How to: Find how to

The interweb is chock full of information about anything and everything you can imagine. All of this can be overwhelming to the average user. In an effort to cut through the overload, a number of sites have emerged that attempt to catalog answers to simple everyday questions. These sites generally fall into 2 overlapping categories:

1. Question and answer - Lets you submit questions that are usually answered by other users or content experts. The answers are usually rated by the community. The questions can vary from why does a microwave oven heat food unevenly to what is the medical term for bad-breath. [Yahoo Answers | Live QnA]
   
2. How to - A smaller subset of the question and answer category that provides clear, step-by-step instructions on how to achieve a specific and narrow goal. For example, how to tie a tie.
   

Lets discuss the latter category in detail.

eHow

A database of over 20,000 articles, professionally written providing clear and concise instructions on how to do just about anything. Articles are organized into categories such as Business & Finance, Health, Computers, and Pet Care making it easy to find the answer you are looking for. You can rate, comment, print and email articles. eHow goes the extra mile by listing all the items you will need to get the task done upfront in addition to tips such as those for avoiding common mistakes.

eHow

weHow

eHow's sister site, where you can share your expertise or specialized knowledge with the rest of the world. weHow provides a platform for you create your profile to answer questions and get your ideas out there. Articles are organized in categories similar to eHow. You can rate, comment, print and email articles. The article is laid out similar to eHow with a stuff you will need section and a tips and warning section. You can browse profiles to see general information about the user, the articles they have written as well as the comments they have made.

weHow

wikiHow

Another eHow sister site with emphasis on collaboration. wikiHow contains over 13,500 articles as of this writing. wikiHow aims to create new content and improve existing content through your contribution by allowing you to edit and update articles submitted by others in the community. Just like Wikipedia, they expect the quality of these articles to rise as multiple users refine the content. wikiHow publishes a set of guidelines for participating in the community. The articles contain the usual set of steps, tips, and warnings. In regular wiki style, you also get to see the changes made to an article as well as the list of articles that link to it.

wikiHow is different from weHow in that weHow allows you to completely control the content of your article whereas on wikiHow the content belongs to the community and you are one of many editors on a given article.

wikiHow is different from its sisters because it is the only one in the network that

1. Is being slowly translated to other languages.
   
2. Provides an RSS feed of How to of the day.
   

wikiHow | wikiHow International | wikiHow RSS

The above network of how to sites are good for the written medium. Some how tos lend themselves better to the visual medium.

ViewDo

ViewDo is an aggregation of instructional videos submitted by its users. You can showcase your talent with the videos you submit. The videos are organized into categories such as Arts & Crafts, Electronics, and Fitness. ViewDo encourages you download videos to your portable media player, such as your iPod, so that you can watch the video while you are doing what you are doing. They even make this ridiculously easy by offering 1 click download to your portable device or iTunes. Each video is preceded by an advertisement that helps monetize the site. Additionally, you get the usual fixings of a web 2.0 service such as code for embedding, email sharing, comments, rating, and playlists. ViewDo provides RSS feeds for its newest videos.

ViewDo | ViewDo RSS

VideoJug

VideoJug is "Life explained. On film." through submission of user generated videos. The videos are categorized into very general topics such as Food, Drinks, and Health with subcategories to help you navigate to the video you are looking for. For example, the Food category is further sorted by cuisine, dish type, and ingredient making it easy for me to find Indian cuisine how to videos, soup type videos, and how to videos containing fruits. VideoJug is unique in that the videos are accompanied by text instructions. Although step-by-step written instructions are not required, they are definitely a plus in videos that provide them. Videos can be rated, tagged, shared by email, embedded, commented on, as well as downloaded to your iPod, PSP, or another portable media player. There are no RSS feeds for new videos so you will have to check back on the site for the newest or the most popular videos.

VideoJug

If you find any other instructional sites, text, video, or otherwise, share it in the comments.

Tags: ehow, wehow, wikihow, viewdo, videojug, howto

Testing Windows Live Writer Beta

I ranted about about the lack of support for posting to Blogger beta with 3rd party tools yesterday, but I might not have been up to my game. Joe Cheng, a Microsoft developer for Windows Live Writer, commented that Windows Live Writer Beta had in fact added full support for Blogger beta in their newest build (145).

Skeptically, I downloaded and installed Windows Live Writer Beta build 145 and am composing this test post from within it. Did I mention that I have my fingers crossed.

