ChangeThis

ChangeThis is a form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. They're on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds. ChangeThis :: ChangeThis

Gliffy.com - Create and share diagrams online.

For all you techies out there who can't afford a copy of Visio, here is the online answer to it. No need for software because it serves it up in your browser. Easy to share the files as well. Gliffy.com - Create and share diagrams online.

Store At My House

Well, as kooky as this may sound I see it maybe working for some folks. Of course a big part of storage stuff at a commercial facility is security and knowing your stuff isn't going to be rummaged thru. Still I like the idea of being able to offer up parking spots on this. Interesting one to watch. Store At My House

MojoPac

Well, the idea of bringing your PC applications and content with you using a more portable device certainly is appealing. However, I'm not following how the heck they actually do it, especially without infringing on Microsoft's licensing. Interesting though. MojoPac

Gizmo SMS - Send FREE messages to any Mobile Phone

I tried this the other day. Worked great. Yes most cell companies have a webpage for sending free SMS messages to their subscribers. But you need to find these pages and who knows which network someone is with in order to get it right. Gizmo takes care of that for you. Gizmo SMS - Send FREE messages to any Mobile Phone

GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones -

I remember years ago NBTel came up with a version of this. It was before the internet took off and it worked pretty well. However this version takes it to a whole new level including treating voicemails like emails - sending the telemarketing callers to spam and storing all of the messages forever to search on later. Very cool. GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones -

Canadians find way to vote for American Idol

UPDATE: MARCH 20-07 - Well it appears this video made quite a stir within either the US Reality TV shows or Gizmo or both. It would seem that no Canadian Gizmo account can call US 800 numbers any longer. Too bad. I'm sure Canadians would have enjoyed voting for their faves since they make up a very LARGE market for advertisers on these shows. No more happy customers. Back to only watching the shows for us Canadians. Bummer. ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you happen to be one of the million or more people who watch US reality TV programs like American Idol in Canada you'll know by now that trying to dial their special 866#'s from your phone here in Canada won't work. Yeah, you get to watch the program but forget about voting. Ahhhh, but now you can with a little trick I learned this week. You use the free Internet phone service called Gizmo. You simply download it and install it and you are ready to dial the American Idol 866#'s for free from your computer in Canada. You see, Gizmo actually dials the numbers for you from it's headquarters in the US so the folks that run the service for American Idol think you are in the US. Of course you're in Canada but they don't know this when using Gizmo. I voted both nights last week, many-many times, without a problem. And if you are calling 800 type number's, I discovered, the calls are thankfully free in Gizmo. Wanna see just how easy, check out the YouTube video of me voting like mad this week below.

Like Visual Search

Like Visual Search - hmm, it's only alpha at the moment but could be interesting. Select a product on a person's pic online and it will try to find that product and other similar products for you to buy. Very commercial of course but could be something interesting to follow.

NewspaperARCHIVE.com - Search Old Newspaper Articles Online

NewspaperARCHIVE.com - Search Old Newspaper Articles Online - It's too bad that only US papers were in this search tool. However, if you have any research you need to do in the U.S. of A. this could be a real time saver. 14 day free trial is also cool.

Spot Runner

Spot Runner - For the small biz that has an extremely limited budget but for some reason seems compelled to run TV ads here is an interesting site to create them. This is the royalty free video version of an istockphoto.

Tempinbox.com - ENGLISH - FREE, RECEIVE ONLY, TEMPORARY, THROWAWAY, E-MAIL ACCOUNTS

Tempinbox.com - ENGLISH - FREE, RECEIVE ONLY, TEMPORARY, THROWAWAY, E-MAIL ACCOUNTS - Well, tired of getting spam after having to give out your email to get a one-time activation email from a website. Tempinbox could be an alternative. Disposable email address that has no registration code (but also no password)

Prosper: The online marketplace for people-to-people lending - Prosper

Prosper: The online marketplace for people-to-people lending - Prosper - Yet another P2P lending site. Kinda modeled like the kiva.org site. This one seems to be more flexible.

Amazon Mechanical Turk - All HITs

Amazon Mechanical Turk - All HITs - Well wow, look how easy it is now to create your own digital sweatshop. Unbelievable how little people are paying for a half hour's work. The rates are worse than one could even imagine. The concept is good but come on people, pay the decent wage.

Social Lending: the big idea

Social Lending: the big idea Hmmm, interesting. I would be interested in finding out the default rating on this type of lending. The concept is simple enough though. Of course I doubt if these folks have deposit insurance so might be a bit risky.

Six Degrees

Yeah we've all heard of the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" game. Well, Mr. Bacon himself is spinning this around as a new website to link people with celebrity causes. Just kicked off so not much activity yet but we'll see. Good job Kevin in taking advantage of your "buzz" to promote good causes. Six Degrees - Home

Songbirdnest.com | Songbird Media Player

Here's a neat new media player that runs in your browser. Yeah, no application to download. Hit the site and start to enjoy. Brilliant. Songbirdnest.com Songbird Media Player

KeepVid

Here's a neat tool to enable downloading of a streaming video file. Yes, maybe you'd like to be able to watch it on your iPod later so this allows you to do it. Check it out. http://keepvid.com/

Snap Preview

Well, here's a neat option to add to your website. I've added it easily to my blog as you can see. It's a neat way for people to preview what a website will look like before clicking the link. http://www.snap.com/about/spa1B.php

Track Flight Status, Airport Delays and other Flight and Airport Information

So you want to find out just how bad delays are at a specific airport or between airports, here's a quick and amazing site to let you know. Great to figure out the impact of a storm on an airport as well. Neato. Track Flight Status, Airport Delays and other Flight and Airport Information

SingShot - Online Singing, Karaoke, Sharing, Ratings, and Community

So you think you can sing eh? Well why not put it out their so others can let you know how you really sound. Maybe you'll become the next great pop singer. Check it out. SingShot - Online Singing, Karaoke, Sharing, Ratings, and Community

IMVU - Beyond Instant Messaging

Well, we all love instant messaging. But yeah it can be a bit flat just looking at text. Sure you can pick yourself up a webcam but hey you forgot to comb your hair today so not a great idea. Introducing IMVU. Create a 3d Avatar of yourself or whatever you want to look like and start chatting with it. Neat. IMVU - Beyond Instant Messaging

Welcome to Oxfam Unwrapped - Oxfam Unwrapped - Canada

This is a great way to give a gift this Christmas for those who have everything. Yes, give the gift of a goat or a chicken. It goes to folks in countries that need them. The concept is great and they've wrapped it up in a way that's fun to give. Welcome to Oxfam Unwrapped - Oxfam Unwrapped - Canada

Extracting music from your IPod

Well, if you've even had harddrive problems or upgraded you PC you may have run into the situation where your iPod has music on it that your PC doesn't. So, what do you do. Well this program is very cool. It will extract all of the music off your iPod so at least your PC will have a copy and then you can start over again on your new PC syncing to what was originally on your iPod. However you will need to put your iPod in Harddisk mode by doing a bunch of commands and restarting your PC. See the commands here. For PodPlayer download here.Podplayer

Springwise

Great site if you want to think about great biz ideas. Check it out. Springwise

RightCart

So you want to sell some stuff on your website. Yeah, great idea but how the heck do you go about setting it up. Well, with RightCart you upload a photo of the product, put a price on it and enter you email. Code is then produced to cut and paste into you website or blog. They only take 1% and the things you sell pump money right into your paypal account. Neat. RightCart

Texterize

So you want to be able to send updates to a webpage of say, where you are or what you are doing while out and about. Well, add a text messaging box to you webpage and text messages to it whenever. Check it outWidgetbox › Texterize

ChipIn

Here's a neat way to raise some dough for a cause or whatever. It basically takes the offline process and makes it work online. And heck, you can contact a heck of a lot more folks online quickly than in person if you need to raise mula fast. ChipIn

Kiva.org - Loans that change lives

I love this site. I was thinking about this the other day saying "I wish there was a site like X". This is a great way to make a difference directly with your money. Please check it out. I just registered and helped a gentleman upgrade his tailoring business in Togo though a small loan. Great on you Kiva for doing this. Everyone spread the word. Kiva.org - Loans that change lives

DataDots

Ok, this is pretty cool. Laser coded head of a pin dots are suspended in a glue that you dab onto valuable items. You register the dot number online. If an item is stolen and recovered police can uncover the dab by shining a standard UV light on it. Then with a microscope they can uncover the code, enter the website and find the owner. Neat. The video explaining it is below. Personal I.D. Kit: DataDot eStore

Photo Vista Panorama

If you've ever been to a real estate page lately you may have noticed that some are offering 360 degree virtual tours of rooms in the home. Ever wondered if you could make your own. Well you can. Photo Vista provides a 15 day trial to let you make a few. Just take your digital camera and shoot photos in all directions at a single point. Make sure there is lots of overlap. Then use Autostitch, a free program I've mentioned earlier that magically stitches all of the photos together seemlessly. Now open up that generated pano photo in PhotoVista. You can then save it (choosing the drop down options on save) as a Java enabled panorama group of files. These 4 files can be uploaded to your webpage for all to see. Launching the webpage link after it's uploaded will give others a chance to virtually be at the location you shot at. It's lots of fun. GET YOUR VIRTUAL TOUR TRIAL NOW

