TinEye - Upload an Image and Find It on the Web

TinEye tries to do that and the best part is that it mostly succeeds. The new image search engine, powered by Idée's technology and currently in private beta, has an index of 487 million images (Google's index is at least 12 times bigger) and manages to find identical versions of an image or alterations. According to the FAQ, "TinEye frequently returns image results with colour adjustments, added or removed text, crops, and slight rotations. TinEye can also detect images that are part of a collage or have been blended with another image."

TinEye - Upload an Image and Find It on the Web: "TinEye - Upload an Image and Find It on the Web"

Ensode - Free PDF Unlock Online Utility (Beta)

Some PDF documents prevent the user from copying and pasting or printing it's contents. This sometimes presents a problem since the author of the PDF might have used a font that is not available in the sytem trying to read it. This page contains a free online utility that allows you to upload a PDF, once uploaded, a version of the PDF without printing or copying/pasting restrictions is displayed in a new browser window.

To unlock a PDF file, enter it's location in the "PDF file to unlock" field, by either typing it in the field or clicking on the "browse" button, then navigating to it's location.

The unlocked version of the PDF will be displayed in a new browser window, opened in the default PDF application for your system (usually Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Ensode - Free PDF Unlock Online Utility (Beta): "Free PDF Unlock Online Utility"

Page2RSS - Create an RSS feed for any web page

It is a service that helps you monitor web sites that do not publish feeds. It will check any web page for updates and deliver them to your favorite RSS aggregator.

Page2RSS - Create an RSS feed for any web page

A Conversation About Google, Microsoft and Yahoo

The following video, created by Andrew Filippone Jr. and titled 'Charlie Rose' by Samuel Beckett, analyzes the hostility between the three companies and Microsoft's absurd strategy to buy Yahoo. "The erudite conversations and sober intellectualism have been replaced by an absurd world where illogic, inane dialogues, and open hostility rule. The one-on-one interview between Charlie [Rose] and his guest begins as usual but quickly goes awry, so much so that Charlie is warned that, somewhere, a man named Steve is not happy."

The "dialog" reminds me of the repetitive and nonsensical phrases from Eugene Ionesco's plays and it's much more interesting than all the news about Microsoft and Yahoo.

A Conversation About Google, Microsoft and Yahoo

Crapware: Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software

t may be the year 2008, but a whole lot of sucktacular software still rears its ugly head on PC's everywhere, even when better-behaved options are freely available. Whether it's molasses-slow bloatware, shameless adware, anemic default apps, or "Your trial period has expired!" nagware, it's time to replace stinky Windows software with its superior (but lesser-known) alternative. Last week we asked what software you should never install on your PC, and over 200 comments later, you compiled quite a list. Today we're going to take a walk down the Crapware Hall of Shame, point and laugh at the worst offenders, and highlight some better choices. Photo by chelseagirl.

Application to Avoid: Adobe Reader
Indictment: Bloatware
Superior Alternative(s): FoxIt Reader or Sumatra PDF
Notes: There are much worse offenders on this list than Adobe Reader, which has gotten more performant over the years. Keep in mind that Adobe deals with some PDF's (like ones with editable form fields) better than FoxIt. If you don't want to ditch Adobe Reader entirely, here's how to tweak Adobe 8 for speed.

Crapware: Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software

Subscribe to Authenticated Feeds in Google Reader

Google Reader is one of the many online feed readers that don't support authenticated feeds. This special kind of feeds requires a username and a password before displaying the content to protect sensitive information. An example of authenticated feed is Gmail's feed for unread messages, but you'll also find password-protected feeds for internal bug reports, private email distribution lists, etc.

FreeMyFeed wants to solve this problem by creating feeds that don't require authentication. The site acts as a proxy between the original feed and your feed reader, while promising that your credentials are safe. "Usernames and passwords are never stored on the server. The usernames and passwords are only parsed to retrieve your RSS feed and then are discarded." Rob Wilkerson explains that the credentials "are encrypted using a rotating algorithm and included in the new URI."

Subscribe to Authenticated Feeds in Google Reader

Two Quotes on Simplicity | Common Craft - Explanations In Plain English

he first is by Antione de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince and a pioneer in aviation:

Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away.

The second is by William of Occam (1288-1347) You might know the name from Occam's Razor.

It is vain to do more with what can be done with less.

These quotes mean a lot to me and were found, most recently, at the beginning of Chapter 5 of Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek. More on that later.

Two Quotes on Simplicity | Common Craft - Explanations In Plain English