Lifestreaming Service FriendFeed Reviewed

Company Background:

FriendFeed is one of the newest startups to come swinging out of the gate, that promises to streamline your myriad of web activities into one, easy to digest stream. This is sometimes referred to as, Lifestreaming. FriendFeed was founded by Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Sing Prior to Google, Bret worked at Reactivity, Paul worked at Intel and Sanjeev worked at Thirdvoice.com. Bret, Jim and Sanjeev hold Computer Science degrees from Stanford University and Paul holds a Computer Science degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Signing In:

Unlike most other services I sign up to beta test, FriendFeed actually sent me a an invitation code immediately after signing up. The signup process consisted of the usual information with one exception. Password, Email and Username were the usual culprits but you can also choose your Nickname which will also be the name attached to your FriendFeed sub domain. For example, mine is http://friendfeed.com/jeffro2pt0 with Jeffro2pt0 being my nickname. So far, FriendFeed does not support logging in via OpenID. Continue reading →

LocateTV Working With Joost?

LocateTV.com Logo

After Joost announced that it was opening it’s doors to the public, I wondered if LocateTV carried programming information for programs that were featured on Joost. So, I sent LocateTV an inquiring email. They responded by saying that it was definitely a good idea. However, it was not one of their priorities at the moment.

The Locate team have a very large number of platforms to cover and the goal is indeed complete coverage, but priority at the moment are those sites that have shows in demand/big audiences. Joost, while having a lot of buzz, has a small audience and in fact has relatively little content that is both unique to it and commanding a big audience.

So until Joost becomes the equivalent of in home cable, don’t expect LocateTV to be carrying programming information for them anytime soon.

Shvoong Homework Answers Copying Question

Shvoong Homework, the student collaboration service I covered here ( Homework Collaboration Via Shvoong Homework ) has answered my question regarding students copying each others homework. In my last article, I asked the following question:

I’ve sent in an email to Shvoong Homework wanting to know how they plan on preventing students from copying each others work over the net. Whenever I see the words Homework and Sharing in the same sentence, I think COPY

Here is their response:

Sharing, and in essence copying, class notes and homework among teenagers has always existed in some form or another. That form in today’s technologically advanced and connected world is online. Many students already do homework on personal computers (for example using MS Word) and share it with friends simply by emailing or IM’ing each other. So while it can be argued that Shvoong Homework now makes it easier since the writing and emailing/sharing is in one program and automated, we believe that the positives are much greater than the negatives and that the results will show that.

The interactive environment which we’ve built will in fact encourage students to do more work not less. They will want to participate and feel a part of the community. Furthermore, the sharing element is optional and on a case by case basis for each piece of content. The person that wants to let his best friend copy will do so anyway, with or without Shvoong Homework. The site will not make any person suddenly share with classmates who are not close friends because we don’t reward users that share more than others. The only incentive to share with others is if it goes both ways which means that both sides do the work.

It should also be noted that Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets platform also allows for the sharing of homework so it’s not as if we are breaking boundaries here. Google even promotes an education package (http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html), that includes the Docs & Spreadsheets, directly to students. Even Facebook encourages or turns a blind eye on homework and document sharing (like term papers, dissertations, etc.) through the use of the Scribd “homework sharing” Facebook application. What we’re doing that’s different is that we’re creating niche study group communities around this concept.

I hope this answers your question and I welcome you to contact me again for any further information.

All the best,

Tal Perry
Head of Business Development
Shvoong Holdings Ltd.

Thank you for the well informed answer Tal. You make some valid points. Those who want to copy each others homework will definitely do so with or without your service. I wish these types of services were around when I was a few years younger. I’m 23 years old and the web makes me feel old.

Skype Releases Version 3.5

Skype, the popular VoIP client has released version 3.5 of their software. This release includes a number of additional features. Some of these features include:

Sharing Videos: Contacts can now watch your favorite videos when they click on your mood message.

Video Snapshots: You can now captures snapshots of friends or family during video calls. You can then use a frame from that video capture as your profile picture.

Skype Prime: Skype Prime has launched into Beta and is a global marketplace for sharing and learning skills. You can get paid to helpe people around the world by offering all kinds of advice, or use the service to learn something new. In effect, you can now create your own help line and be paid for it.

Call Transfers: Skype users can now transfer calls to Skype Contacts. If you are a Skype Pro Subscriber, you can transfer calls to mobile and landlines as well.

That Skype Prime feature seems interesting considering many Americans are becoming fed up with calling support centers filled with folks who can’t speak our native tongue fluently, resulting in a massive amount of frustration. Perhaps we can take support matters into our own hands.

