CyberNet News » Web Sites

Multi-Purpose Online Utilities

Ryan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:16:13 +0000

I’ve seen some websites before that try to rollup multiple utilities under a single domain, but the tools they provide are normally the things like a tip calculator that you don’t need to use very often. The 1DL.US site is different because they have a wide variety of very useful tools that all become just a click away. Plus most of the functionality is available to you without registering for a free account.

Here is a list of utilities they have available without signing up for an account:

Your IP address is shown in the upper-left corner of the screen
YouTube: Generate a link to a specific time in a video
PC Info: Information about your browser and OS
Remote Support: A utility that you and someone else can use to provide remote technical support.
News: Basic interface for RSS feeds, weather, and the top viewed YouTube video of the day
Chat: Create an IRC channel
Pastebin: Share a link to a block of text (optionally password protected)
Password Utilities: Test a password’s strength or generate a password
URL Shortener: Generate a short URL
Image Hosting: Upload and share a small number of images
Disposable Email: Get a fresh email address every 24-hours

As you can see there are some really useful utilities crammed in this site, and I highly recommend saving it to your bookmarks.

1DL.US Homepage

Get a Free Wake-Up Call

Ryan — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:50:28 +0000

You know how some hotels will give you a wakeup call if you’re worried that you won’t wake-up in time? Well, you can get the same kind of service using a site such as Wakerupper or WakeupDialer. Both services will call you at an exact time you specify, but each have their own benefits. And both don’t even require an account for you to start using them.

WakeupDialer is convenient because it is fast and completely free. Just enter in your phone number and the time you want a call to come in the next day (you can’t schedule a call for the same day). It even appears to automatically select your timezone, but you can confirm that it will be calling you at the correct time by looking at the “Click here to call …” button which tells you the amount of time it will be before your call will come in.

Wakerupper is nice because you can specify the message you want played back when the call comes through. You can also schedule calls for the same day which is convenient for using this as a reminder service rather than just for a wake-up call. The downside is that the service only appears to be free for the first 10 calls to your phone, which means frequent users will have to sign up for a plan to continue using it.

So you can use the service that sounds right for you, but remember that both of these only work in the US and Canada.

Wakerupper Homepage
WakeupDialer Homepage

Create a Real-Time Photo Stream with LiveShare

Ryan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:21:11 +0000

There are all kinds of photo sharing websites out there, but the concept behind LiveShare is really interesting. It all starts with a photo stream that is created by you or a friend, and then gets shared out among anyone you want. These streams can be private so that only the people you invite can view/post to the stream, or they can be public so that anyone can view/post to the stream. In order to post photos, however, you’ll still need a LiveShare account.

Any photos that get added are instantly pushed out to everyone viewing the stream on the web or with one of the mobile apps. The thing that some people may not realize is that no one is able to delete a photo stream from the site, but you can remove individual images that you’ve uploaded. The creators of the service consider a photo stream a “living document” which is why they don’t let you delete it.

The service is really easy to use, and with the iPhone/Android apps almost everyone in your photo stream should be able to upload photos they take on their phones. If you like the idea of a real-time photo stream then LiveShare is definitely something you should checkout.

LiveShare Homepage

Forward a Temp Email Address to Your Real Email Address

Ryan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:06:26 +0000

Last month we wrote about a cool website that would let you generate a temporary email address that gets forwarded to your real email address. After a period of time that you specify that temporary address would expire so that you don’t have to worry about getting spammed later on down the road. Unfortunately that service isn’t available any longer, but we have found another that accomplishes almost the exact same thing.

MeltMail lets you generate a temp email address that forwards to any address you specify, and you can choose whether it remains valid for 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours. This is a great way to keep your real email address anonymous without having to monitor another Inbox. There is also an iOS app available so that you can easily create the temp email address on-the-go.

The only thing this lacks compared to the other service is a limit on the number of emails the address can receive. I thought it was a nice touch that the other service would let you, for example, only receive one email at the generated email address before it was automatically disposed of. Hopefully that’s something the developers will consider adding to MeltMail.

MeltMail Homepage and iOS App

Gmail via Exchange on iOS: You Can Now Delete Instead of Archive

Ryan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:27:45 +0000

Up until the other day on my iPhone/iPad I always used the IMAP protocol to access my Gmail accounts instead of Exchange because of the way Google handled deleting emails. For Exchange users Google would archive an email anytime you hit the trash icon, and if you really wanted to delete the message you’d then have to go into your “All Mail” label and delete it from there. It was a tedious two-step process, and that is still what they have in place by default. The good news is that you can switch this behavior now.

Google added an option to the m.google.com/sync site so that you can have emails trashed when you hit the delete button instead of archiving the emails. Basically all you have to do is visit the m.google.com/sync site on your mobile device, select your device from the list, and check the box to Enable “Delete Email As Trash” for this device.

That may sound pretty easy, but if you have a bunch of accounts it can be quite a pain since you have to login to each one to change the setting. If you have a lot of accounts I recommend using a desktop browser where you can change the user agent to an iOS device, which will make it go a little faster to login and logout of all the accounts to enable the delete instead of archive option.

