« March 2007 | Main

April 01, 2007

Google TiSP

Google’s at it again... This April Fool's day, Google announced the launch of TiSP, a "free in-home wireless broadband service" that is installed by flushing a fiber-optic cable down the toilet to connect "local municipal sewage lines" which provide access.

To top it all off, TiSP, with a little help from Google Checkout, can deliver you online purchases to your bathroom using a "nanobot-resistant bag made of biodegradable corn-based plastic."

A full list of Google’s past pranks is available here.

Posted by brackme at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2007

Holy Google

I hate to talk more about Google's awesomeness, but as I am wearing a black leather jacket with a U of M shirt on underneath, I thought it would be alright to talk about the sexiest company to have ties to Ann Arbor in. the. world.

I was stumbling around the information highway and I "stumbled upon" a little website that a lot of people like to call Google Labs. After looking at what the site has to offer, all of my life questions have been answered; foremost "Does Google have a ride finder?"

Maybe it is just me and I don't sit around thinking about this kind of stuff, but I had no idea Google was so busy with their own pet projects. I had them pegged as a company with an itchy trigger finger; using their monopolistic guns to shoot down competitors/buy their ideas. But I'm not saying Google is a monopoly, I'm just saying they have so much money on hand the business world is just a game to them.

Alas, they still have the cojones to do their own work. Who knew Google would come out with "Google Transit" or "Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac?"

Not me.

Posted by kiwesley at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2007

DHTML & Dynamic Drive

My favorite "tool" in developing websites is dhtml (dynamic html). According to Wikipedia, dhtml is

"a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (Cascading Style Sheets, CSS), and a Document Object Model. (DHTML, Wikipedia)"
Breaking this definition down:So why is all this important? Well, the amazing sites that you see being built today are based on it! Why is it my favorite tool? Quite frankly, it makes my life easier.

Now on to the website review... Dynamic Drive is a website that offers dhtml codes and examples for FREE! They have codes to dress up your forms; images; and menus, display RSS feeds, build buttons and FavIcons and so on… In addition, it’s simple navigation makes finding things really easy. I simply love it. In fact, I check the site every few days to see the newest script and ponder how I can use it! I highly recommend checking it out.

Posted by brackme at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2007

Are You Not Entertained?

My dream, since I have a projector and a computer hook-up to go with it, is to be able to watch both TV and movies without ever having to leave my room. Thanks to several of my new favorite websites, I think my dream may have just come true.

For Movies and TV shows played in the last couple years, go to:

For streaming TV, with hundreds of channels, go to:

I would have to say that I prefer VideoHybrid, because they have a great selection of movies, some of which haven't even come out to rent yet. I think it is so true that we live in a wonderful world, and websites like these just prove it. I'm not sure how legal they are, but hey, you aren't downloading anything. Delve deep young ones...

Posted by kiwesley at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2007

I am addicted to del.icio.us...

I kid you not; I am addicted to del.icio.us. I don’t even know how it happened. A few months ago I was fine without it, but now I check the hotlist every time I check my email; every time - 3 or 4 times a day. I think I might need a 12 step program...

In all seriousness, I think del.icio.us is a great tool; not for the tagging feature, but for the organization of websites based upon popularity (and hopefully usefulness). I realize that tagging makes this possible, but the organization part is so much better. In fact, when I can not find what I am looking for through the usual search methods (Google), I use del.icio.us and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Del.icio.us is achieving what Google set out to (organize the world’s information) in a slightly better way.

I don’t mean to say that del.icio.us is infallible, there are some problems. I have seen a lot of horrible sites make it to the hotlist with less than 100 tags. But, all in all, the sites are pretty good.

If I had to change one thing about the del.icio.us assignment, I would loosen the ‘tag every day’ requirement. I tried to tag only when I found something I would need later, not everyday just to tag. It ended up that I would tag every other day or so; but still, why have a requirement that encourages tagging just to tag?

Posted by brackme at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

So Del.ico.us

Such a simple icon, and such a great idea for a website, but not enough time in the day to use it! Really though, I thought del.ico.us was a great tool for learning how to acclimate to the current "web environment." I had never heard of del.ico.us or anything like it before this class. Now I have, and now I'm happy.

This site motivated me to find new destinations on my daily trip to the Internet. It made me realize that I was way behind everyone else as far as Web 2.0 stuff is concerned. I was still using hotmail.com for goodness sake.

Like Eric said, it is a great search engine as well as bookmarking site, and I did use it instead of Google at times. By using del.ico.us, you feel like you are closer to the "edge" of the technological cliff. At least I did anyway.

I will continue to use del.ico.us on a daily basis; not only to tag websites I find, but to search for new websites other have found as well. If this is a Brave New World, then I am now a Brave Little Toaster. Adieu.

Posted by kiwesley at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

Summing it all up...

Well here we are, the semester is coming to close, and our blog will likely die (you can always keep up to date with my thoughts on my company’s website – www.bcwcreations.com). So what does it all mean? How is the web/internet any different than it was a few months ago?

Well, where do I begin – web 2.0, intellectual property rights, new products, amazing websites? I know it might be hard to believe, but a lot has changed. That’s the beauty of the internet; things are able to change so quickly!

A think that it might be best to focus on two major trends:

Major companies buying internet start ups

Over the last year, a number of small internet start ups (YouTube, JotSpot, del.icio.us, and Facebook (in the near future – see Wesley’s March 4th post) to name a few) have bought out by established internet giants (Google, Yahoo...). It seems that a 1.6 million dollar deal has been hatched every other month! I want to propose a few questions: Is this good or bad for the industry? What about the send user?

The issue of intellectual property rights in the information age

The issue of intellectual property rights in the information age is, at the least, difficult. In the past few months, we have seen at least one major lawsuit break out, Viacom v. Google (see my March 18 post), and it’s not the only one. It seams that every corner Google turns a lawsuit is waiting (i.e. Google Book Search). There are a lot of things we as a people of the information age need to figure out. Where do we draw the line? Could there be exceptions? Can one really own information in the information age?

Well, I hope I’ve given you some food for thought. Thanks for reading – we hope you enjoyed it. Best...

Posted by brackme at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)