Keep track of all of your social networks – Yoono

Do you have a lot of social networking accounts and would like to be able to look at them all in one place, instead of having to log into each site individually?  Well, here’s a way to do it that is free.  It is called Yoono and is available here.

Installing Yoono

Yoono can be installed either as a browser add-on or as a desktop app.

As a browser add-on it works with:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• IE

As a desktop application, it works with:

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux

Using the add-on (Firefox)

I’m going to discuss the Firefox add-on but they will all work the same.

When you install the add-on, it becomes a sidebar in the browser.  Currently, here are all the services that it supports:

There is also a button that will appear in your toolbar that will bring up this sidebar menu:

To add more services, go to the “wrench” icon and click on it to bring up a menu option that will allow you to add more services:

What you will see

Once you add the services, they will appear either in one column on the side of the browser (and you click on the one you want to see), or you can have a multiple view by clicking on the icon right above the “share” icon (I’m not going to show you my notifications to respect people’s privacy.

Single column view (click the top icon to get that service to display):

Multiple column view:

If you use the multiple column view, you can decide what to see (in separate columns) for example:

• Updates
• Friends
• Notifications

Updating status

A neat feature is that you can update your status on multiple sites at the same time.  When you click on the status bar, the following popup will appear asking you which services you want the status update to apply to:

Sharing

You can share links, images and text across your networks by either highlighting something and then clicking on the Share button or just click on the Share button to share the page.

If you highlight text, this is what you will see on the page when you click the Share button (there will be green arrows at the top of the text you selected as well):

When you click the share button in the toolbar, the following dialog box will appear:

It’s been one of those days calling tech support

This came from xkcd.Com

Create a paper organizer (better for travel games) –PocketMod and re:PocketMod

PocketMod is a program that allows you to create a multifolded paper organizer in booklet form.  The website has a bunch of different templates that you can put on the different sections of the booklet (6 pages and front and back).  The program is free and available here (or go here to just start creating a PocketMod).  It is very straight forward, you pick the template you want and drag it onto the booklet page you want it to be on:

Since this project stopped being developed, another group picked up the project and enhanced it, calling it re:PocketMod.  In their words:

Original PocketMod was developed by Adams Chad in 2005. We decided to continue it because of inactivity of original project. So we had modified some templates, created new and added different templates from other developers. We called our new project “re:PocketMod” meaning we made “reworked” and “redesigned” PocketMod.

We glad to present our work to you and hope you will like it.

I’m going to talk about re:PocketMod since it has more options that the original program,  rePocketMod is available here.

Note, you will need Adobe’s Flash player for this to work.

What can you put in it

The program was originally built so you can have an organizer that you could carry around.  While that may be useful for some, I prefer my Palm Pilot for that.  Where it is really good for me though is for the games you can make a travel booklet for.

These games are randomly generated so if you drag one to the booklet and pick it again, it will give you a different game.

The Games

Here is a list of the games that I like from the site:

Battleship

Circuit

Jumble (a new one each time you pick it)

Maze Maker (a new one each time you pick it)

Micro maze maker (a new one each time you pick it)

Soduku

Dots

Other neat things

Folding Instructions (for after you print out the sheet – they are also on the website)

Conversions

Fraction to decimal

Standard and extended ASCII table (for the geek in us)

Tip tables

If you want to folding instructions from the website, they are here (click on the Folding Guide button, it is a popup window).

Making your own templates

If you are ambitious, you can download this application and make your own templates (note you will need to make the template as a PDF document to use this program.

Or, you can do a google search for templates other people have done and use them if they are distributable.

A problem with geolocation applications

I found this at Agent-X Comics (specifically here):

Places to go to on a snowy week

Like much of the east coast, we got hit with snow this week.  So, it seemed like a time to go traveling, not out of the house, but virtually.  Here are some places I think are neat to explore.

Some will need either Adobe Flash or QuickTime in order to see the presentation.

• Museum Of Natural History Virtual Tour (Flash) – you can go through the entire museum
• The Sistine Chapel – brings up a webpage that allows you to look at all of the artwork in the Chapel
• National Gallery Of Art –Virtual Exhibitions – (QuickTime)- right now one of the exhibits is the Van Gogh exhibit
• The Louvre – (QuickTime) – you can tour the inside and outside (i.e architecture) of the museum
• The US Capitol – (Java) – see the Senate Chamber
• CIA Museum Tour – (Flash)

Send a free call from Santa via Google Voice

If you want a quick and easy way to send a Santa phone call to someone, Google Voice has a website that will let you do it.  It is free, and is available here.

