Archives for June 2007

Convert Photos to Text

June 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Photo2text – a site that helps you convert photos or pictures into text files. The process is extremely easy and hassle free. Simply:

1. Upload photo
2. Convert to text
3. Download text file

You are immedialety able to view the converted image and can choose to download it as a text (.txt) file. The site also gives you a personal page where you can view and download your converted images.

Several character sets are available for the resulting output and you can also vary the brightness as you see fit. Very cool, don’t you think?

Filed Under: Cool Sites

BlogTV

June 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment

“Hello, blogTV is here! This is the place where you can show off your talent, build a fan base and share your opinions LIVE! You bring the webcam, we bring the stage. We’re here to help you get your 15 minutes of fame. ” From here.

A while ago I got an email inviting me to join BlogTv. I’m pretty happy with ustream.tv so I was a bit apprehensive to check it out at first. I still haven’t really used it – just gave it a short try once – but my experience was good enough to think about shaing it here.

So, what is BlogTv? It’s alivestreaming service combining live video streaming and chat in one window, which you can embed on your own blog. You can also team up two webcams at once – think cohosts, live interviews, etc etc. Moreover, you can record bits of the live ‘show’ and record them in an archive. Your users can then browse through them like they do videos at youtube, for example. Each author has his/her own channel which users can subscribe to.

From their own FAQs:

Here is what you can do with blogTV

  • Broadcast your own live shows, just plug in your webcam and Start Broadcasting
  • Record and archive your shows,press record at any time during your show and it will automatically be stored in your show page.
  • Chat with your viewers, it is the perfect way to get live feedback during your shows.
  • Co-host live shows, split a show with a friend or invite an audience member to co-host with you.
  • Share you shows,send shows to friends, post shows to blogs, send email alerts and RSS feeds.
  • Manage your shows, organize your shows once they are recorded. You can change your show title, write a description, insert a logo/picture and add tags so everyone can find you.
  • Watch live shows, discover something new.

Complaints
I really haven’t used it enough to start complaining but I foound something that may be of importance: BlogTV’s embeddable player isn’t quite up to snuff compared with some of the other livestreaming players I’ve seen. While it does show you how many people are watching a program, the integrated chat is a one-way experience. You can see what others are typing, but you can’t type back or see who is in the chat room. READ more.

Finally, all the info you want on BlogTV, all on one page.

Filed Under: Tips Hacking and Reviews

Second Life?

June 23, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I’ve never been in the virtual world of second life, so is this what it is really like?

Filed Under: Internet Culture

Enter the Snail Mail

June 20, 2007 by 3 Comments

This week it’s about snail mail. I don’t know about you, but I still love good old postal mail. There’s nothing quite like waiting for something in the mail; the anxiety, the excitement. Unfortunately, in this day and age very few people take the time out to write a letter, and the only mail most of us get is bills and bank statements. Let’s try and change this.

Easypost – let’s you send printed paper mail to anyone in Canada, free (for now at least). All you have to do is enter a name and address, type your message, and your message will be printed and sent to the person via regular mail. What if you don’t know anyone in Canada? Easypost provides you a tool whereby you can simply look up any particular name and get their address. Then, you can send someone (a stranger) something nice. Maybe you’ll even get a reply. 😉

This quote from Easypost FAQ puts today’s post in the best light: “I don’t really like hand writing letters to my [parents, grandparents, in-laws, pen pals, etc] but I do find myself sending about 200 emails a day – is this the service for me?
Definitely. Those people you mentioned are WAY more likely to give you a birthday present or put you in the will this year if they get a letter from you. Hand writing is for chumps… Go EasyPost!”

Take Note – This is really nice. You can send a handwritten note to anyone in Australia. This can be yourself, a friend, or a complete stranger. It’s just a note so the message has to be short. From site: “Got something to say to someone? A message of love, or a naughty secret…? You write the note, we’ll provide the pencil & paper, then send it for you to anywhere in Australia“
I think this is really nice, and I spent almost 20 minutes sending notes to strangers. 🙂

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find such services for any other country. Have you? I suppose, though, that if you send your note/message just right, you can get a reply back. Have fun trying!

Remember BookMooch? Here, you don’t just wait for a letter but a whole book in the mail! Also, when you send over your book, you can include a nice little note.

Alternatively, you could get a penpal. This is relatively easy to do as there are many places you can go to find penpals. However, have you ever thought of getting a penpal who really really cherishes your letters? Go Meet-an-inmate. These guys/gals need someone to talk to and will probably be pretty interesting. Go for it!!

Finally, some random fun with File Swap. Upload one file and get a random file back in exchange.

What do you think of today’s sites?

Filed Under: Cool Sites

Gold Farming

June 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment

This topic, it seems, refuses to die down. First we had the amazing story of Eve Online, which precipitated the question: How far are we from a virtual world? And now, we have an answer to that question. The virtual world is already upon is, if gold farming is anything to go by.

Gold farming, basically, is the very real ‘work’ of selling virtual items (mainly virtual money) for real cash. I cannot do any better in explaining this phenomenon than the New York Times in this interesting story about Chinese gold farmers.

These words perhaps capture the spirit of the whole article, “… something curious has happened to the classic economic distinction between play and production: in certain corners of the world, it has melted away. Play has begun to do real work.”

Check out the video(and here is a link to another one) :

I find gold farming quite interesting obviously because I’m an avid gamer myself but also because of something else. Can such a business model work in Kenya? I certainly know very many excellent Kenyan gamers so the ‘workforce’ is there already. I think it is yet another wonder of the Internet.

What do you think of Gold Farming, and virtual worlds?

Filed Under: Internet Culture

The Easiest Way to Blog

June 16, 2007 by 2 Comments

A lot of people ask me this question, and now I’m asking you guys. Please vote and leave a commment to explaing your answer please.

Take the poll

Free Poll by Blog Flux

I voted for tumbling. Here is why.

Filed Under: Blogging

How Far are we From a Virtual World?

June 14, 2007 by 7 Comments

The recent incident over at Eve Online has got me thinking about virtual and real and when the distinction will become blured to apoint of not being recognisable. Will it ever get to that point. There was a similar story over at TechCrunch today. First, check out the awesome video:

Then, read the post at TechCrunch, which includes descriptions and a demo of very cool services and tools. Be sure to also read the comments. I particularly liked this one: I wonder if eventually you could have a virtual world in which you “virtually” explore the virtual world. Kind of a recursive virtual world! It’s kind of a crazy idea. I’m sure the philosophers would have a lot to say about this. Cool post. Thanks for bring to our attention all of these up-and-coming virtual world services.

So, what do you think of all this?

Filed Under: Internet Culture