GPS TrackMaker

Well, if you've followed along with my GPS related posts you'll know I was still struggling on how to get Google Earth data out in a format to put back into a GPS without upgrading to Google Earth Plus. I finally figured it out. In Google Earth you can save a bunch of waypoint data created inside Google Earth as a KML file. Free GPS TrackMaker can open up KML files. It can save them as GPX files. GPX files can be openned up by G7TOWIN, another free GPS program I've talked about in the past. It can upload waypoints to Garmin GPS's for example or save the file as a .LOC format that EasyGPS can use to upload. Sounds complicated I know but it does save a lot of time if you do it. Now you can explore the world in Google Earth, mark points of interest and then through this sequence easily upload all of these points to your GPS. Do forget to first download your current waypoints from your GPS into G7TOWIN so they can be merged before uploading (if not you will blow away the waypoints in your GPS with the new points of interest only. GPS TrackMaker

OneStat Free Hit Counter and Web Analytics

So everyone is asking, so who visits your blog or website. How often and what's important to their visit. All good questions. Many people either get a free stats service with their home page or they end up having to purchase additional functionality. Well here is a service that's free. Simply register, copy the custom code it generates, and paste it into any page you wish to track. That simple. OneStat Free Hit Counter and Web Analytics

CrazyIllusions.com - Optical Illusions and Magic Tricks

You may have seen a few of these over the years. Here is a collection of a lot of them. Great fun. CrazyIllusions.com - Optical Illusions and Magic Tricks

DeathForecast.com - Death Forecast

Sounds pretty morbid yes but the neat thing is figuring out what you can change in your life and what effect it can have on the outcome. Could literally change your life for the better. DeathForecast.com - Death Forecast

GetMakeovers.com - Get Free Makeovers Online

Fan of those makeover shows. Why sit on your keester on the couch when you can get in on the action and diy your look. Check it out. GetMakeovers.com - Get Free Makeovers Online

Funny eBay Auctions Weird & Bizarre Auctions From Across The Globe

OK, so you love ebay right? It has great stuff to buy right? But get this, some people try to sell the nuttiest stuff online...and people actually buy it. Go figure. See some of the kookiest ones here. Funny eBay Auctions Weird & Bizarre Auctions From Across The Globe

DialPeople.com - Make Free Fun Phone Calls

So you are REALLY cheap and can't afford a phone call and the other person has no email. So you say what can little ol' me do. Well you could use this service to send a message via some robotic voice to a phone number. Crazy yes, but neat too. DialPeople.com - Make Free Fun Phone Calls

SongTapper.com - Find music by tapping the rhythm of the song's melody.

Ok, I think this is a neat site...if it actually worked. Maybe I suck at keeping a beat or maybe the database is flawed but I tried 10 different songs and only once did something come up similar to what I tapped. Give it a whirl and maybe you'll do better. SongTapper.com - Find music by tapping the rhythm of the song's melody.

radiation protection by Safer America

Oh and if you were looking to spend about $10K for your family's protection here is a place to start. Lots of gadgets and suits. radiation protection by Safer America

How to survive a Nuclear Bomb

Well if you are like most you assume if a nuclear war starts you are toast like everyone else. Well come to find out that's not the case. Sure, if you follow the 1950's instructions of getting under your school desk you may not stand much of a chance but if you prepare, much like you would for a fire or earthquake in advance, you stand a good chance of surviving. Here is an article on how to do it. And it has links to stuff you can actually buy to put in your kit. And no you don't need to build a bomb shelter in the backyard. Check it out: How to survive a nuclear bomb.

zefrank.com :: if the earth were a sandwich : find the opposite tool

Well, if you every wondered if it was true that you could dig down to China - well now you can find out. Interestly NB is almost the opposite of Australia. Neato. zefrank.com :: if the earth were a sandwich : find the opposite tool

Yotophoto | Find free photos... fast!

Well, Firstlight.ca is a great search engine to find royalty type photos. However it doesn't search the free and creative commons type sites. Yotophoto does. Check it out. Yotophoto | Find free photos... fast!

Make your own holograms

Very very neat. Teach the kids about the magic of lasers and holograms at home or in the classroom. The laser is a similar laser found in laser pointers. You could use your own but you'd be missing lots of the other stuff to complete the task. Neat educational material here. Holography Kits--Integraf HOLOKITS

free telephone conferencing

Schedule free telephone conferencing via email invitations and manage conference calls from any Web browser. Yeah it's free to use if you avoid the premium service options. You get a long distance number assigned to the conference and everyone pays their own long distance to that number (since LD is cheap this shouldn't be a problem for most). And you can have up to 100 callers in and a maximum 3 hour call. Pretty cool. Free teleconferencing

Online web site builder - CityMax.

If you need to build an ecommerce site that integrates with Paypal, Ebay etc... then this could be the easiest way to do it. I haven't use it myself but others seem to recommend it's ease of use and extensive library of features. CityMax

The Form Assembly - Create and Process State-of-the-Art Web Forms

So you need to gather some info via the web from visitors to your website. Ah but what a pain it is to write those darn webforms. Ugh. Well forget about it. Just use this site to make your own or select ones already built. Saves time and the headaches. They will even host them for you and email you the results if you wish. Coolio. The Form Assembly - Create and Process State-of-the-Art Web Forms

Empressr

If you are used to creating PowerPoints then this could be a program you'd want to use to build Flash presentations online. YOu can then share or send them to folks as well. Presentation Creation, Management and Sharing: Empressr by Fusebox

Data Recovery Software - File System Utilities

A neat program if you say wanted to get access to an MP3 file at home on your home computer at work and no one was at home to send it to you. You simple send an email request to a specified home email account and the computer sends back the file requested. You can put security on the program so only you can get access to files etc... Neat program in some special circumstances. Remote by Mail

Here is a great site that shows the possibilities when you put your creativity to product design. Very inspiring. Amazing Designs

PiXPO 3.0

So you now have the ability to build up a pretty decent video website but don't know how to start. How will I build it, host it etc... Well check out PixPO, it's free and can get your website up in a flash. PiXPO 3.0 - Download

A Sound only the Kids Can Hear

Well, as a parent you know that kids certainly have the ability to "not hear you". But how about a sound that they can hear and you can't. It's really true. Get one of your kids to go into another room. Turn your computer volume down and play this sound. Now turn up the volume and down a few times and ask them how many times. They will amaze you and tell you the right answer. This same tone is now becoming a popular ringtone for teen phones because Mom and Dad can't hear it ring. Neat. Mosquito Tones

TangleFoot

Well, if you are the owner of a SkeeterVac like I am you are probably dreading the trip back to the store to buy replacement Tac Traps - the sticky plastic linings attached to the outside of the unit that gets covered with bugs. Yeah, they are $20 plus for 2 of them which is total rediculous - and you need a new one every 2 WEEKS. Well not be beaten by this I went on a hunt. I found someone who reuses his original tac trap. He uses a cloth and some paint thinner to remove the bugs and original sticky stuff. Then he applies some new sticky stuff from TangleFoot. He says it works great. We'll see since I just ordered some to test it out. Here's hopin'. TangleFoot

P2P TV

The TVU Player is pretty cool. Basically uses the principles around peer to peer to spread the packets of live TV around - sharing the load. Watch HBO, ESPN and other stations. P2P TV

Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2

This product is the cat's meow for sure. I tried this out and it works great. No worrying about buying programs for your iPod when you can record them for personal use yourself. Just set up it to record the programs you want (syncronized with your autotuner on your satellite box or vcr) and have them stored on your Compact Flash or Sony Memory stick. I found that the quality even at on Economy mode was great on the iPod. And at this mode you can record 9 hours of shows on a 2GB card before moving them to your PC for syncing via iTunes. If you find yourself waiting for kids at soccer practice or for the oil change to be complete now you can catch up on your TV watching. Great stuff. Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2 for iPod

VideoEgg

But wait, here is another site for video edits and sharing. VideoEgg:

Welcome to eyespot

Here is yet another online video editting and sharing site. Welcome to eyespot

Jumpcut

If you are like me editting video can be a real pain. Here is a site that's turning the whole exercise into an online endeavor. Check it out. Jumpcut [Make Amazing Movies Online]

grabMotion a webcam video motion detector able to send image as e-mail attachment

So you want to make sure your sister doesn't snoop around in your stuff well, go high tech and set up the webcam to monitor motion. When sis walks in the room then an email of her pic is sent to your phone and/or email and voila caught red handed. Lots of fun. grabMotion a webcam video motion detector able to send image as e-mail attachment

Videora Converter

Ah the completely free way to put your DVD collection on your Video iPod. Yessir, there are lots of programs you could pay for but with a little patience and the use of DVD Decrypter you can move your recorded content from your DVD Recorder to your iPod to video on the go. (Remember that stealing DVD content that you don't own is against the old law partner). Videora Converter