Download Free Windows 7 Themes & Desktop Backgrounds

Ryan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:35:01 +0000

Windows only
I know a bunch of people who customize the appearance of their desktop, but many don’t know that Windows 7 supports themes that rotate between desktop backgrounds and automatically adjusts the color of the Aero interface. The thing most users don’t know is that Microsoft actually has a site that offers Windows 7 themes. The themes are broken up into various categories including holidays/seasons, landscapes, automotive, and much more. In all there are about 180 available including a theme for Angry Birds.

If you’re running an older version of Windows that doesn’t support themes you can always jump on over to Microsoft’s desktop background page that includes over 200 high-quality backgrounds you can grab. Many of them are really amazing and are definitely worth browsing if you haven’t done so already.

Browse Windows 7 Themes
Browse Desktop Backgrounds

Draw Online Diagrams (Free Visio Alternatives)

Ryan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:10:37 +0000

We’ve covered some free alternatives to Visio before, such as the online Gliffy and this cross-platform app, but Diagramly is one of the better no-hassle options available. As soon as you visit Diagramly you can instantly start creating a diagram without having to mess around with registering for an account or downloading software. It’s about as good as it gets in terms of a free diagram maker.

The interface is very intuitive so it won’t take much for you to get going, but the pre-designed objects leave a little to be desired. Programs like Visio have a vast library of objects to choose from, and at this point Diagramly is rather meek in that area. Assuming they have the objects/libraries you need then this is a pretty sweet alternative.

You may be wondering how you are able to save your work if you don’t have to register for an account? Well, clicking on the Save button will trigger the download of an XML file to your machine where all of the configuration data is stored. You can then upload that XML file at any point to make changes to it. It’s not quite as hassle-free as saving it online, but at the same time you don’t have to worry about a storage limit. Oh yeah, and you can also upload and open Visio VDX files.

Diagramly Homepage

Quickly Test HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Code with Tinkerbin

Ryan — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:17:12 +0000

Sometimes as a web developer you may get an idea in your head that you want to try out, but by the time you get the necessary files in place you may have forgotten what you were going to do. Tinkerbin serves as the perfect scratchpad for testing out those HTML, CSS, and JavaScript ideas by providing predefined areas where you can drop the various types of code. It then has a real-time preview along the right side where you can see how your changes are affecting the output without the need to refresh anything.

The really nice thing is that the site is very keyboard friendly. There are shortcuts to jump to each section, and also shortcuts to flip over to the different tabs. They intelligently put those tabs along top so that you can make full use of the vertical space to focus on just one of the different code types.

You can also see in the screenshot above the nice indentation and syntax highlighting, which was all done by the site to help keep things a little more organized. Plus in the case of the HTML Tinkerbin will even highlight tags that aren’t matched.

One thing I think it would be cool for them to add is a simple checkbox to include popular JavaScript libraries such as JQuery or MooTools.

Tinkerbin Homepage

Create a Custom Map Envelope

Ryan — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:16:28 +0000

The idea of Map Envelope is simple, really. Locate a position on the map (preferably a location that might make the person on the receiving end green with envy), type a message, and wait for your custom Google Maps image to appear. Print, cut, fold on the dotted lines, glue/tape, and bam!, you’ve got your own custom made map envelope.

Possible Uses:

To send a “postcard” from a fun vacation destination
When planning a wedding, to create map envelopes instead of the standard map insert
Moving announcement – recipients can get a visual of where you’ve moved to

Now ask yourself, how carefully do you open envelopes that you receive in the mail? If you’re like me, probably not too carefully. This is the only problem we can foresee with using something like Map Envelope to create custom made envelopes. It’s made so that the person receiving the piece of mail thinks they’re getting a plain white envelope. It isn’t until they’ve opened the envelope that they discover it’s actually a map which means some people may find themselves trying to piece together the envelope to see the whole picture.

Mapenvelope.com summed up: Print your own envelopes lined with a Google Maps location of your choice, with a custom message…for free!

Apply Effects to Your Photos With BeFunky

Ryan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:27:53 +0000

For the every-day photos that you snap just for fun, there’s no reason to spend hefty sums of money and quality time learning Photoshop. Instead, head over to BeFunky.com where you can quickly, and easily, edit your photos for free. Not only can you edit your photos, you can also add effects and design elements with very little effort.

No need to sign-up for an account, with BeFunky, you can get started right away. You can pull in your pictures from all sorts of various sites like Facebook and Picasa, or you can tinker around with a few sample photos which is what I did to get the gist of what BeFunky is all about.

Using a simple interface, BeFunky makes it possible for anyone to navigate and use their services. Want your photos black and white? No problem. Want to add a frame? Simple. With just a few clicks, users are able to use their imaginations to transform photos into something much more than they originally were. Creative options include photo effects, artsy effects, a framer, goodies (like “stickers”), and a text editor.

A word of caution: not ALL features are available for free. There are some “premium” effects that are available for a nominal fee. They offer enough free of charge options that for most people, an upgrade won’t be necessary. With tons of interesting ways to express yourself, BeFunky is a cool way to add a little something special to your photos.

BeFunky Homepage