubMed and I’ll be using both search engines when I’ll be doing my scientific literature reviews.

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia

Cliff — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 18:38:12 +0000

If you are an information junkie (like me) or just need to find some information (and take a break from Google), check out Wikipedia. It’s a free online encyclopedia which I found recently. Anyone can contribute to it, which makes it a truly ingenious way to store the knowledge of humanity. Of course there are a few moderators that keep an eye on the content (whether it’s accurate, controversial, etc.) but the encyclopedia does rely on the concept that the users police themselves. Unfortunately, you should look at it more as an interesting place to find information, not necessarily an accurate place to get it. One thing I can assure you is that once you start reading through it, it can be hard to stop. From Wikipedia have emerged sister projects, such as a quote resource or an online dictionary (and others). Wikipedia is run by a non-profit group called the Wikimedia Foundation.