OldVersion.com

Need an older version of an application you are using for whatever reason? The software provider probabably isn't going to have it but old version will. OldVersion.com

Live Librarian

So you need some help from a librarian but you don't want to drive down to the library. Well use a Californian librarian. Enter a zip code and city like 90210, Beverly Hills and ask your question live. Ask Now

Gmaps Pedometer

If you are a walker and use a pedometer here is a neat site to simulate walking across or around North America. Gmaps Pedometer

|MG| Free Download - RockXP 3.0

So you harddrive has become really corrupted and you need to reformat it. But like many systems your software came preloaded and you can't find the CD. So you borrow a CD to load it up but you still need your Licence codes and XP has them hidden. Well look no further because RockXP can get you codes for you. RockXP 3.0

MyHeritage - Family and Genealogy

Ok, finally some fun with faces. Yup, just find a photo of yourself or someone and upload it. Now run face recognition search and see what celeb you look like. Well, it's mostly wrong but there were a few that actually did look like me. Lots of crazy fun. MyHeritage - Face Recognition Fun

Welcome | Creative Commons

Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. They have built upon the 'all rights reserved' concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary 'some rights reserved' approach. Creative Commons

OPENPHOTO.NET

When you need some photos for a project or even your business and you are fresh out of cashola, well now you can download photos you need for nada, nuthin, zippo. OPENPHOTO.NET

Weedshare.com: Play, buy and share music. Free song downloads.

What if you could marry multilevel marketing with p2p music sharing. Well you'd get Weed. Listen for free for 3 times then buy. Then share and if that person buys you get a cut and so on and so on. Weedshare.com: Play, buy and share music. Free song downloads.

TagWorld

Well, looky here, another site that recommends music in yet another way. TagWorld

Pandora - Find New Music, Listen to Custom Internet Radio Stations

Another site similar to last.fm that helps you find music you'd like and helps you create your own station. Pandora - Find New Music, Listen to Custom Internet Radio Stations

Last.fm - The Social Music Revolution

Check this site out. Create a profile of the music you like and listen to and share this with others. Then listen to the profiles of others. Last.fm - The Social Music Revolution

Scribus - replacement for Quark and Pagemaker

Well if this really is what it says it is then awesome. Finally a replacement for Quark and Pagemaker. Check it out..:Scribus:. OpenSource Desktop Publishing

Lunchtimers.com presents: Just Letters - Someone keep's stealing my letters. the Original.

Ok, this is nuts but quite a lesson in what people would do with a bunch of magnetic letters on your fridge. Try to make something. Watch how someone will spell out a curse word and others will automatically attack it and rip it appart. This would make a neat psych paper. Just Letters - Someone keep's stealing my letters. the Original.

Mercora - Music Search and Internet Radio Network

Very cool. A different concept. Blends music sharing in a legal way with Internet Radio. Listen in on what others are listening to. I'm loving it. Now I can find a song I want to listen to instantly and bang I'm listening to it. Mercora - Music Search and Internet Radio Network

Getting rid of Windows Media "Green Screen"

Well, it's been driving me crazy for months. I've gone to sites that recommend all of these complicated remedies. Then I found this and in 10 seconds it was fixed. Basically, start Windows Media Player by finding the program or Start - Run - mplayer2 Then go to Options....click performance.......and reduce the video acceleration.... Perfecto! green screen

Scientific Toys you can make from Scratch

I just posted about plans to make a solar cell. I've now looked at the rest of this site and it's amazing. If you've got kids that are in anyway interested in science, electronic, engineering or computer programming this is a GREAT rainy day site. Tons of neat things to do. Science Toys

Make a solar cell at home

Well, you could never power your house affordably this way but it's a neat experiment for the kids to learn from. I've read other plans and this looks to be the easiest I've seen. Now if we could only figure out a way to make it more efficient so we could power our homes and save the environment. Solar Cell at Home Plans

Sling that TV signal wide

Well, we've all thought it was pretty neat when we set up the bedroom with TV 20 years ago. Well how about extending it to anywhere in the world. Well you can with Sling. Check it out. Sling Media :: Welcome

Google Mars

Earth smearth, Moon schmoon. Let's map Mars. And when Starbucks starts to open on every crater ridge on this planet Google will give you the directions to each. How long will it be before Google gets bored with this meager solar system. Google Mars

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

Well I love Google Earth so when I heard there was a Google Moon, well I had to check it out. What was really surprising to see was the proximity of all the Apollo missions. I mean come on people - you have a whole moon to explore and you land all the missions in the same area. Maybe they were looking for the golf ball.Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

FREE projection tv plans

Well, I've seen the plans advertised on the internet but without understanding the concept behind it it was hard to even consider why one would buy one. Check this out and you'll see that indeed it is possible to build one once you get a fresnel lens somewhere. FREE projection tv plans

MyTV ToGo - Take your TiVoToGo and Media Center TV Shows With You

Lots of talk these days about the next wave of mobile TV users. Well unless you take the bus to work then you probably won't need mobile TV. Also, who wants to pay $1.99US per show on your iPod to watch a show you can watch for free on your TV. Well, problem solved if you have your Media Center Windows set up to record TV at home. This piece of software will convert and upload ANY shows you like to your iPod, iPaq etc... Yes, there is the cost of the software and Media Center to deal with so a $1.99 per show price might be better in the short run. MyTV ToGo

Canada Post - Parcel Rate Calculation - Residential

This is very neat. I didn't realize it existed. Super tool if you are into shipping stuff via Ebay and the like. Canada Post - Parcel Rate Calculation - Residential

MidiKaraoke.com

So now you have the Karaoke player and not a song to sing. Well get over 1000 KAR format Karaoke files here. MidiKaraoke.com

vanBasco's Karaoke Player

Well if you really want to get serious about Karaoke then you may wish to try vanBasco's player. Has some really neat features for KAR MIDI files that allows you to change the tempo and key of the music. That's handy if you are a Pavaroti. Have some fun. vanBasco's Karaoke Player

Scorch Plugin

For someone who likes to be lazy and play instruments by ear I rarely get to see what musical notes look like. Here is a neat plugin for Internet Explorer that allows you to download actual sheet music and play it note by note. Neat stuff. Scorch Plugin

EvilLyrics - Download - Winamp lyrics search

So you love Karioke eh? Well, pop open your favorite folder of MP3's and let this plugin sync up a lyrics window for you to sing to. A kid favorite. EvilLyrics - Download - Winamp lyrics search

EvilLyrics - Download - Winamp lyrics search

So you love Karioke eh? Well, pop open your favorite folder of MP3's and let this plugin sync up a lyrics window for you to sing to. A kid favorite. EvilLyrics - Download - Winamp lyrics search

MP3Gif: hide music in your pictures.

Well this is cool. His upload program was offline when I tried it so I decided to do it the old DOS prompt way. And it worked. Yes I combined an mp3 with a gif. I had a bit of fun with the kids taking their picture and then recording them speaking in Audacity. Hmmm, now what other stuff can I hide in GIF's. Here is the link but I recommend using the DOS command.copy picture.gif /b + music.mp3 /b combined.gif

Freeload - your stuff on your mobile. Free.

I always thought the idea of having to pay for a ringtone for my phone was crazy. Now I don't have to. Find some MIDI songs you like (under 20K) and go here. Yeah you may have to pay your typical webbrowsing data fees to upload it but that's to be expected. Thanks Freeload. Freeload - your stuff on your mobile. Free.

bushSpeech

Yes, you can control the "leader of the Free World" without twisting his "ring wing". Lots of fun. bushSpeech

FavIcon from Pics -- how to create a favicon.ico for your website

Ever wonder why some websites have a photo or icon instead of the Internet Explorer "e" in their address. Well they are FavIcons and here is an easy way to make one for your website. FavIcon from Pics -- how to create a favicon.ico for your website

stripcreator : make your own comic strips

Yes, if you still don't have enough to do in the day you can unwind and use this to express your inner thoughts. stripcreator : make your own comic strips

Piczo

Kids just not spending enough time online on MSN. Well, why not get them glued to the PC making their very own webpage from scratch to share with their friends. Piczo

Fontifier - Your own handwriting on your computer!

Got 9 bucks burning a hole in your pocket? Tired of the same old fonts and wish you could create your very own. Well if you're handwriting is better than a family doctor's then this could be for you. Check it out. Fontifier - Your own handwriting on your computer!

