via Delicious popular by xyxjasilixyx on 11/29/09
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Use WordPress to Create Amazing Sites - Wordpress Arena
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
30+ Podcasts for Web Designers, Developers and Freelancers
via Delicious popular by ani625 on 11/23/09
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Five Best Screencasting Tools [Hive Five]
via Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick on 11/22/09
Thanks to broadband and some excellent screencasting applications, you don't need to limit yourself to mere static images when you're trying to show someone how to do something on your computer. Record video, audio, and do even more with these screencasting tools.
Photo by ToastyKen.
Screencasting can be an enormously handy tool for all manner of things: demonstrating a product, broadcasting your favorite software hack to all of the internet, emailing a how-to video to your less savvy friends or relatives to help them finally grok that whole email-attachment maneuver. Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite screencasting tools, and now we're back with the top five for your perusal.
ScreenFlow (Mac, $99)
ScreenFlow is a Mac-only screencast editor that fills a nice niche between the limited-but-free options and the car-payment-sized options. Screenflow sports advanced features, like the ability to decouple audio and video streams for independent editing and audio ducking (if you're using background music it's automatically adjusted during speaking portions of the video); the ability to freeze, speed up, or slow down the video to allows you to time lapse or zoom through a more tedious portion of the task you're demonstrating. Screenflow also supports custom cursors and callouts for emphasizing the cursor or foremost window.
Jing (Windows/Mac, Basic: Free, Pro: $14.95 per year)
Jing is the more compact cousin of Camtasia Studio (see below) and great for less complicated—and more economical!—screencasting. Both the free and pro version are limited to five minutes of screen recording and come with a free account at Screencast.com for sharing your captures. The free version can save video as SWF video and is branded with the Jing logo. The pro version allows you to save your videos as SWF and MPEG-4 files, the branding is removed, and you can also share directly to YouTube (in HD) and record from your webcam. Both the free and pro version use the same intuitive and easy menu.
CamStudio (Windows, Free)
CamStudio is a free and open-source offering for the screencasting market. You can record all or part of your screen, customize cursors and text annotations, adjust the quality of the video output, and save screencasts as AVI or SWF files. The interface is easy to understand, and you won't be overwhelmed with extensive options. In a nutshell, it's a free and effective tool for creating screencasts without a lot of bulk or expense.
Camtasia (Windows/Mac, $299)
Camtasia Studio is a powerhouse in the screencasting world. Packed with features, Camtasia Studio makes it easy to create screencasts with presets for a variety of sharing situations like YouTube, HD displays, Screencast.com, and more. You can edit the audio and video independently so you don't have to redo a whole segment just because of an oops in the audio or video portion. Special effects and edits are easy to manipulate thanks to fine control over the time line—you can select a portion of your editing timeline right down to the tenth of a second. It's far from free, but Camtasia Studio is a well thought out and feature rich screencasting tool.
ScreenToaster (Web-based, Free)
ScreenToaster is the only web-based offering in this week's Hive Five, and it definitely fills a handy niche. Whether you don't screencast enough to want to install a dedicated application or you just need to crank out a quick screencast wherever you are, ScreenToaster can help. You don't get any advanced editing tools—screw up and you're redoing it—but you do get full screen capture, support for picture-in-picture webcam video in the lower right corner, and audio for voice-over. When you're done recording and previewing your clip, you can upload the video to ScreenToaster or YouTube, or download it as a MOV or SWF file. ScreenToaster is free and works with any Java-enabled web browser.
Now that you've had a chance to look over the top five contenders for most popular screencasting tool it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:
Best Screencasting Tool?(online surveys)
Have a favorite tool that didn't get a shout out? Have a tip or trick of your own for better screencasting? Let's hear about it in the comments.
