Abstracting hardware: obsolescence obsolete (with OnLive)

Most everyone has heard the news of OnLive, the new cloud-based computer gaming platform. I’m not here to regurgitate that for you. Instead, I intend to give it some context. Cloud computing is all the rage right now. With netbooks growing in popularity, all sorts of Internet-based services are popping up to make the experience of owning a netbook more rich. OnLive applies this model to PC gaming while...

Video: Automated online bargain hunting

Online shopping has opened up for many of us a shopping world that was totally alien before it. Online retailers are competing with every other store you can think of which makes the competition fierce. They also sell large quantities of items which opens up room for deep discounts never before imagine by B&M retailers. Computers and the Internet also make it easier to shop. Here is a technique that automates...

Google Reader adds comments for sharing

This is a big deal for social web addicts. One of the first articles posted to this site was about the inadequacies of Google Reader as a sharing platform when compared to FriendFeed. Yesterday, one of FriendFeed’s advantages over Google’s sharing platform was mitigated as Google unveiled comments for shared items. Google Reader makes it easy to share stories with friends, but it hasn’t fostered...

Tagging conventions and hive organization

When the excellent social bookmarking site Delicious launched in 2003, it re-branded an old idea about categorizing and organizing data—namely tagging. Tagging is basically the same concept as keywords, but somehow the rebranding makes it seem more friendly and accessible. Delicious provided users with a system that made tagging easy and gave users a way to exploit this organization allowing them to browse tags to...

Firefox extensions for heavy surfers

This could easily be mistaken for hyperbole, but that would in fact be a mistake: Firefox completely changed the experience I have on the world wide web. It is easily extensible and allows a level of customization that few other applications in general (let alone web browsers) can touch. This enables users to craft a web experience that is highly customized to the interests and habits of that user. The browser can,...