Switch Zoo - Make Your Own New Animals

Teach the kiddies all about different animals as they hack them up and make some new ones. Ah, fun for the whole Frankenstein family. Switch Zoo - Make Your Own New Animals

Captain Underpants: Make Your Own Captain Underpants Comic

If you like bathroom humour and are a boy under 10 yes this is your site for fun and games. You, yes you, can join the craze and make your own Captain Underpants comic strip. Captain Underpants: Make Your Own Captain Underpants Comic

CreateBands.com - Create A Band Online

Lots of fun for the tween in you family. Yes, it may not provide hours and hours of entertainment (and if it does you may wish to leave your home) but it's good for kicks. Let the kiddies create their own band and riff. CreateBands.com - Create A Band Online

ACME License Maker

So you've decided to build your own roadhouse. But how to decorate? Well why not build your own historical licence plates, just likes yous were back in the pen!. Lots of fun. ACME License Maker

HeroMachine 2.0u on UGO - The Ultimate Fantasy Entertainment Character Generator

Ok, so you fancy yourself as a comic book artist. Well, maybe you could cheat a bit and get a little help from this free application. Build your own comic book hero from scratch - all menu based. HeroMachine

HeroMachine 2.0u on UGO - The Ultimate Fantasy Entertainment Character Generator

Ok, so you fancy yourself as a comic book artist. Well, maybe you could cheat a bit and get a little help from this free application. Build your own comic book hero from scratch - all menu based. HeroMachine

I-Tech's Virtual Laser Keyboard-revolutionary Aid for Smart Phone PDA or Laptop

How frickin' cool is this. Yeah, sure how many people really need this but this is so neat. A projected keyboard that you can actually use like a real keyboard. If I had money to burn this would be a toy on the list. I-Tech's Virtual Laser Keyboard-revolutionary Aid for Smart Phone PDA or Laptop

m o v i e l e n s - movie recommendations

Here's a neat site that easily starts building a recommendation list based on movies you like. It's not perfect but it does open your eyes to movies you may not have though of. m o v i e l e n s - movie recommendations

Band Name Maker - Random Name Generator

Ah, this is a fun little exercise. Ever imagine that you could have a band. Yeah, rock on. But wait you don't have a cool name. Fret no further (oooh, no pun intended). Check out BandNameMaker, the site that generates random band names. Wicked. Band Name Maker

Writely - The Web Word Processor

Heck, who needs to pay for Word or even download a program like OpenOffice when you can use Writely. It's the power of Word on a webpage. Plus you can easily collaborate on documents with others this way too which is a step up from Word. Writely

Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b

Neat program to create a composite picture of a suspect, or just friends. Neat feature to play around with. Fun for the whole family. FlashFace

GlobalFreeloaders.com / Global Freeloaders Members

Ah, yet another great site if you want to bunk down around the world for FRE E! Very similar to Couchsurfing.com GlobalFreeloaders.com

The Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports

Ah, there's nothing like sleeping in an airport for a good night's rest. Well, I didn't think so but here's a site that ranks the airports and points out the ones that would compete with your own couch at home. Sleeping in Airports

CamStudio 2.1 - Records screen activity for use in software demonstrations.

I've been looking for a free screen recorder in the past. Finally I've found one. I looks like you only get 14 days of usage before you need to uninstall and download again and reinstall. The software is no longer supported by the developer but it seems to work great. If you only need it for a quick application of it this is your program. CamStudio 2.1 - Records screen activity for use in software demonstrations.

CouchSurfing - The world is smaller than you think!

Now if you are young and footloose and want to see the world on next to nothing here's your site. If hostels are too high end for your budget and you want to really experience the local culture, here's your site. Register to either bunk out on stranger's couches or offer up one yourself. CouchSurfing

Skype add-on solutions | Free voice mail software and more for Skype by Pamela-Systems

If you like using Skype vs the regular phone you'll notice a big missing applications - mainly the ability to use voicemail. Well, no further. Skype add-on solutions | Free voice mail software and more for Skype by Pamela-Systems

ThinkFree Office Online

Hmmm, do I want to spend $400 on MS Office programs on my home computer which is broadband connected OR do I do all of what I need online for free. I'm thinking the free stuff sounds goooooood. Check this out. ThinkFree Office Online

Woot : One Day, One Deal

If you like bargains and the thrill of getting in on something exclusive, and I mean VERY exclusive, try Woot. They only sell ONE product per day and when it's gone it's gone. Neat concept, neat hobby. Woot : One Day, One Deal

Festoon

I've already shared an addon with you that allows Skype users to have video conversations. Well, just out is Festoon, a plugin that not only works with Skype but also GoogleTalk. Frankly I think this starts to make GoogleTalk more of an option though I'd like to see it get interconnectivity with MSN to make it complete. Festoon Video for GoogleTalk and Skype

TuneUp Software International - Home Page

Well I used to say a certain CleanUpMyPC program was the best registry cleaning program. Well I was wrong, TuneUp is and it's a heck of a lot more than just a registry cleaner. Plus its a FULL featured program free for 30 days. This just might be the first trial program I eventually buy because it does the trick. TuneUp Utilities 2006

So you are a mad scientist inventor and you've come up with the next mousetrap design on your computer. Sure you can print it off and look at it but does it really work. Well, maybe if you had a 3D printer from these folks you could hit the print button and watch the prototype take shape before your eyes. Definitely on my wishlist if I win it big someday. 3D printer

One of a Card Visa

This is one of at least three companies offering a personalized credit card with your own photo on it or someone you love. Again, more 15 minutes of fame and a more durable photo of the kids in a wallet that's already overloaded with cards and stuff. One of a Card Visa

ZazzleStamps

Here's another way to get your 15 minutes of fame. All you need to do is find a picture of you that you like and make it into a real US stamp. Could be a cheaper way to send those christmas kid photos to relatives. :-) ZazzleStamps

Google Desktop Plug-in:� CD/DVD Spindle Search Plug-in

I'm a big fan of Google Desktop. Now companies are creating plugin's for it. Here is a great one to allow for the cataloguing of all of your archived data. Great job. CD/DVD Spindle Search

gOFFICE

Here is yet another MS Office killer. It's mostly in Beta but it promises to challenge the need for MS Office apps. gOFFICE HOME

Writely - The Web Word Processor

Here is a MS Word killer. A free web-based word processor that also allows you to collaborate with others. Writely - The Web Word Processor

SwapThing.com

Well if you'd like to save a bit of money on EBay charges maybe you can go "tradezies" and swap something for something you want. Only cost a buck to swap stuff. Check out Swapthing.com

Gizmo � A free phone for your computer

Here is the open standards challenger to Skype. Supposedly there is a way to allow a free equivalent to SkypeIn but it does require you to call a central number and enter your "sip number". Check it out.Gizmo

Well, I can't say I'm blown away by this visual search engine but it certainly is "different". I think it may be more of a neat thing to use once vs. something you'd use everyday but ya never know. KartOO visual meta search engine

This is a good page to have in your back pocket if you ever need to know how to get inside your Garmin Etrex (which the Doc uses) for repairs or to dry it out. Bringing a drowned etrex back from the dead

Hmmm, something for free. Is there some fine print here. Will have to check. Here's what the site says "With VoipBuster you can call anywhere in the world at the lowest rates possible. And best of all, you can call all your online friends PLUS several popular destinations for free. Just download VoipBuster, install and register the program and start calling!" The VoipBuster!

Looking for free tunes - no I mean real free tunes that the artists say are actually free. Well look no further for a search engine because here it is. CommonTunes - a community directory of freely available music

An interesting service to use when you need to send a monster size file but you know it will crash the server you are sending to. This temporarily uploads the file to a server and sends the link to the receiver to download it from there. YouSendIt | Email large files quickly, securely, and easily!

Having a portal on what's popular is always neat. It saves lots of digging and introduces you to new things you would normally not find. Here is a neat application that allows people to share their favorite bookmarks. The cool thing is that you can get a ranking of the most popular bookmarks and thus figure out what's new and up and coming. Check it out. del.icio.us/popular

Supposedly a different type of image searching tool that doesn't just rely on spiders like Google Images. Worth a try I guess. Pixsy - find unique photos the other search engines miss

Fun and games using the google image engine. Yup, this game gives you snippets of multiple images and you try to guess the keyword that's common to all of them. Addictive yes! Guess-the-google

I don't know about you but I always can't find a font to use when laying out a project. Now what was the name of that bloody thing? Sound familiar. Well try this tool. You can visually select clues and the tool will find the fonts. Check it out. TypeNavigator

Think you are an animator? As taken from this site "Flipbook! is an interactive Flash application that allows people to draw simple animations, save them to a gallery and share them with other people via e-mail." FLIPBOOK!

Very cool. Build your own projection TV for $200 US using an old Overhead projector. This I've got to seriously try. DIY Projector

Here's another source for seemless geographic data. Check it out from USGA. Seamless Data Distribution Delivery provides free online data with NED,SRTM,Landsat,maps,orthoimagery,elevation and more.

As taken from their website "GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location. Find your neighbor's blog, perhaps, or the web page of the restaurants near you. GeoURL is listing 181,697 sites." GeoURL (2.0)

Hmmm, photos meets GPS co-ordinates. This could get a bit out of hand but heck lets see where it goes. People take the photos they are sharing on Flickr and attach geocoding to them to put them on a US map (only US map at the moment). Check it out. Mappr! Where It's At.