Download the latest version of Skype here.

Amung.Us Is Back Online Intros Heatmaps

Whos.Amung.Us Logo

If you were wondering why your Amung.Us widget was not working yesterday, you weren’t the only one. It turns out that the datacenter which houses the Whos.Amung.Us servers ACCIDENTALLY pulled the plug on one of their servers. After some time, they were able to fix the problem and now their site and widget are fully operational. I guess these things really do happen.

Heatmap Of My Visitors

To coincide with the return of their website, Whos Amung Us has launched a new feature to their real time maps, HeatMap Overlays. Those who have the feature enabled on their maps will be able to toggle the map by clicking an option in the lower left hand corner of the map. If you already have a map embedded into your site, you will have to create a new one in order to take advantage of the heatmap feature. You can grab your map from here. One thing worth noting is that you will not be able to see the HEATMAP option on a map that is embedded on a webpage. Instead, you will need to click on the map and view the heatmap from the Maps.Amung.Us website. If you want to check out the heatmap for this website, click here.

Similarities Between A Blog And Forum

During the month of September, I started a poll that asked the question, “Should I add forums to this site?” 9 of you voted NO while 6 of you voted YES. Which means that I will not be adding forums to this site anytime soon. However, after giving it some thought, I began to realize that perhaps, the differences between a forum and this site are minimal. Let me explain.

Those of you who are familiar with the way forums work, you have Threads or Posts, Replies, Subscriptions, Ongoing discussions across multiple topics,Moderators, ect. Let’s see if I can graphically display how both a forum and my blog are alike.

One thing that really separates forums from a blog is that a blog is somewhat defined by one person’s voice. A forum gives users the ability to create ongoing discussions about various topics. I think I may have found a solution to this problem through a plugin called TDO Mini Forms This plugin creates a SUBMIT A POST page and provides me with a wealth of options such as controlling who sees the form and who doesn’t, it’s own administration area to confirm or deny submissions, Ajax widgets to organize how the form looks, and much more.

This plugin solves the problem of only myself being the one to create new conversations. This is an ongoing experiment and I want to see if any of our readers out their would like to contribute to this site by writing a post that deals with the topics we already cover. Keep in mind though, I’m the one and only administrator for this site and if the post is beyond the subject matter that this site covers, I will have to reject it.

I’d love to hear some feedback regarding this topic and the ability to submit a post to the site to be put on public display. Is it a good idea or is it a bad one? Perhaps I have lost my mind?

Joost Goes Live With Public Beta

Joost.com Logo

Joost has officially launched it’s public beta. This means that you no longer need a special invite in order to use the service. It must be stated however that Joost is still a BETA product, so be weary of whatever bugs or quirky UI stuff you may encounter. This version of Joost does contain a couple of user interface enhancements such as search and better navigation across videos in the site. But what may be the biggest offering is the Joost API, which is now open for developers to create third-party applications. So expect to see numerous Joost based widgets popping up on websites in the near future.

I wonder if LocateTV can tell me when programs will be aired on Joost. I’ll have to look into that. In the meantime, if you want to watch an interview that was conducted with the CEO of Joost, check it out on NewTeeVee

15 Free Pro Horizontal CSS Menus

CSSplay has put together a list of 15 professional looking horizontal based CSS menus. The menus use the sliding door technique so that each menu item will fit the associated text. The menus use professional grade graphics and since they use CSS, it wouldn’t be hard for you to customize these menus for your own needs. Here are a few samples.

Check out the entire list of 15 which are free for download. When your finished, come back and let us know which one was your favorite.

FriendFeed Another LifeStreamer

As reported by TechCrunch today, four ex-googlers have started their own company called FriendFeed. FriendFeed aims to aggregate user data that is usually stored on a wide variety of social networking sites, into one easy to manage stream of data. The presentation of this data looks like it will be displayed in the same way that the Facebook News Feed is shown.

The question I have for all of you is, Hasn’t Jaiku been one of the first to accomplish this feat in the form of RSS feeds and aggregating them to one account? Jaiku even gives you the oppurtunity to pick which feeds of an individual that you want to subscribe to.

Because this company was started by four ex-googlers, do you think this company will take off like a rocket or will it sink like an anchor?

EdTags Targeted Education Information

EdTags looks like it could be a valuable resource for students and educators alike. Edtags is a social bookmarking site where users tag anything having to do with education whether it’s a podcast, essay, or web related news. Here is a video I found highlighting the various aspects of this new service. Their website is http://www.edtags.org but I have had trouble connecting to the site.

Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff

The Musings Of Jeff Chandler