Creating a call

Creating a call is easy as you just follow the steps.  This is the first page:

On the second page, you start personalizing the call:

On the following page, you get to start picking options that will be included in the call.  I’ve included some of the options that you can choose from so you can get a flavor of what is available:

I am Julie’s:

• All of the relatives (i.e. uncle, cousin, brother)
• Classmate
• Boyfriend
• Girlfriend
• Roommate

Julie lives in:

• All of the individual states
• The big city
• The country

That’s how I know she is a(n)

• Kindergarten – 5th grade
• Student
• Artist
• Athlete
• IT guy
• Teacher

And she wants a(n)

• Bike
• Blu ray player
• Hot date
• Bit of peace and quiet

On the next page are more options:

Santa should call her:

• Bro
• Dude
• Dudette
• Buddy

While she celebrates:

• Christmas
• Hannukah (I know, this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either)
• Kwanzaa
• La Navidad
• Staying Warm
• The Season

After Santa finishes:

• Feeding the reindeer
• Lighting the Menorah
• Cooking dinner
• Working out

One you are done, you can listen to the message:

Then you can send it:

If you send it as an email, this is what you will see:

Conclusion

This is a cute site that does what is advertised.  The only problem with it is the limited amount of selections in the dropdown boxes, I was surprised that you couldn’t type something yourself and have a text to voice module include it in the phone call.

Advice for my daughter from Princesses

I decided to contact some experts to get some life advice for my daughter.  These came from The Second City Network.  Enjoy and have a good Thanksgiving!

Dante’s Internet Inferno

I’m assuming that you have heard about Dante’s Inferno and the nine circles of hell.  There has been a diagram making the rounds through the Internet that is the Internet’s version of it.

I have not been able to find the origin of the diagram but here is one of the many blogs/websites that has the picture.  I have pulled the picture from the Unreality Magazine website which you can access here (this picture you can directly access here):

For those that aren’t familiar with Dante’s work, here’s some information about it. Dante Alighieri wrote the poem Divine Comedy in the fourteenth century and in it describes hell, purgatory and paradise.

For more information on Dante’s vision of hell you can check:

Wikipedia Link

The Physical Structure of Inferno (ItalianStudies.org)

Off the beaten path vacation spots – Roadside America

Looking for different places to go for a vacation, or for a day trip?  There is a website that lists out of the ordinary sites in the United States, it is called RoadsideAmerica, and it is accessible here.

The main page

Not much to say, it is pretty self explanatory, I split the screenshot up into several pictures so it would fit in this blog at a decent size:

Getting a list by state

I think one of the most useful features is the listing by states, clicking on an attraction will bring up a web page with more information about it:

Themes

On the left side of the main page the site lists themes.

One of my favorites is mystery spots, things that appear to break the laws of physics.

My Sights Route Planner

The website also allows you to save sights that you like and will create a trip itinerary for you.  When you are looking at a sight, you can click this checkbox to add it to your My Sights list:

The one thing that was confusing to me was that just checking the checkbox automatically added it to your My Sights list, you didn’t have to confirm it with a button.

When you click on Show My Sights, you will get a map where you can add all of the sites that you have selected.  One hint, the first thing you want to do is click on the “Fit Map to Markers” button on the left after adding sights – otherwise you have a map of the entire US which isn’t useful.

After clicking on sites to add them to your route, and adding your own address, you will get this:

Click on the Show Route button on the bottom left, and you will get a Google map layout, clicking on the “Skip to details” link will jump you to the directions.

The routes are saved via cookies, not from an account on the site, so if you delete your cookies and come back, you will have to start over again.

I think the trip planner is good if you are taking a day trip, for longer trips, the lack of a good way to save your information is a problem.

KidZui – A multimedia browser for children

Today I wanted to talk about one last company that has made an environment for kids, this is one that I have used with Jean since it was in beta.  It is called KidZui and is available here.

How KidZui works

KidZui is a combination internet browser and social network.  On the internet side, it allows kids to see only sites that have been approved by the company.  It also has a search feature so kids can use an internet search.  The site also lets kids share and tag sites, photos, and videos but not personal information.  The site is designed for children between ages 3 and 12.

The KidZui browser

The home page of the browser is well designed.

If you go to the web, you can search or pick one of the preset categories:

This is a look at the web tab after picking the “cats” category:

This is the photo results tab:

This is the video results tab:

Editing your Zui

Your avatar in the browser is called a Zui.

Games

Games I think are one of the strongest features of KidZui, it is where my daughter spends most of her time now.

Membership

We are members of KidZui so I can show you the membership features.

If you become a member, you get some additional features including:

• Homework helper
• More detailed reports for parents on their child’s activities on Kidzui
• Access to more cosmetic features (i.e. backgrounds, extra outfits for your Zui characters, etc.)
• Express your mood to friends

Homework helper

The homework helper is broken down by grades, this is the web tab for the 4th grade selection:

Displaying your Zui’s status

You can click on an activity, location, or mood and it will display on their Zui.

You can find all of the benefits of membership here.

The drawbacks

As your child gets older, the site starts to feel restrictive, particularly in the search feature.  Also, the site does not change as your child gets older.

Unlike some other child environments, such as Zoodles that I talked about earlier,  KidZui does not take over the whole computer, so your child could tab to another screen on your computer while in it.

Is it worth it?

I found that this site was great when Jean was a preschooler because I could let her search on her own.  She was also able to explore different categories and see different websites, pictures, and videos without me having to watch her.  As she got older however, the search seemed to start getting too restrictive for her.  Today, she still likes getting on and exploring the different games though.

I think this site is definitely worth it, even without the membership, for children.