Remember how cool I said Google Earth was. Well, here is another version of it from NASA. I'm on dialup at the moment so not going to download the 180 Mb program right now but it's on my list. The features look similar but definitely worth a look. It's open source and thus free. Hopefully one can get some extra free features that Google is now asking folks to pay for. NASA World Wind

This software is wicked cool!!! So your out hiking and you reach the top of the world and you say "Gee I wish I could somehow take a photo that would capture this I'm-on-top-of-the-world feeling. Well, go ahead and snap off 40 digital shots in all directions. Now upload the photos to your computer and run autostitch. It will literally in under a minute figure out how to put all of the photos together to greate a giant panoramic type shot. Unbelievable - I didn't believe it until I tried it myself. Great job guys at UBC. AutoStitch

Tired of getting bloody spam!!! I was this morning so after looking around I found this free open source prefilter app. It can pre-filter your mail before it gets to your email program and tag it with a **SPAM** subject header on any questionable messages. Looks good so far but it will take awhile for me to train it. Has an optional bayesian filter plugin as well for extra tough filtering. SpamPal

Used as the engine to part of the functionality GPS Visualizer offers, here is the base site for looking up the GPS co-ordinates of any US address. Also shows a map of the lookup. geocoder.us: a free US address geocoder

Another neat site dedicated to sharing GPS activities - in this case activities dedicated to performance athletes. In many cases these athletes would be using a watch GPS. Shows routes, elevation profiles, performance metrics etc... Very neat. MotionBased

Now this is definitely the cat's meow. This is a new system that allows you to manage your own favorite waypoints, tracks, photos and profiles - sharing them with the world. Similar to geocaching.com's capabilities this allows a user to either upload GPS data or enter it manually. The coolest feature is the ability to add photo points to a shared track - basically creating a storybook of your journey. The track or waypoints are also automatically overlayed on a topo map (in the US also on an aerial and photo map). Very cool indeed. GPXchange.com

Holy crap, Google is a friggin' machine. Is there any stopping these cats. Another wicked cool application from the folks at Google. And it's free. Zoom in on parts of the earth like a pro - this program is addictive - easily the coolest friggin' thing I've seen in 5 years. Bar none. The detail in some cities allows you to count the cars in shopping centre parking lots. Really!!!! An turn on terrain and fly thru the Rockies. It's like owning your own lear jet. Google Earth

Here's a neat program that will allow you to manage the data, pictures, etc... on your newer cell phone if you have the correct USB type cable for your phone (found on Ebay and the like). BitPim

Geohikes is up and running. Well, after creating and posting 30+ hikes on Trailpeak.com - Geohikes.com is now active. It will share space with Doctor Livingstone's Undiscovered because, well, it's all part of the same theme. Enjoy. Please contact me at info@geohikes.com if you would like to know more about geohikes or trailpeak.

I found this great piece of free software to view AutoCAD files - one of the formats for the free maps that NB government offers. Free Viewer software to view, print, and review native AutoCAD files

Finally, I've found a converter to take a decimal degrees back to GPS co-ordinates or the other way. Sounds like a simple thing but when you have a program like EasyGPS that has converted all of your GPS co-ordinates to decimal degrees and you don't want to power up your GPS to see the co-ordinates values .... well this is a nice tool to have. GPS Coordinate Converter (of course the other manual option is to remove the whole number leaving only the decimal value and multiple that by 60. For example: +45.4567 would be N45 and (.4567 x 60) or N45 27.4020)

Here is another free program for uploading GPS tracks to topo maps etc... to create your own custom trail maps. GPS Trail Maps - Wissenbach Map3D GPS Mapping Software

This is cool as well. You have two GPS coordinates but you don't know the distance (as the crow flies) between them. No problem just enter them here. Distance between two coordinates Calculator

A very cool utility to upload your GPS tracking data to and have a GIF map created. Also has a neat utility to enter a US street address and have the GPS coordinates returned for it. Only if we had this in Canada. GPS Visualizer

This is a potentially useful site for downloading geospatial data for Canadian locations. Take a look. GeoConnections Discovery Portal

Well here's an interesting use of GPS data, pinpoint where speedtraps are and publish the sites. Hmmm, I don't think the law enforcement dudes like this site all that much. SpeedTrap Exchange

Looking for another freeware program to help you do stuff with GPS data. Well look into GPS Utility

This is a neat piece of freeware that supposedly allows you to plot GPS tracks and points on a 3D terrain which you can download from NASA. This I gotta try. DG Terrain Viewer

This is a nice example of a "geohikes" style portal for the Toronto area. This is also a potential model for geohikes.com Toronto hiking resource centre -toronto and southern ontario

Here is a potentially interesting piece of software to pull down GPS data for sharing. It produces the format of data that Trailpeak can except. Will be trying it out tomorrow to see how things go. Check it out. G7ToWin

This just might be what the "doctor" ordered. This site allows for the entry of hikes and mountain biking trails as well as the uploading of GPS data. I've submitted a trail to see how the process works. If all goes well then it may be the answer for a dbase for all of the hikes for the geohikes.com website. Stay tuned.TrailPeak

This is a really neat tool to track down location when all you have is a placename. It's also a great way to look for neat geographic features like waterfalls and bluffs. Canadian Geographical Names Database

Here's a great site for hikers in NB recommended by a fellow hiker, Kawboy123. I hadn't run into this site before but it looks invaluable. Thanks for showing me this. Check it out.SNB Geographic Data & Maps

The Doc is retiring permanently from Geocaching. Read on. The Doc is retiring from Geocaching this summer of 2005. That's right, all of Doc's 68 caches will be removed shortly. Why you ask? Well, sadly, there are many reasons and they have added up over time. Here they are: 1) 150km hiding rule imposed by Geocaching.com - this is a good rule for maintenance purposes but for a quality hider like myself its way to limiting when you run out of local "neat" places to hide caches. 2) Quantity vs. Quality - the Doc has always been about hiding in interesting places. Geocaching never was and absolutely isn't today about quality. This is a real shame. I was hoping more would catch onto this trend but sadly it didn't happen for most. I say this not to offend anyone - it's just there are two camps in geocaching and I have always belonged to the "interesting location first and container find second" camp. 3) Restrictions imposed on virtual caching - I would have been revealing more interesting spots for cachers but the rules at geocaching switched midstream and severely limited "creative" virtual caches. 4) Leaking containers - unless you use ammo boxes at $5 a pop you get leaking containers which can drive a hider to drink. Many thanks to those who helped dry out and repair my caches over the years. 5) Muggles - for the life of me I don't understand why people must take something fun and ruin it for others. I know some muggles are hungry animals which can be excused but for the human kind - get a life. Which leads me to 6) Ursa Major's unfortunate removal of his caches - I'm not aware of the details of what UM has had to go thru but the mere fact that one of the most respected cachers had to go thru this crap and that he has had to take his amazing cache locations offline ...well... this was the final straw for me. Similar to Ursa Major, I hide caches to show people where the wonders of NB are. If some sick person plans on using caches to hurt people then like UM I'm removing all of my caches. Period. I can put up with reasons 1-5 but I have no patience for this kind of crap. So, is this the end of Doc's love for showing the wonders of NB. Not a chance. Yes, I'm removing all of the caches but I'm moving all of the location and hiking information to a site I'm building called GeoHikes at www.geohikes.com (it may take me all summer to build it but it will exist and I hope those looking for neat spots in NB will enjoy it.) This blog site you see now at geohikes.com will transform into a HIKING PORTAL for neat locations to explore in NB. That's all folks. Best of luck to those remaining in the sport. I have met some neat folks over the years and I wish them well. I hope geocaching changes for the better. Doc L. Geocaching -

Ya know, after all of the pain one goes thru to keep those darn geocaches dry after rain and snow, Earthcaches sound oh so good. In fact, most of my caches would fall into this category if the cache container didn't exist. Hmmmm, maybe this is what I need to convert them all to. Something to ponder for sure. GSA EarthCache

Heck, alternative medicine is always worth a look at least. I'm trying this out to see what it's like. It seems to have some effect but I'm not sure how lasting. We'll see how things go. When you think of it most organisms need light to survive and grow. It would only make sense that perhaps intense light on trouble spots could kick the body into high gear to heal those spots. But hey, whadda I know - I'm no REAL doc. :-) Low Intensity Laser Therapy (LILT)

One of the most powerful TV spots of all time. Please watch. It will change you.

When I was a kid I remember seeing a dowsing come to our farm to try to find water for my father. He was an old guy and he grabbed a forked apple tree branch to do his work. I was fascinated. Of course I didn't know exactly what he had done so when I took a branch after he left nothing worked, I got discouraged, and said I guess it's not for me. It was 25 years later on my own property that I saw dowsing happen again. In this case a septic man came to our house to give us a quote on redoing our septic field. He asked for a coat hanger and went about creating to L shapes. He then walked along the lawn telling me where each of the drain tiles was and where the septic tank was located. Then he asked me if I wanted to try. Lo and behold it worked for me. I was totally blown away. Since then I've tried using the method over and over on my property to find the water veins, testing my accuracy by closing my eyes and walking. Each time, same spots. If you think it might work for you and you consider yourself an intuitive person check this site out. Dowsing

Neat application that's fun to surf around on and search to words you've heard. Heck, maybe your word isn't used yet and you can place it in use in the urban-speak around the world. Cool. Urban Dictionary: Define Your World

A very cool concept - a marriage of a yahoo photos with blogging to create a free photo search engine similar to istockphoto. The ability to share photos with others is there (nothing new) but the ability for others to use your photos for non-commercial use makes this an awesome utility for school projects, charity posters etc.... Check it out. Welcome to Flickr!