11 Handy Tools for Websites Analysis
via Delicious popular by nextlimits on 6/29/09
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100 Coolest Science Videos on YouTube
via Delicious popular by mbauwens on 11/16/09
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Found footage: History of Apple in 2 minutes
via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) by Dave Caolo on 11/19/09
Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Found Footage, Apple History
Here's a great video assembled by applemctom that presents the history of Apple (more or less) in two minutes. There are some huge leaps in time and some obvious errors (Apple Mac II? MacIntosh?), but that's OK. It isn't easy to cram decades of history into 120 seconds. There's much nostalgia for old-timers like me, as the Pippin and Newton make an appearance. Though I still use my Newt, I've never had the pleasure of a face-to-face meeting with a Pippin. The dark days described in the video (the early 90's after Steve left) is exactly when I started using Macs in earnest. It's amazing that I stayed a customer after bloodying my hands on a 7100's beastly innards. The video ends with the introduction of the iPhone, so don't expect to see anything beyond that. Still, it's a bit of fun. Check it out.TUAWFound footage: History of Apple in 2 minutes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Cloud Computing: Where to Next?
via ReadWriteWeb by Alex Williams on 11/19/09
In his keynote this morning, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff continued his critique on software companies for their lack of development and sense of entitlement. And not surprisingly, the full-on pitch continued for cloud computing with a parade of executives showing the applications they developed on Force.com.
About 19,000 people attended Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce.com event. Partners lined up to get on stage. David Girouard of Google showed a map with all their customers around the globe. He recounted a story with Eric Schmidt, who was astounded by the frustrations that CIO's expressed about the architecture they inherited. An Accenture executive said that cloud computing is here to stay. He showed the company's applications on Force.com. The Black Crowes performed last night. The pitch is fever high.
Sponsor
What does this all say about the market? Is this an event that marks the point where cloud computing goes mainstream?
Have we reached the apex of cloud computing hype?
I asked the question on Twitter:
Gartner sees the hype this way:
Regardless, this has been a monumental week for cloud computing. The long established software companies have now lined up with their offering. Microsoft launched Azure. Salesforce.com unveiled Salesforce Chatter, Sales Cloud 2 and Service Cloud 2. IBM announced a cloud analytics platform that leverages Cognos, its business intelligence suite.
The more established companies carry the benefit of long established customer channels. IBM and Microsoft fit into this camp. Additionally, Microsoft appears to get it. The Azure platform integrates some open-source components. These companies face their own challenges as much internally as from the customer world. But their presence also means that cloud computing is close to being accepted in the enterprise mainstream.
Salesforce.com is a more interesting animal. Benioff is a very aggressive CEO. Business Week is calling him "The King of the Cloud." He is never shy to lampoon the established software companies in the market. He calls out his competitors like Sugar CRM, which is fighting right back with its own campaign: Behind The Smokescreen, a play on Benioff's new book: "Behind The Cloud."
Benioff has to show off his partners. He never misses an opportunity to tell you how many customers he has. In a way, he has to play this role. He has the big players running. He has to keep them running, on the defensive, so he can move in with Chatter across the enterprise. That's the trick right now for Benioff. Moving as fast as he possibly can to gain that permanent traction.
The hype is peaking. It's a different game for the entire market. It's a race now to win the mainstream.
DiscussThe World’s 50 Best Open Courseware Collections
via Delicious popular by Martha_Jackson on 11/15/09
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Windows Azure containers on display in LA
via CNET News.com on 11/18/09
Microsoft has transported one of its data center containers to Los Angeles, giving PDC attendees a chance to see just what the cloud-based operating system is running on.Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The History of the Internet in a Nutshell
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SixRevisions/~3/689UfJPTisE/
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
Five Best Online Backup Tools [Hive Five]
via Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick on 11/15/09
Local backup is a useful and necessary part of securing your data against catastrophe, but with the advent of broadband and inexpensive online storage, you've got little reason to not backup critical files to the cloud, as well.
Photo by jared.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite online backup solutions. Now we're back to share the five most popular solutions Lifehacker readers use to back up their data online and keep it secure in the event that some unforeseen event at their on-site location—fire, flood, theft, someone casts Chain Lighting in the server room—wipes out their local backup.
