Category: Web

This Is My Job

Actually I rarely do design these days, I project manage; so I get to be the interface between the Client and the Designer. One day I’ll find the perfect cartoon representation of designers, I’ll link that post to this, and that’ll be my new website! :)

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Google Public DNS

Could spell trouble for OpenDNS. I’m jealous of their netblocks.

Google Public DNS is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that you can use as an alternative to your current DNS provider.

To try it out:

  • Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers or
  • Read our configuration instructions.

If you decide to try Google Public DNS, your client programs will perform all DNS lookups using Google Public DNS.

Amazon.com Universal Wish List

In case you missed it, Amazon.com has a wonderful new tool for adding items from any website to your Amazon wish list, so you can create a central repository of Stuff You Want. All you need to do is add a bookmarklet to your browser – instructions are provided – and click on it when you see Stuff You Want. Fill in a few details in a window that will pop up and you’re good to go, or rather your friends and family are when they feel you’ve Been Good.

Unfortunately it’s not available on the laggardly Amazon.co.uk yet, but that doesn’t really have an impact on functionality. Just make sure you send people to both when you’re scumming for Stuff. :)

The Home Crowd

Corking LOI vid produced by Peter Brennan and Simon Crowe. Thread about it here on Foot.ie.

Pirate Bay Bought Out?

This is all over the news today. Sounds to a bad April 1 prank, have the lads their dates mixed up?

The Pirate Bay has been (effectively) acquired by a gaming company called Global Gaming Factory X, who is plunking down nearly $8 million for the privilege. Their grand, surprising plan for the Pirate Bay is to pay content providers. Seriously.

via Gizmodo.

Opera Unite

While I won’t assign it the “reinvention of the web” tag others are giving it quite yet, Opera Unite is something new in a space where we really don’t see truly fresh things very often. In a nutshell, it’s a mashup of “traditional” web services, peer-to-peer, and your browser; in more detail, it’s locally hosted file sharing and communications, with the following services out of the box:

  • Media Sharing / Player
  • File Sharing
  • Web Server
  • Photo Sharing
  • Messaging (“Fridge”)
  • Chat (“Lounge”)

Yes, we can install all those services on our own computers – many of us have done for years – but the social aspect makes them all much more accessible. It’s a bit clunky now, but in time – particularly if they hook up with Facebook Connect or similar – you’ll be able to find people and help people find you, and take complete control of your services.

I like this. I won’t use it right now because I couldn’t possibly move away from the browser I’ve created out of Firefox, but  when it comes out of beta I could well switch over. I like control over my data, and Unite gives it to me.

KildareStreet.com

Well done to the brilliant John Handelar for launching a beta of KildareStreet.com today, where you can apparently:

  • Read a dramatically-more-legible version of the Dáil Record going back to January 2004,
  • Search that record using a fabulous search engine which I didn’t write – you can restrict searches to speeches or written questions, or by speaker, or by date or date range,
  • Sign up for email alerts for when a search query you’re interested changes, or whenever a TD of your choosing says something or asks a question which generated a written reply, and
  • Subscribe to RSS feeds for individual TDs or for search queries.

And in the next few weeks you will also be able to “inspect the past five and a half years of TD expenses, and the register of members’ interests”, plus an API is in the works. And then he’s moving onto the Seanad!

Of course this all should have been done years ago, by our government with our taxes, but you couldn’t really expect proper accountability with Bert and Ernie in charge, now could you?

Just one complaint: .com? Kildare Street is in .ie John! You tell me the name and I’ll register it for you boy, FOC!

Your Firefox Add-ons

Go on then, what gems have you that I haven’t heard of yet? Here’s my lot, with the ones disabled until I need them in italics.

  • Adblock Plus – Should be obvious. I disable in on sites I support. And so should you, on Foot.ie!
  • Add Bookmark Here 2 – Bookmark directly into a folder.
  • Download Statusbar – Downloads in the statusbar rather than Downloads Window, for easy access.
  • DownThemAll! – For downloading sets of files.
  • FireFTP – In-browser FTP client.
  • FireShot – For taking screenshots.
  • IE Tab – Load tabs in Internet Explorer, or send links to IE. Useless Irish banks.
  • Iterasi – For archiving web pages.
  • Menu Editor – New to my collection, what it says on the tin.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 – Can’t uninstall it. Typical MS.
  • Mouse Gestures Redox – As on the tin.
  • Nightly Tester Tools – I use this fella to load deprecated Add-ons. Must check I still need it!
  • Property Bee – Monitor properties on Daft.ie.
  • Tab Mix Plus – Tweak the hell out of your tabs.
  • Uppity – Lets you pop up a folder in the website tree.
  • Web Developer – For, like, web development dude.
  • Xmarks – Bookmarks synchroniser.

I’m still not a blogger…

Although to be fair to Mark from the Sunday Times, he did tell me he’d be doing a piece and quoting me, unlike the thieving hacks in the Star who steal content from Foot.ie on a near-weekly basis. This is in relation to Amazon’s decision to start shipping electronics and the like to Ireland again. I’ll continue down this road.

Adam Beecher, another blogger, is not impressed with the internet retailer’s change of heart. “I’ll continue to buy elsewhere, apart from exceptional circumstances,” he said. “I have no intention of jumping back into bed with them just because they flip a bad decision three years later, and implement the change badly while they’re at it.”

I would like to say though, Mark, that it would be nicer if you asked, rather than informed. I understand you don’t have to for a simple soundbyte, but it’s nice to be nice. But thanks anyway, I appreciate it.

Blackout Ireland Avatars

Didn’t really fancy the one on the Blackout Ireland site, so I made one of my own for Foot.ie. a few size variants below.

If you haven’t been paying attention, this is happening in protest against Eircom’s capitulation to the Irish Recorded Music Association attempts to censor the Irish Internet. You can read more about the subject here.

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Blackout Ireland Avatar 150x150px

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