A cool use of GPS for us outdoorsy types. Yup, what goes better with a GPS than Free Camping. Check out a growing dbase of free camping sites, stored with GPS coordinates. Boondocking (Free Camping)

Just picked up by Google, here is an interesting new application for mobile internet. Fits in nice with the last minute-ness of today's society when planning things. dodgeball.com :: mobile social software

Here is a new discussion page to find out what's up with the Welsford Climbing Area. Check it out.Fred's Climbing Page

Well, who would have ever guessed that a can of coke and a chocolate bar could make fire. Hmmmm, if they only had a vending machine on Survivor they'd be set. Tracker Trail - Fire - Can of Coke and a chocolate bar

OK, one more cool word thingy. Yup, you, yes, you, can create your own anagrams from words you enter. Check it out. Anagram Generator

Ooooh, neat. A cryptogram cracker. I don't think this is in use at the NSA but it might just help you solve the occasional cryptogram. CryptoCracker

Neat engine to figure out the words you can make from another word or bunch of letters. Don't let your friends discover you using it on your WAP browser (cellphone) during a scrabble game. Wordles - Words In Words

Yet more GPS games to play. Shutterspot looks interesting. Another great way to get people to visit potentially interesting spots to claim points. An excuse to get out in the wilderness. GPSgames.org

Alright, another cool game that geocachers can play. These guys have just started but it looks neat. Take a look and see if you are up for a Moving Cache. MovingCache.com

Doc loves the coolest websites. And so does Time Magazine. I've cruised the list and there are definitely some cool sites here to take a peek at. TECH TIME: 50 Coolest Websites: Complete List

Ok, this is cool functionality. I'm not sure if Amazon offers this with all of the books it sells but it was very cool when I searched for the word Animal in the book, Rule of Four. Trying to find a certain reference or quote in a book. Just drop in a keyword and viola. Very cool. Search INSIDE the book at Amazon

If you aren't using the Google toolbar then you are definitely missing out. Saves a lot of time. Google Toolbar

So you got a hankerin' to build something eh? Well here's a great place to start. Personally it's kind of overwhelming me at the moment but I know if I start with a few easy ones I'll probably get confidence to take on some doozies. Call this the "Tim Taylor" recipe page. :-) Free Woodworking Plans List

The REAL solution to solving the Winmail.DAT and disappearing attachments problem with Outlook. Read on. This is a message primarily geared towards the Window's users but I thought you Mac types might like to understand it as well. After some heavy duty digging and decrypting I've found a solution to the problem. Here are the things you need to do first, second and on a global basis. First: Please check to see if the following is set. This won't solve the problem (though everyone on the Internet points to this as the total solution incorrectly) but it is part of it. In Outlook, go to Tools, Options, Mail Format. Make sure "Compose in this message format" is set to Plain Text and Microsoft Office Word is not checked for either editing e-mail messages or reading Rich Text messages. Click the Internet Format button and ensure Outlook Rich Text options is set to "Convert to Plain Text format". Second: And this is a real pain in the butt to remember but it's essential to do each time you send or forward on an email with an attachment (I wish there was a setting for it to set permanently but nothing exists). You can minimize the "pain-in-the-buttness" by using the global idea listed next if you wish. Ok, each time you send an email with an attachment rightclick on the email addresses you are sending to and select Outlook properties. One of three things will happen when you do this. If it's a new address you are entering then you won't see this option when right clicking (see Global idea listed next for solution to this.) If you selected one of the "auto listed emails from a list" then you will open up an Email properties box. Change the "Internet Format" to "Send Plain Text Only" and click OK. If you selected an address from the Address Book then you will first land on the Contact page. You will then need to right click again on the email address on this page and follow the same instructions as the previous example. The difference here is that when you Save and Close the contact page you will permanently change the attributes of this address (which is good.) This of course leads me to the global solution. Global Solution: Basically, this involves creating Contacts for all of your email addresses in the Contact address database in Outlook and using this functionality solely for sending messages and attachments going forward. You will need to change the Outlook properties Internet Format to "Send Plain Text Only" for all addresses in your Contact dbase to be safe. To ensure you don't get tempted to use the "auto listed email" functionality it's probably best that you turn it off by going to Outlook, Tools, Options, Preferences, E-mail Options, Advanced E-mail Options, and uncheck Suggest names while completing To, Cc, and Bcc fields and clicking OK.

Need to create a Gantt chart and can't afford Microsoft Project. Open source to the rescue again. Check it out. Gantt Project

This is a very neat User Interface for those who have disabilities or have limited use of there hands for typing etc... While it won't be useful for most its awesome to see such an open source project available for those that require it. Great work guys. Dasher

So you think your a singer eh? Well put it to the test at the Karioke Bar. Tons of well known tunes with lyrics to boot. Just search or select one and the lyrics appear followed by the MIDI tune. Neato groovy man. MIDI Karioke

Ok, is your PC running slower than a turtle? Don't chuck it in the dumpster yet. Download this and run it over and over during the 30 day trial. It will clean up your PC's background functions and make your computer sing. CleanMyPC Registry Cleaner

Well, if you want to make some great looking web pages forget starting with an html editor. Instead start with a program like the Gimp and layout out the whole page the way you really want it to look. Then use this great tool to slice up the template you've created in the Gimp. Download Ignite

Curse that Winmail.dat file!!!!!! Yes, if you are a user of anything but Outlook for email chances are you have received at least one of these attachments. Basically, anytime an Outlook email is sent in Rich Text mode it arrives at the other end as a winmail.dat file. No problem for Outlook users but forget it for the rest of us. Yes, you can go to through the whole effort of asking the sender to resend using Plain text (if they know how to do this) or thank goodness above there is WMParser. Download this puppy and open any saved winmail.dat file and you see what you were supposed to see. Thanks for this freeware guys. WMParserWinmail.dat - a Decoder

Having food intolerances can drive you insane. And if you agree with the theory that Candida (the bad guy yeast) can take over one's digestive system and cause havoc then this diet might be something to find out more about. I'm on at about week 2.5 now and it's amazing how food intolerance stress has just melted away. Amazing. Now do I know if this Candida thing is helping - not sure. Not eating sugar of any kind is bloody hard to do - in the beginning - but it never was any good for a body to start with (at least I continue to tell myself that :-) There are some books that this site recommends that I've picked up at the library and read. Knowledge is always good. WholeApproach Anti-Candida Diet

I've always been a bit skeptical about these types of formulas. Reason being is that when I'm well inside the ranges they recommend I usually get folks concerned that I'm getting to thin. So what gives - I dunno but it does give one a range to "consider" at least in determining what might be healthy. Take a look. Better Ideal Weight Body Calculations

Saw this report covered on the news last night. I was quite concerned about the products it highlighted from this report. Basically, the study rates cosmetic and personal cleaning items for toxicity or poison based on known carcinogens. The products in here and their rating may surprise you. EWG Report || Skin Deep

Ya just gotta love a catchy slogan. Finally, what you've always dreamed about, a site dedicated to them. Check it out and see if you can recall some of the good ones. AdSlogans.com

Hmmm, I dunno. This free tool allows you to store copies of webpages in your own 5 gig personal space. They list uses for it but each listed item is just barely applicable and it could be done another way quite easily (ie. send a bookmark to someone or use Google's new desktop search tool). I'll put it here and perhaps someone will figure out why it will be so popular. We'll see. LookSmart's Furl

Well I'm building a community portal and after overwhelming myself with the complexities of a content management system I decided to stick to what I know - blogging. But how could I get my blogging posts for each content category to appear on one portal page to keep things simple. Ta da! RSS Feed to JavaScript. Just turn on the RSS/Atom feed portion of your blog, find it the file on your website when you re-publish and take this file link and plug it in the RSS Feed to Javascript site. Bingo it creates some JS automatically for you to paste into a web page. Very time saving and very cool. Thanks guys! RSS Feed to JavaScript

JAlbum rocks! I've been wanting to share photos on the net on my own website but I certainly didn't want to script the whole thing. JAlbum is so cool because it's a application you download and run offline with a great selection of templates. You drag the folder of photos you want onto the app, select the template and click make album. A minute later you've created a cool album of photos and all the HTML code you need to make it work. Now click to upload it to your own website and you are DONE! Awesome, and it's free. JAlbum - free web photo album software

Funny, I was thinking about this the other day. Why isn't there a map site out there that gives you GPS co-ordinates to the locations you search for. Prayer answered. There is and it's called Multimap. Finally, someone realized that if you have the ability to pinpoint something on a digital map that same technology would be able to offer up the co-ordinates. Great job guys. Multimap.com - Online Maps to Everywhere