Note: When contenders in the Hive Five have a free option, we've listed that first, followed by the first level of paid backup they provide. For additional levels and packages click on the name of the backup service for more information.
For additional information on both both Hive Five contenders and other online backup solutions, you can check out this comprehensive comparison chart.
CrashPlan (Windows/Mac/Linux/Open Solaris, Basic [No online storage] Free, Premium [Unlimited] $4.50 per month)
CrashPlan takes an interesting approach with their backup software. You can download the software for free and use it to perform local backups on your computer and home network as well as back up data to a friend's computer if they are also running CrashPlan (so it's sort of off-site if a friend's running it). They don't offer any free introductory plans for online storage like most other online backup providers, but their rate for an unlimited personal account is on par with other providers. The software is very user friendly, and even if you're not sure if you want to commit to paying for an online backup service, it's worth a download just to automate your local backups. If your data goes kaput, you can restore it using the software or you can order a hard copy of your data.
Mozy (Windows/Mac, Basic [2GB] Free, Home Premium [Unlimited] $4.95 per month)
Mozy is an automated backup solution. Once you install the Mozy client on your computer, it will back up any files you specify at the frequency you specify. Mozy can back up files while they are open—so that huge presentation you've been working on for the last few hours will be backed up even if you're still working with it. Mozy also backs up based on file changes, only uploading the portion of a file that has changed and not the entire file all over again (meaning quicker incremental backups after the initial backup). Mozy stores previous versions of your files for easy restoration, and in addition to restoring all your files by downloading them, you can also order a backup on physical media for a fee.
Dropbox (Windows/Mac/Linux, Basic [2GB] Free, Pro [50GB] $9.99 per month)
Once you install Dropbox, a folder, appropriately called "My Dropbox", is placed in the Documents area of your computer. Anything you put into this folder will be synced with your Dropbox account. You can sync files, share files by making the folder they are in public, and restore a previous verison of your file—Dropbox keeps a change log going back 30 days. All your files are also accessible via the Dropbox web site, which is great for those times you're at a computer where you don't have Dropbox installed, but you still want to access a document. If you want to sync a folder without putting it directly inside the main My Dropbox folder, you can do that with a little elbow grease, too.
Jungle Disk (Windows/Mac/Linux, Pricing: $2 per month + Per GB Fees)
Jungle Disk takes a different approach to backup on several different levels. Rather than offering a flat rate pricing for unlimited storage, Jungle Disk operates on a fee system. You pay $2 a month per account plus a fee per GB of data used. The fee structure per GB is currently: $0.15 for storage, $0.10 for upload, and $0.17 for download. On the upside, in the face of fee structure you can use your Jungle Disk as a networked disk drive in addition to a remote backup location. Jungle Disk is great at backup, but you can also use it with any application you'd like that can write to a network drive. A bonus for small-volume users is that for small amounts of data, you'll pay less than other backup solutions per month and have a lot more flexibility with how you use your remote storage.
Carbonite (Windows/Mac, Unlimited Storage $4.58 per month)
Carbonite is the other contender in this week's Hive Five that doesn't offer a free basic account with teaser storage. They have a simple pricing plan: $54.95 for a year of unlimited storage from a single computer. Like Mozy, Carbonite also offers block-level incremental backup to speed up the backup process. You can access your files through a web-based interface when you are away from home, and you can use the Carbonite application to restore all or some of your files at any time. Carbonite does not provide a hard copy of your data upon request, so get ready for some heavy downloading time if you've got a lot of data you need to restore.
Now that you've had a chance to look over the five most popular contenders for best online backup, it's time to cast a vote for your favorite:
Which Online Backup Tool is Best?(surveys)
Have a tip, trick, or tool for online backup? Surprised your favorite didn't make the cut? Let's hear it in the comments.
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