Archive for December, 2007

Bloglines Vs Google Reader

Published by Chris | Filed under Internet | December 27th, 2007



Every day hundreds of bloggers trawl through thousands of web site feeds in order to find something fresh and informative to post up on their sites or blogs, and for many years Bloglines was the most widely used feed reader. No other feed reader had all the features needed to track what many bloggers read and hadn’t across computers and operating systems.

That until many bloggers/writers rediscovered Google Reader and gave the reader another whirl. Google Reader upgrades turned the app into an even better product than the much older and more-established Bloglines, and so many have made the switch.

My Thoughts

Overall, Google Reader takes the prize for this daily RSS consumer, in the very short time it’s been in App Google Labs. Like that kid in class who always wins every competition, just wanna kick Google for being so damn good all the time.
There is one thing Bloglines has that Google Reader doesn’t and is its very useful “Email subscriptions” feature. You can set up a disposable email address at Bloglines to receive mailing list items without congesting your actual inbox. That’s one feature from Bloglines I will miss most.

What’s your take on Reader verses Bloglines? Is there a web-based reader out there that’s even better? Let us know in the comments.

Geek to Live: From Bloglines to Google Reader [lifehacker]

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How to Add a Dash of Colour to Black and White Photos

Published by Chris | Filed under Digital Photograph | December 27th, 2007




The guys at Digital Photography School show how to create some zest by adding a small area of color to a black-and-white photo.

The tutorial involves “desaturating” the color from an image and then using the History Brush to “paint in” the desired area. Overall it’s pretty simple, though you’ll need to move slowly and exercise care around the edges. This tutorial is previewed in Photoshop CS2, but it should work similarly in any image editor that has the same desaturate and history-brush tools.

Mono, with a Dash of Colour - Photoshop CS2 Tutorial [Digital Photography School]

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First-time Homebuyers Info

Published by Chris | Filed under Real Estate Online | December 26th, 2007




The web is your best friend if you’re a first-time homebuyer. Looking into many free classes around our area, but with life busy schedules, who has time to put aside four hours every Wednesday night? Instead, going-at-your-own-pace of the Buying a Home online tutorial from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. All the basics that you’ll need to know are here, including figuring out how much you can afford, how to shop for a loan, the inspection process, and homeowners insurance. It’s a good way to see what you’re about to get yourself into.

It’s also a smart idea to familiarize yourself with Mortgage-calc.com, a simple approach to figuring out how much you should plan for, money-wise. Everything from simple mortgage calcs to complex amortization schedules can be found here.

Zillow’s free home valuation here before; it’s a good tool to keep handy when you’re in the midst of this whole buying and selling process. Oh, and there’s also Bankrate.com, where you can find the latest rates for all kinds of home loans from fixed to jumbo.

Last but not least, you can learn the hard way from previous moves to always factor in the cost of moving BEFORE you move. The Homestore’s Moving Calculator can help you do that: it takes your information and gives you a detailed cost analysis, room by room and according to origin and destination.

If you have any other ways you’ve used the web to help in the buying or selling a home, please let us know in the comments. Photo by:Isgcp

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Download of the Day: MediaPortal 2 (Codename: Infinity)

Published by Chris | Filed under Internet | December 26th, 2007



Windows only: Turn your PC into a full-fledged media center with MediaPortal 2, the first public build of MediaPortal 2 (Codename: Infinity), is now available.

MediaPortal 2 (Infinity) can play, record and timeshift TV; play videos and DVDs; run photo slideshows; play your music library and FM radio; show local weather; and much more. In short MediaPortal Infinity, it offers everything a good media-center application should, all bundled up in a use-friendly, attractive interface. It even comes with open-source MPEG-2 decoders and installer that has the ability to install the IR Server Suite, which adds support for various Remote controls. Nice extras for systems that don’t have.

MediaPortal

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