Ok, I LOVE Google. I have ever since my first search. I love the Google Toolbar and I use GMail. Trying to find an image well I'm off to Google Image Search. Now, the piece de resistance - Google Desktop Search. Yup, download this puppy a it indexes your entire computer like it does the internet at large. When complete it allows you to search for keywords in just about anything - and in under a second. Whoa! I'm a big fan of Lookout for Outlook for searching but I'm afraid that with Google Desktop search installed, Lookout is out. I checked into the privacy concerns one might have and it looks ok to me - if you completely trust what Google says in the privacy statement. I have no reason not to. Check it out and download today. Google Desktop Search

Well, it just wouldn't be fair if I only just picked on Billy Gates. Yes, why not take aim at good old Norton Anti-Virus. Love the product buuuut it's probably due for a subscription update again. Yup, more bucks out the door. But wait, now open source, I say it again, saves the day. ClamWin Anti-Virus is the open source equivalent to Norton and it's FREE folks. Check it out. ClamWin Free Antivirus

Ok, so now it's been 7 years since I got MS Office 97. Yikes time flies. So, you say, what features could have possibly been added to this fine product. Probably lots but I don't have the bucks to pay for an upgrade. Once again, open source to the rescue. Open Office is the open source equivalent (and more I might add) of MS Office. It can work with all the MS Office file types both loading and saving so you won't skip a beat. And it comes with PDF creation build right in. It's built on the old Sun StarOffice base and it seems to be rock solid. Ya gotta love it. Find a broadband connection somewhere and download this baby. OpenOffice

Well you know I love the open source. Here is the ultimate collection of open source programs. Yup, just bought a PC and bank account is empty. Can't afford to pay Billy Gates more cash for programs etc... There is no need with Open Source to the rescue. All these programs, all free to use, thanks to wonderful people who slave in their spare time to clone the favorites. Check it out. It could save you 100's of bucks. GNUWin II Programs - Open Source and Free Programs

Bye Bye Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Hello Firefox and Thunderbird. I'd tried a Mozilla browser a couple of years ago and was disappointed with the speed and lack of everything. Not this time. The open source folks have outdone themselves. Firefox BLOWS away IE and Thunderbird is a nice replacement to Outlook Express with it's improved Junk mail filtering. I'm now going to convert everyone I know. Conversion is easy because both programs import everything from the Microsoft programs. Once you download and set up both don't forget to download oodles of application extensions to make it more powerful. Rock on!!! Firefox

Ursa Major has found another cave for all to discover. Check it out! Tabor's Caves

Oky Doke, this is neat! I didn't believe it when I first came upon it. 6 times faster surfing and email downloading? Yeah right and do you also have some swamp land in Florida I might purchase as well? But you know it actually does work. I did some research and then decided to bite the bullet and spend the $5 to see if it worked. I did. Wow. For someone who is not in High Speed land this is the next best thing. The biggest gain comes from how there proxy servers re-format graphics files to reduce the quality and thus the downloading time. You can still right click on any photo to see the true quality if you'd like but for quick surfing it's awesome. I've had a few bumps here and there since I started using it but nothing I couldn't tweak. Yes, this is something that actually WORKS. Check it out. BrowseBlast

Phew, this one was close. Nearly lost an entire 128Mb of photos on my digital camera. Somehow the flash memory got corrupted and the photos all went bye-bye. Thank the big guy above PC Inspector freeware exists. Recovered 95% of the photos, 95% more than without the program. Definitely and great program to have around. Check it out. PC Inspector

Ok, here is a posting without a reference to something on-line for a change - but it still has to do with undiscovered treasures. Yup, we had a yard sale today - and on a high traffic street in Saint John. While it was an overcast day and cold and wet we had TONS of traffic. Literally only two 5 minute lulls in a 5 hour stretch. Sometimes up to 7 cars of people at a time. I couldn't believe it. And we got rid of 80% of the stuff - bagging over $400 in the process. Moral of the story, as they say, one persons garbage is another persons treasure. I believe it now. :-)

LOVE THIS SITE!!!! I had been having problems getting my CD and DVD drives to autoplay CD's and DVD's when they went into the drives. Nothing I could find anywhere helped. I tried for months to figure this out. I had almost resolved myself to re-install Windows XP (which would have been a royal pain). Then, with the help of the divine, I found this site. Awesome collection of fixes to run to fix what ails you and your blessed computer. In my case I downloaded the Autoplay Repair Tool. After running it a couple of times on my different drives and a couple of reboots VOILA. It's fixed!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you Kelly's Korner. Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP

Well I gotta tell you that it was pretty darn cool to discover that someone I didn't even know had entered family tree info on this site. I knew my tree for my surname grandfather's side but I didn't know it for my grandmother (married to surname). Now I know who my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather was on her side. Coooooool. And this comes a day before our family reunion. Won't I impress. :-) Check it out - you can sign up for a free 14 day trial. Ancestry.com - Search Birth Records, Death Records, Marriage Records and US Census Records

Can't find the picture searching Google Images. Well then try another image search site. Neat front page of this site tells you the most popular image searches. Search away! Picsearch - the search engine for pictures and images

OK, not sure about how this is completely useful but it is quite interesting. Ever wondered how popular a word was in the English language based on current usage? Well, now you can find out. Neat way to find out what names are most popular as well when looking for a baby name. WORDCOUNT / Tracking the Way We Use Language /

Well, this was certainly a cool concept when we first ran into it at the office. Visually see branches of a word and click on the branches to explode the branches for that word. This link will give you a trial of about 6 searches. (you can go back to the main page to reset it continuously though). Not sure in the long run if it might drive a person to drink. Check it out. The Visual Thesaurus

Finally, a way to transfer your tapes to CD. And it's simple. I went to Radio Shack and picked up a 8mm to 8mm audio cable (same connectors you see on the end of a mic and on the end of your headphones). Now take your tape player and plug one end in the headphones jack connection and the other end in your microphone jack connection on the back of your PC. Viola. Use a program like Freecorder to record from the tape player. And if you want to make your MP3 a WAV file to make a true Audio CD try the freeware program Mp3Decode. Yup, I couldn't believe how simple it was in the end - why didn't I think of this before. Enjoy.

Ahhh, you can't say enough about the wonders of free open source programs. Want to create PDF's but don't want to buy Adobe PDF Creator. Welllll, download PDFCreator instead, does the same thing only it's, yup you know what's coming, FREE!!!!! PDFCreator

OK, so you really love the power of Photoshop - heck who wouldn't. Buuuuuuut, you just can't afford a second job to pay for it. Enter "The Gimp", a near duplicate of Photoshop but only FREE, because it's open source. There are so many features I don't know if I'll ever use them all. Check it out. You will need to download three different files, the Gimp setup, the GTK open source environment and the Gimp help file (unless you like to live on the edge). Enjoy! GIMP - for Windows

I'm lovin' the Freecorder. Have the ability to encode sound on your computer but no software to do it with. Wait no longer - Freecorder is here. First, don't forget to double click on the speaker icon in your system tray. Go to options and select recording options. Here you can select which inputs you want to use for recording. After clicking ok you'll see the slidebars for each. Don't forget to click the boxes below to activate the slide bars for recording. This whole exercise is a bit much to activate recording in Windows but it is what it is. You can use freecorder to record your old tapes to MP3 for instance (keep aware of licensing issues please). Don't forget to select the right input you set up when initializing Freecorder. Have fun.!! Free Download Freecorder 2.1

Wow, now that's fast!!! Tired of waiting for Outlook to churn away looking for that darn email you know you sent but don't know when. Lookout, the "google of email" will change all that in a flash. This Outlook plug in indexes all of your emails so you can search in under a second. You'll be amazed. Lookout for Outlook Download

New Brunswick is home to some amazing caves. Many of these were only known to a few and that was a shame. Now with a GPS and proper equipment and knowledge they are available to all. There are a few more to uncover, and darn it all, Aquanut2 and I are going to try our best to locate them if we can. If not I'm sure we can count on Ursa Major. Enjoy.

White Caves

Underground Lake Cave

Howes Cave

Lost Brook Cave

Harbell's Cave

Owen's Lake Cave

Green Head Cave

Dalling's Cave (and Ice Caves in Winter)

Kitt's Cave

Chantal's Cave

Berryton Cave

Glebe Pot

Glebe Mine & Pit

Tabor's Caves

Midland Ice Caves (Winter only)

St. Martins Sea Caves

OK, I've tried using a "pogostick" before and my legs felt like rubber. With the flybar I can imagine I wouldn't last a jump. Oh those crazy kids - take a look. Flybar

Since I first laid eyes on this vehicle in Geneva back in 99 I've been totally convinced this is one of the coolest cars on the planet. And at 80 mpg this is DEFINITELY a smart Car.