Technorati tags: windows live writer, blogger beta, blog editor

Publishing to Blogger beta with 3rd party tools

I have been on a hunt to uncover an alternate publishing tool that would work reliably with Blogger beta. In my adventure I have discovered that most tools do not work reliably or at all with Blogger beta and thats a shame. I tested Windows Live Writer Beta, performancing for Firefox (1.3), Qumana, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, WriteToMyBlog and a host of other services with limited success.



I recently tested publishing using Qumana blog editor and although the post succeeded, it had no title (and, therefore, no permalink). This is the same problem as the one I had with Google Docs & Spreadsheets. At that time my instinct led me to believe that this was a problem with GD&S, but since Qumana blog editor displayed the same behavior, I am more inclined to believe that it is a bug in Blogger beta. Just a word of caution to anyone already using or planning to use any other editors besides the built-in one. Have you had any success with the post titles (and permalinks) when publishing from another tool?

Tags: blogger beta, qumana, google docs

Testing Qumana

A test post from the Qumana blog editor.

Tags: qumana, blog editor

Firefox tip: Find as you type in links

Another tip for the keyboard power-user inside you, if you are using Firefox that is (if not, why aren't you?). I love the find as you type feature in Firefox. No muss, no fuss search at your fingertips. But did you also know that you can limit the find as you type searches to links within the page? If you didn't, then prepare to be enlightened.

Simply hit the ' (apostrophe) key before you begin typing the name of the link you are searching for and be dazzled. Try it now - hit the ' key and then type Tecnirvana on this page.

Bonus: Press the Enter key to open the link.

Bonus 2: Press F3 to find the next link (works on regular text too).

Tecnirvana
Tecnirvana
Tecnirvana
Tecnirvana
Tecnirvana
Tecnirvana

Tags: firefox

Firefox tip: Open URLs in a new tab without creating a new tab

Firefox 2 is out and my trustworthy Tab Mix Plus extension is no longer compatible. One of the features from Tab Mix Plus that I miss on a daily basis is its ability to open the URLs I type into the address bar in a tab by default. Ever since I have upgraded to Firefox 2, I have had to remember to create a new tab using the shortcut (Ctrl + T) or by clicking on the new tab toolbar icon when I want to browse to a new page. Every time I forgot to do this, the new page would open by overwriting my current tab. This got really annoying really quick.

I also upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 around the same time. Internet Explorer gives you some really good tips about working with tabs when you open a new (blank) tab. One of these tips educated me to using Alt+Enter from the address to open the page in a new tab. I was looking for something like this in Firefox, so, just out of curiosity, I decided to give it a try. Voila! A new tab opened without the muss and fuss of creating a new tab beforehand.

Bonus: Alt+Enter will also open results from the search bar in a new tab.

Tab Mix Plus - where art thou?



Tags: firefox

Publishing to Blogger beta using Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a fine tool for composing documents online. The advantages of using Google Docs & Spreadsheets is conversation for another day, but I will tell you this - how you can compose and publish your blog posts from Google Docs & Spreadsheets to Blogger beta. So the obvious question is why would you want to compose your posts in GD&S rather than using the built-in editor provided by Blogger beta?

• Auto save - You will not lose your post if you inadvertently close the tab/browser. GD&S constantly auto saves your document at regular intervals.
  
• Spell checking - The Blogger beta post editor provides no means to spell check your posts.
• More control - GD&S provides advanced options when inserting rich elements like images, links, and tables into your posts.
  
• Interface - The editing interface of GD&S is more akin to a full featured document editor.

Although GD&S does not support publishing to Blogger beta directly, I have successfully been able to configure GD&S to publish to Blogger beta. GD&S help center provides documentation on how to publish your documents on any blog, but these will generally not work for Blogger beta. To publish to Blogger beta using GD&S:

1. Click on "Settings" in the upper right corner of your GD&S home page.
2. In the "Documents" tab, select "edit info" in the "Blog settings" section.
3. In the "Blog Site Settings" dialog,
   1. Choose My own server / custom
   2. API: Blogger API
   3. URL: http://beta.blogger.com/api
   4. Enter your user name and password
   5. (Optional) Enter your Blog ID/Title
      1. If you host multiple blogs on Blogger beta, I strongly recommend entering the Blog ID/Title to ensure that your posts are published to the desired blog.
   6. Select any desired options

You are done!

Full Disclosure: Tecnirvana runs on Blogger beta. This post was published using Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Update: I have discovered that publishing from GD&S does not provide a title to your post. This means that you will not get a permalink to your post. I have edited this post in Blogger beta editor to give it a title.

