OpenID is a innovative way of merging all the online logins. According to OpenID website:
"OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience."
It is interesting to see more and more BIG players like Yahoo and Google adopting OpenID. According to this blog from Tony Ruscoe Yahoo and Flickr users can use OpenID 2.0. Also Google announced that Blogger users can use
Blogspot or Blogger-hosted custom domain address “as an OpenID URL on any website that accepts OpenID 1.1 authentication.”
Please share with us your experience with using OpenID.
When you visit a website like Google or Yahoo, you might notice their personal icon in the far left of the address bar. This is called a Favicon, and you can create your own for your personal webpage. Following these steps will further personalize your website, as well as give it a more professional feel. (This wiki assumes the user has a Windows computer.)
Steps
1. Create a folder on your desktop, and name it something like Icon. Go to icon download sites on the internet using say, Google, and download some icons you might like to use (right click/'save image as'/save to desktop/Icon folder). For practice, an icon with a strong recognizable outline might be best.
You can download a favicon ready to go, and/or create your own.
Ready2go Favicons should be 16 X 16 pixels with 16 colors and already an .ico file extension. "Leon's"
Create a folder as opposed to a file, in the web page folder of your html editor. This folder must be called favicon.ico Copy your downloaded favicon .ico image into this.
Create an address on your html home page. Between the head tags copy in <link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico"/> exactly. This should place the icon on all your address bar web pages.
Open your FTP transfer. Open your favicon.ico web page folder. Transfer or slide your favicon file (not folder), in this case PieEye.ico, over to your on-line web pages on the server. Next find the PieEye.ico file on the on-line server, and change name PieEye.ico to favicon.ico
2. Put individual icons on different pages of the same website:
Create a folder in 'on line server' side of your FTP. Call it say 'Fave'. Transfer from your local C Drive favicon.ico folder, the individual favicons that you want to post on varying webpages.
On each individual html page that you wish there to be an individual favicon: between the <head> </head> put in <link rel="icon" href="Fave/Name.ico"/> where 'Fave' is the name of the folder and 'Name' is the name of the .ico file. This should cause any separate individual favicon to apply to those posted with <link rel="icon" href="Fave/Name.ico"/> while the rest of your pages will show 'Homepage' favicon. The server-side favicon.ico file remains, and should cover all other pages.
Can individualize as many pages as desired.
Icons can be tricky so if one has problems perhaps consult Google.
3. Make your own favions:
To begin download a an icon of any size, color range or file type. You will need to use a program to make the image 16x16 pixels square. Use any graphics program such as Paint, GIMP, Photoshop, or (my favorite) freeware Irfanview. Just about all graphic programs allow you to crop an image to a square. Only a few have the save as ".ico" option. Particularly, if you want to use Photoshop you will have to install a plugin like the free "ICO (Windows Icon) Format" Photoshop plugin at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/ to be able to work with ".ico" files. You can create your favicon at a size of 32 by 32 pixels and it will still work, but keep in mind that most browsers will reduce it to a 16 by 16 pixels image before showing it in the address bar or bookmarks/favorites. Knowing this it may be prudent to just start with a 16 by 16 pixels image to retain control of how the final image displays.
4.Irfanview:
Use free download Irfanview to adjust the size, color depth and extension of your icon. Put Irfanview in your desktop/Icon/folder. Open any downloaded icon or graphic in Irfanview from desktop icon folder. Click Image/Resize and resample. Type width 16 and height 16 pixels/OK. Open Image again and click Decrease color depth. Click 16 colors/OK. Open Options/Set file associations/check ico/OK. Open File/'Save As Binary encoding/Save transparent color and then 'save as' to desktop/Icon folder. Will name it for reference 'PieEye'.
If you have a square image that you would like to use as a favicon then you might consider using a tool like Chami's "FavIcon from Pics" tool or other similar, free tools. If you don't have a photo or other image to use then begin a new image that is 16 pixels by 16 pixels. The complexity of your original icon is restricted to your own creativity and your knowledge of the image program you are using. Save it in a safe place, being sure to name your icon 'favicon.ico'. This is the only way browsers will be able to display your icon in the address bar. It MUST have that exact name.
To make a 16x16 favicon might download free program " IconEdit32 and put it in your Icon desktop folder. Open IconEdit32 click the 16 color box on right side. Open 'PieEye.ico' A small sample is shown on right. So for instance, any square one wants transparent, click transparent on the bottom right and fill in squares. Ditto to change colors. When done 'Save As'/ to your html favicon.ico folder in your html editor.
