Toluu

Student's Guide to Tech

A Student's take on the world going on around us, giving his view of what should happen, and what already has taken a step in the right direction.

Many Devices - The Wrong OneSeptember 15

So right now, I am stuck between using primarily my computer and my new iPod Touch for a lot of my tasks. Things like Email and using Google Reader just seem a lot nicer while using the iPod Touch. But then I spend a lot of time going into Safari, opening up Google Reader, finding the entry, or typing the email, that I begin to realize that "This would be a lot faster if I just used the damn computer."

One of the things that is very addicting about Apple's iPod is a very simple to use interface, that almost makes you want to use it for things that would be a lot easier to do on the regular, nice big sized monitor. I think I'm drawn to the Apple Interface more because there isn't anything in the way. There isn't a crud load of ads and white space. Everything is taken up to the very last pixels, which makes me like it a lot better.

Because you now have these fast internet connections and big browsers, websites try to take up that real estate using ads, or worse they forget about it and leave a lot of white space.

What I would like is for websites to be more put together. I'd like websites to use my entire browser for stuff that I want. Maybe make the fonts bigger, maybe not have all those side graphics, but take up that real-estate on my 1680x1080 widescreen. I'm loading your website and wasting my time to view what you are putting out, at least make it worth my while. I hate sites that the entire site is a fixed box in the center and each side

Chapter 1 : Laconica ServersSeptember 5

You have all seen Twitter, and some of you, maybe even most of you are using Twitter. You have a lot of followers, you tweet a lot, you might even have it hooked up to your phone? But what happens when it goes down? What happens when you want to switch to another Twitter-Like service? What is a Laconica Server?

Laconica Servers
A Laconica server is open-source Twitter Server that interacts with other Laconica Servers. Each small community, that can be based around a single topic, has its own members and public feed. When you want to follow your friend on another community, you are able to because the servers are 'federated' and can talk to each other. Don't get it? Maybe this will help...

How a Laconica Server works.

So, for the most part, it is the same core functionality as Twitter. You can send messages up to 140 characters, you can send @replies, and you can follow people. (Private/Direct Messages are not supported yet) The API for all of the function Twitter offers is built in. XMPP for use with Jabber and Google Talk is built in. For the most part it is the same experience, and now with both Spaz and Twhirl supporting Laconica Servers, plus the added benefit of SMS built-in, I don't see any reasons not to use it.

So what are the benefits?

Because the entire project is open source, that means that things like 'Track' are completely available to users. 3rd Parties can expand on the Laconica servers and make feat

Im Back!!!September 4

I'm back all. I just got back from a long summer and am ready to get blogging agian. If you still subscribe to me and are interested in the blog, good for you! This year we are going to hit up subjects like the iPod Touch and applications, Google Chrome, that was released this Tuesday, and so much more. I got some cool new toys for blogging (Firefox Ubiquity), and that fasted browser ever(Chrome). So hop on board for another wild adventure as we go into the 2008-2009 Edition of "Student's Guide to Tech'

Google: The Next Social Search Engine?July 18

Sorry I haven't posted for a little. My mind has been pre-occupied by a project I am working on. But more on that in a future date.

Techcrunch recently released a video of the closed beta Google Social Search. This incorporates likes, buries, and comments all into your search results. You can view both your likes/dislikes, and everyone's 'edits'.

I think that if something like this goes live to the world, it will introduce a large amount of people to a new way of using the Internet. Not a lot of people use social platforms that are really helpful when you are trying to find the most credible websites. I especially think it is a good idea because you don't necessarily have to look at everyone's edits. If you'd like to just use the feature on your own searches, its perfectly usable that way.

Social Searching really helps to rank websites in order of where you really go. Its really easy to glance at the websites most people visit, and find most helpful with social search, and you can always ignore them and simply look at the regular search results you would find.

Thats All! I hope to be doing the podcast some more in the next 1-2 weeks when Falko returns from his trip to Germany. Then he will probably join me weekly on Skype!

Gmail + GDocs = Virus Protection?July 7

So.. I was just wandering through my Google Mail account where I found I had a few new email's in my spam box. I decided to take a peak at them considering I knew not to open attachments and not to download anything. I found a nice email that said 'You can get 5,000$ a week by doing nothing'! Knowing this was a complete joke, I read on. It was a bunch of B.S. of how there was no experience needed at all to make tons of money. At the bottom it read, to find out more ... wait for it... 'Open this HTML File!' I knew immediately that the HTML file somehow was intending to harm my computer. But .. still being curious, I opened it inside of Google Documents. Of course, all it said was:

To view FULL DETAILS please click on Information Bar and Allow Blocked Content in your browser. Thank you.

Well, that was the gag. But the part that I loved as that by using a website that went in and actually read the letter for me, and converted it into plain text, I was completely immune to any hidden viruses it had inside of the documents. Its like a second computer that simply reads the file! It doesn't execute anything to try to make it work, it doesn't download extra things to give the .html file some added functionality. I think sometimes we just need something that does a certain functionality without trying to compromise to get something to work.