Tags: google, google docs, blogger beta

Websites that changed the world: Guardian Unlimited

Guardian Unlimited, a UK newspaper with a large subscriber base, has published a list of websites that changed the world. The list is numbered and there are 15 sites on the list, but if the numbers indicate their rank, then I have to strongly disagree. Number 1 on the list is eBay, followed by Wikipedia, and Napster in the number 2 and 3 spot. While I can see the case for Napster, I think it was Napster the application that revolutionized the web rather than Napster the site. The usual suspects - Google, Yahoo!, and Amazon - also grace the list and there are a few surprises (Friends Reunited), but overall it is a respectable with good background information about each site.



No Tags

Support a good cause using your computer's idle time

You can volunteer your computer's spare cycles to good causes with the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) project. So, how is this different from SETI@home you ask? Not a whole lot. In fact SETI@home is a module in BOINC. You can use your computer for projects in biology/medicine (malaria control), astronomy/physics/chemistry, earth sciences (climate prediction), and mathematics and strategy games (chess). BOINC is cross-platform and works wherever Windows, Mac, and Linux does. You can download and set BOINC as your screensaver and choose the projects you want to support. You can also specify the percentage of time you wish to devote to each project.



Tags: charity, computing, boinc, setiathome

How To: Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

If you were curious on how it is done, here is your fix. As for me, I will try to remember most of what is instructed, but I wish to god there never comes the time when I have to put this in practice. Because I know, I will not have a web-enabled machine with access to my del.icio.us account while that clocking is ticking away.



Tags: howto

iTunes smart playlists not so smart

Even though iTunes is my favorite player, I really bemoan their implementation of smart playlists. Don't get me wrong, I love smart playlists and have used them in creative ways.

For example, I use PodNova to subscribe to podcasts because it lets me update my subscriptions using a web interface. It creates a regular playlist for each podcast that you subscribe to in iTunes and labels each downloaded podcast by setting the Genre to Podcast. All this is well and great, but if I wanted to listen to all my new podcasts, then I had to move from playlist to playlist which was starting to become a pain. So, I created a smart playlist by matching Genre to Podcast and Play Count to less than 1. To AND conditions in a smart playlist, you simply set the playlist to match 'all' the rules.

Now, I also have news related podcasts from Wall Street Journal, Business Week, etc. that I would like to separate from my other podcasts. I want create a single smart playlist for my news podcasts by matching 'any' album that belongs to a news podcast (Wall Street Journal OR Business Week). I also want to specify that Play Count for all these albums must be less than 1. And herein lies the limitation of iTunes' smart playlists. iTunes will either let me AND all my conditions by matching 'all' rules or let me OR them by matching 'any' rule. It will not let me create a smart playlist by using a combination of AND and OR cases. When Apple lets me create complex playlists such as these I will have no problem in calling it a Genius Playlist.



Tags: itunes, podcasts, podnova

Want to edit a PDF?

An article in The Register-Guard describes all your options for editing a PDF file. While there are no free ways to achieve this, the cheapest option is the Foxit Reader Pro for $39 and it goes up from there. The only gripe I have is that article does not provide links to the software in question, so you are just going to have to search Google for it.



Tags: pdf, adobe, pdfeditor, pdf editor

White House RSS Feeds and Podcasts

White House is certainly more Web 2.0 savvy than I had imagined. They are offering RSS feeds and podcasts for everything from White House news, Presidential speeches, and Presidential radio address (also in Spanish) to vidcast of the first dog, Barney. Hail Bush!



[via Micro Persuasion]

Tags: government, rss, podcast

Zune accessories now available for pre-order on Amazon

Amazon has accessories for the Zune now available for pre-order. Head on over to get a pretty picture of the various accessories available including premium earphones, travel pack, FM transmitter, dock, sync cable, wireless remote, A/V cable, and car charger.



[Via Engadget]

Tags: zune, zuneaccessories, zune accessories, news

"Zune won't be undercut on price by iPod"

At Zunester blog, a Microsoft developer posted about a week ago that

"Don't believe everything you read."

It went on to say that

"Zune won't be undercut on price by iPod".

Now that details on the Zune are out and it costs $249.99, a whole $0.99 more than the iPod, I have to agree with Zunester's assessment - "Don't believe everything you read." and that includes Zunester.