A means to add extra colors to the icons one works with in IconEdit32 is: open a downloaded icon or graphic on some kind of paint program (not Microsoft Paint). Paint a few extra colors on the corners and save in Desktop/Icon. Using Irfanview, resize, decrease color, set ico extension and 'Save As'. Open in IconEdit and you will have more colors to work with.
Tips
Even though your icon will be very small, be sure that other people can easily read/understand it.
16x16 pixels is a standard size for small icons. This means that you can import already made icons from programs or off the web.
Speed it up with Linux! Just choose an appropriate picture, open your command line, navigate to the directory where you store the pic and type: "convert picture.png -resize 16x16! favicon.ico" (replace picture.png with your pic's filename)done :-)
If you do not have access to ftp, simply go to www.dynamicdrive.com, then look in the left pane near the top, under tools. There will be a favicon generator there which really is quite simple.
Using an icon editor like Digitope Pixelshop to create the favicon is better that a regular photo editor as icons are not simply small pictures, but are a special format.
Warnings
Although you have created your favicon successfully, not everyone who visits your site will see it. Only Internet Explorer versions 5.0+ display favicons, as well as Netscape 7.0+, Opera 7.0+, and Firefox. Older browsers simply do not display your icon. Also, for a favicon to display in the address bar of Internet Explorer versions 5.0+ the page must first be saved as a favorite. Then it will show up the next time you click on the favorite or hand type in the URL in the address bar. There have also been issues with getting Safari to show favicons as well.
Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Create a Favicon.ico. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
You may have heard of Blog, Podcast or Screencast but did you ever hear about a SketchCast ?
Did you ever feel the need for a whiteboard where you can doodle something and wanted to share it with a friend over internet ? Did you ever want to express yourself in pictures rather than in words ?
If you answered YES to anyone of these questions then the answer that you were looking for is a SketchCast. Sketchcast is a simple way to express your ideas using a sketch.
Lets take a look at some of its features:
It's completely FREE (Free is always good...)
It's web based, so no installation what so ever, just open your web browser, visit http://sketchcast.com and start creating your sketch cast, its that easy
You can even record your voice while creating a sketch explaining what you are sketching
When you are done you can share it with your friends in couple of different ways
You could just send the link to your friend
Better yet, you can embed the html SketchCast provides in your blog or on your web page
You can always log into your account and browse through all your sketchcasts if you ever need to refer to them
Please do share with us if you know any similar tools. Here is a sample which explains how Sketchcast came into existence.
Did you ever have to transfer a huge file (few hundreds of Megabytes) over Internet ?Mail attachments cannot handle that size files. File sharing sites like Rapidshare , YouSendIt etc pose privacy issues (storing your information on their servers).
PipeBytes may be the answer you have been looking for. PipeBytes is a simple service which allows you to send a file to a friend. Some of the neat features of this service are:
No software to install (so is the case with most of the file sharing sites)
All you need is a web browser (agina same with most of the file sharing sites)
Send files of any size (I think here is where PipeBytes wins over other file sharing sites which impose size limit on files shared)
Your buddy could start downloading file as you upload it. (This is killer feature as this will cut down the download time to almost half as the user can download the file simultaneously as you upload it)
The file is not shared on Internet - it is sent directly to your recipient (This addresses the privacy concern that people have with other file sharing sites where the file are on a server waiting to be deleted)
Best of all it's free !!! (they make money off of Ads)
that's all good what's on the downside ?
The site is too slow to load (It's still in Beta so can't complain too much about it)
If a file transfer is interrupted it cannot be resumed right now (They say it is being worked on)
Cannot send file to multiple people
It does not guarantee any encryption however we can encrypt the file that we are sharing on our end
We tested this feature and we should say we are pretty pleased with it.Please let us know what is your favorite file transfer service is.
Xobni (inbox spelled backwards) is a new cutting edge plug-in for MS Outlook. It has some neat features like:
lightning fast email search (I personally don’t think this is something to rave about, this can already be achieved by so many tools like Google/Yahoo Desktop Search Tool)
Threaded email conversations (although I should say these are not the same as Gmail conversations, Xobni just lists all the emails in inbox/Outbox which a particular contact was part of)
Integration with Skype, so that you can place a call to your contacts from within outlook (this may be exciting for users who use both Skype & Outlook)
Xobni lists all the attachments that are part of the emails exchanged between you and your contact (this is a really handy feature)
Graphical display of all the email exchanges between you and your contacts over time
I got my hands on the installer and installed on my Outlook 2007. For my tinkering around so far, it does what it says.
I currently have 5 invites with me and if anyone is interested in trying Xobni out post your email in the comments and I can send them to you. First come first serve.
On a lighter note it was interesting to find out that there are some videos mocking Xobni on YouTube.