Speaking of books that rock, Seth Godin has done a great job of explaining how an ideavirus works. Very cool and also a free download. Unleashing the IdeaVirus

This book rocks!!! I love the thinking. Turns marketing on it's head and makes you think about what marketing really is. And it is a free download.The Cluetrain Manifesto

Ooooooh, I found another neat site (comes to me via a friend). Yup, you can look for deals in Atlantic Canada and the rest of Canada at this site. Register and you can see asking prices. Repossessed cars, trucks, vans, boats, aircraft and more from RepoDepo!

Ok, this is a tool that's overdue. I can remember as a kid staying up late on Saturday night to tape the latest new releases on a hip CBC radio show out of Winnipeg. It was like an early version of surfing - audio style. Then eons later along came internet radio - now with clear digital signals but alas no ability to record it. Now you can. Check this out. Replay Radio - Internet Radio Recorder

OK, so you want to find out the best way to buy a used vehicle in Atlantic Canada. Well consider some of these tools as part of your bag of tricks. First, check out the vehicles coming up at the Adesa auctions in Moncton and Halifax. Most people don't know that you can check out the inventory listing yourself. Adesa Go to this link and select the Canada button. Then select Moncton or Halifax. Then select one or more auction dates and search. Viola, a list of the vehicles to be sold. Now for the next trick. Not sure about the history on these vehicles. Well you can cut and paste the VIN# from the vehicle you want to find out more on into CarFax. This will tell you if there are any potential records of problems on the vehicle. Here is a potential hint. When I did a search on a 98 Caravan it came back with 5 records. I subscribed to the service only to discover the 5 records in question were only 5 regular registration renewals. Yeah, like that's a real help. So, I'm not sure if this theory would always work but now when I'm doing early searches (before I'm serious about buying) I simply count the number of years the vehicle could be re-registered and if its equal to the "records" found on the report then I make a preliminary assumption that things are probably ok. The cool thing about this early search is that it confirms the exact deets on the vehicle in case the listing missed something. Finally, you want to know what a dealer might consider this vehicle to be worth when bidding on it for you at the auction (oh yeah, this is the best part. Some used car dealers will look for vehicles at auctions for you and will bid to your specs. If you win they will take a flat fee over paid invoice and the vehicle is yours. Yep, a flat fee. I've negotiated with two dealers for a fee of only $500 so start there.) For the black book price range (the typical trade in price for a vehicle) go here via the Toyota website Trade-in link. Click on the link for the Black Book site and follow the directions. This is a great way to understand the REAL price of a vehicle. This is also a great link to use when you are trading in your vehicle or looking to deal on a regular "off the lot" car. Good luck and happy car buying. I hope this helps.

Well, yes it has been a long time since I've posted an entry. Well worth the wait if you check out this link. Arts & Letters Daily is probably the most intriguing "reader" site I've seen, well....., ever. It's like the Reader's Digest of all things interesting on a daily basis. Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate

The Utah Geocachers wanted to go some extra miles (no pun intended) and created a great page of related games to play. Only in Utah though.... for now.

Just found another GPS related hobby. I'm basically already doing this for the most part by caching near beautiful sites that I photograph but there are a few spots that fall thru the cracks. This would be a good spot to share them on. Check it out. GeoSnapper - GPS Photography

GPSBabel rocks!!! If you are using multiple GPS programs and equipment like I am this utility to convert formats is a godsend! Check it out. Wayhoo.com - Convert GPS Waypoints using GPSBabel

Hmmmm, a search engine meets social networking. I don't know if this is such a great idea but..... it's an idea. Check it out. eurekster search

Here's a great guide to Ice Climbing in NB. I've never tried but the formations of ice would make great pics. I'm trying to think of a way to work this in but I can't "chip off the old block". Hmmm, I must be gettin' old. New Brunswick Guide to Ice Climbing

Columbia University is putting the 6 degrees of separation to the test. The idea is to get a message to a target person by forwarding it to someone who forwards it to someone and so on and so on. Check it out and see if you can do it. Small World Project - Columbia University

Another personal social networking site. Interesting use of tests as well - fun way to gather data on common interests. Tickle by Emode: IQ and Personality Tests

Many-to-Many is another interesting blog on social software. Cory begins to break down where its going wrong which opens up new thinking on what's next. Many-to-Many

Alex Gault's Blog is probably the best I've found that discusses social networks and collaboration tools. Network Edge

Ok, I admit, I can't completely get my head around this concept yet but I'm going to try. They say that the web is now evolving with the birth of blogging etc... to a metaweb. Read on here to find out more. "The Metaweb" -- The Next Big Thing

Well, looky what I found. Another viral community networking site. Yup, Tribe. Makes you want to make sure your "tribe" doesn't voote you off the island though. Tribe.net: Welcome to Tribe

Nice little history on Viral Communities or Social Network Software. Yes, viral communities were hot back in 1999 but one by one that bit the dust. Now they are back (see my posts from yesterday). Why will they stick this time - check it out - Are Viral Communities Back?

An interesting site that filters through all the junk that's floating around the net and chooses the coolest, funniest stuff - from so-called viral marketing video clips, to photoshopped pictures, silly jokes, funny games and urban legends. ViralMeister

Here is a neat networking idea - within any large company there is no doubt an answer to any operational problem. The real problem is finding the person with the answer. Here is an intranet solution to create a network of intra-company experts to solve problems. Nice biz case for proving this in. AskMe

Here's a nice list of the essentials when heading out into the woods for a long hike. Most of this is just common sense but it's nice to have a check list just to make sure you don't forget anything. The Ten Essentials + Four - Backpacking Gear

My last post today - check out one of the most popular FREE personal firewalls on the net - download Zone Alarm.

Ahhhh, another great use of P2P networking. IP telephony has been around for awhile now but slap on the template of P2P and you have free internet calling on Skype.

If you are interested in more info on Social Networking on the Web you can always check out Yahoo! Groups : webcommunities.

One more twist on social networking - combining it with chat and creating a GUI that lets you visually explore the network of others you are connected with. Seems more like something you'd use in a personal setting and the chances for getting irritating with one bad apple is there for sure. From a mimmicking real life perspective this has the potential to make for an interesting on-line social "party" where everyone comes with all of their friends for a specific time and all then "let the networking begin". Controlled timeframes on social interaction using this software, would help apply some boundaries on something that now could get way out of control. Huminity social networking & chat software. 6-degree chat! - Software

Here's yet another twist on social networking software, a site more squarely focused on hiring. Yup, think about it, when you want to hire someone wouldn't you rather get a referal from someone you trust (or someone that someone you trusts refers). That's the logic behind LinkedIn.

Here is a free site on helping people network. I've spoken (no pun intended) about Spoke already but here is yet another twist.Ryze business networking. An on the personal friendship networking side there is also Friendster and Ringo.

This will be an interesting site to watch. They give ordinary folks the ability to sell information for micropayments. It's hard to see in some ways how it could work but there are certainly elements that have some merit. Perhaps, like the real world, a trusted source needs to create a publication with groups of topics that people would subscribe to for a fixed fee per month. Or, maybe individuals could create their own personalized publication and thus request the same writers to write addition articles for the same fee each week or month. Hmmmm, something to think about. RedPaper

Ah yes, the king of Reality TV, Survivor. And soon, Survivor All-Stars. This is the ultimate show for "personal marketing". It's about selling yourself in a cut-throat world. Truly an amazing petrie (am I spelling this correctly) dish to watch. Yup, maybe another guilty pleasure but you can learn a lot about the human condition with this one for sure.CBS

Ok, Ok. One of my guilty pleasures. One of the funniest shows on TV. Love the constant "pop up" commentaries on the dates - it's Pop up Video goes YukYuks. Pure fun - nothin else to it. Blind Date TV Show

I recently saw a list of the top 10 most watched shows in America. MG and I don't watch a single one. I guess that means we are no longer mainstream. Well, what we do watch are a lot of shows on TLC. MG takes over the TV on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights with TLC's While You Were Out and Trading Spaces. While I don't mind the shows I'm getting tired of the 50 minutes of lead up to the final 10 minutes of comparisons of before and after (like curling - drink beers for the first 9 ends then compete in the 10th). A show we both equally like is What Not to Wear. It's amazing how a few changes can better match a person's outside to what's inside. Check it out. TLC :: What Not to Wear And for another more extreme version there's always Extreme Makeover

Lovin' the monkey! What a great survey tool for biz or just for funzies. I've check this baby out compared to others and it looks like the best one on the market. And the price - how the heck can you go wrong. SurveyMonkey.com

This is one wicked idea. Are you familiar with the 7 degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon? Well, upload your email contacts and try to see how many connections it would take to reach him, or someone like Billy Gates. Very cool. Spoke Software

Hmmmmm, this could be an interesting site to watch. Take a look. Meetup: Organizing local interest groups.

Hey, we all like to laugh don't we. Well, since I unfortunately can't listen to our new comedy radio staiion in Saint John CFHA when I'm over 1000 ft. from the transmitter or a person happens to step in front of my radio, then this will have to do. Actually, a good lineup to listen to as you surf (except for the constant "brought to you by" messages - enough already) The Laugh Player by Laugh.com Radio