Tags: zune, news

Flurry is not for me

Flurry [via Tipmonkies] is a new service that lets you access your e-mail and feeds on your Java-enabled phone. You can sign-up for free and download the application to your phone through a link in an SMS sent by Flurry. You will need a data plan on your phone in order to access it. Although I see the value for such a service and have played with it for its novelty, I personally cannot see a use for it. I am a Gmail/Bloglines user and both services provide a great mobile interface to access e-mail and feeds. I can see users of multiple email accounts, email accounts with POP mail servers or feed readers that do not have a mobile interface to their feeds finding this a godsend.



Tags: flurry, email, feeds, mobile

10 uses of RSS feeds that you never thought of

Of course, you can use RSS feeds to keep up with your favorite blogs or subscribe to news feeds, but did you know that you can also be notified of changes in ticket prices for flights through RSS. In no particular order, here goes my list of 10 other things you can do with feeds that you probably never thought of:

1. Get a local guide from About.com.
2. Get free downloads of both music and videos from iTunes.
3. Keep on top of the latest movies with movie reviews.
4. For a movie double punch, keep on top of upcoming movies with movie trailers.
5. If you still cannot get enough movies, you can get notified of the latest DVD releases.
   
6. Get your daily dose of comics.
7. If you missed out on the latest viral video to hit YouTube, you can still catch it by getting their latest, featured, or most viewed videos.
8. Be a smart shopper by getting the latest deals on everything under the sun.
9. Get the latest flight fares to your favorite destination.
10. Get ideas for cooking your next meal with recipes.

Tags: feeds, howto, local, itunes, movies, reviews, trailers, dvd, comics, video, shopping, travel, cooking

Stuff a Blog: online blog editor with rich content

Stuff a Blog [via eHub] is a service to "enrich and extend your plain-vanilla blog post with relevant content". If you are a blog author, then this is of interest to you because it lets you add rich content such as maps, photos, tags, news, Amazon.com product details, etc. in your blog post. You can choose to either generate only the rich content by specifying keywords relevant to your post, or you can choose to compose your post in addition to the generated rich content. Stuff a Blog will then generate HTML for your content that you can paste into the blog editor of your choice (or on your platform).

The Goods:

1. Instant gratification, no registration or account required.
   
2. Integrated blog editor to compose the entire post on one site.
3. Improves the quality of out-bound links, hence improving your page rank.
4. Earn using Amazon.com affiliation

The Not-so-goods:

1. Yahoo! only integration - The rich content is generated using only Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Maps, Flickr (a Yahoo! property) photos, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Questions & Answers. In the future, I would expect the service to be expanded to use other services for photos, news, tags, etc.
2. Confusing array of options - The user interface needs to improved to provide help for advanced options such as Amazon.com affiliation and site search. The array of options presented to the user is a little confusing as well with a lot of colors and scattered buttons to update the generated HTML.
3. Post to blog - A killer feature would be to provide the option to post directly to the most popular blogging platforms, such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, MoveableType, etc. by creating a Stuff a Blog account that stores logins for your blogs.

Tags: stuffablog, stuff a blog, blogeditor

Google Calendar Wishlist

I am slowly migrating from using 30Boxes as my online calendar to Google Calendar for its tight integration with Gmail. I have accomplished this by feeding my 30Boxes iCal into Google Calendar and using the "copy to my calendar" feature in Google Calendar. In the process, I have found a few shortcomings of Google Calendar.

1. "copy to my calendar" - The user interface presented for the copying the event does not have an option to specify repeating events. If you are copying repeating events, such as birthdays (which form the bulk of my copied events), then copying the event becomes a 2 step process. 1) Copy the event without any repeating options specified and 2) edit the event to set your repeating pattern.
2. Quick Add reminders - Google Calendar does not let you specify reminders using the Quick Add feature. I would love to be able to specify

"lunch with joe today 1pm reminder 15minutes"

and have the event created to remind me 15 minutes before my lunch with joe.

3. RSS feeds - Google Calendar should allow addition of any RSS feeds, such as my Flickr photos, into the calendar. This is useful for sites that publish the weather information as RSS feeds. I have worked around this by using the Weather Underground which publishes weather in the iCal format.
   
4. WAP access - http://m.gcal.com/What? No GCal from my mobile web browser?!?!
   
5. More SMS commands - I like that you can get the next event, the agenda for today, and the agenda for the next day simply by sending an SMS to GVENT, but Google Calendar does not have an SMS command for looking up the agenda for any arbitrary day.

Tags: google, googlecalendar, google calendar