eBible - The Best Online Bible

To date, I have not found anything that can match the power of the Blue Letter Bible for research. Though it is ugly and not good for reading, it's probably the most useful tool for studying meanings and translation.

In fact, most online Bible's are not good for reading, which I think is sad. At least I was sad until this morning!

eBible.com

eBible does include good search, tagging, and commentary tools, but what I like most is the simple streaming interface it uses. In "study" mode (just click the magnifying glass to turn it on), it has pleasant, readable, text that is not cluttered with countless notes and numbers and scrolls forever. There is no scroll bar or bottom of the page and it even features a parralel mode if you'd like to compare two translations.

Although it won't be replacing the Blue Letter Bible for studying particular passages, I think it will become one of my favorite casual reading Bibles. Very nice!

Photo Courtesy of: Rachel Pennington

Falling in Love with Sandy

Oh Sandy, mother warned me never to take on a girl as my secretary, but now it's too late!

*ahem!

Sandy is a "personal assistant" that functions via email. You just send her an email with something you want to be reminded about, and when (if you want), and she'll shoot you an email at the appropriate time, fifteen minutes early.

It may sound simple, but it seems incredibly useful to me. Not only will she remind you, but if you CC a friend in the email, she'll introduce herself to them and send the reminder to them as well, so it also makes for a killer collaboration tool.

She can actually do a LOT more than reminders, but I'm still getting used to having a girl around my inbox, so I'll report back on the other functions another time. This makes for an extremely simple planning system that I am quite excited about, because anything bigger just starts to feel clumsy.

Oh, and I also set her up for Twitter and I can access her from my phone. Very nice!

Where have you been all my life, Sandy?!

www.iwantsandy.com

Google Docs Get Presentations!

Too cool.

http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dh99v8n_224crm7nd&fs=true

by Your's Truly

-Garrett

Wubi: Install Linux on Windows Safe and Easy

The ease of the Wubi installation is self-evident so that newbies are without excuse.

Wubi installs Ubuntu linux as a program on your Windows computer and uninstalls just as easily.

• No Reformatting or Partition changing, it runs in a Windows folder
• Easy Install/Uninstall
• No changes to the Boot record in Windows
• 100% safe to your Windows machine

So everyone who's been wanting to try installing Linux, give it a shot! It's free.

One Warning: Takes longer than a typical install of Ubuntu, so set aside a good hour for the installation (uninstalling is much faster).

Speedy Browsers - Who's the Fastest

For the speed buffs among us, here is a good page that details and graphs the raw speed of many web browsers.

For those who would rather I just tell you :)... here's the five fastest (1 being best):

1. Opera
2. Konqueror
3. Firefox 1.5
4. IE 7
5. Safari

These are MY ranking. So don't take them as technical holy doctrine.

Edit: Yes... Firefox 2 did NOT make the list. It definately lost some speed since 1.5. If you run linux, the SwiftFox build of 2.0 might perform very well, however.

Run Apple Safari on Windows

Sorry I haven't been blogging much.

Some news just won't wait though. Windows XP and Vista users can now run Apple's Safari browser based of the Web Kit project! Absolutely awesome. You really should give this baby a try :).

ALMOST makes me want to stay in Windows :P.

Tech Bites and a Juice Fast!

My poor blog has been neglected lately due to the tremendous time-sink my other website has become. That website is Tech-Bites.com, and this is the first episode of my new weekly tech-help video series!

Firefox Basics Part 1

Enter your name and address in the form above and I'll let you know when each new episode is released.


I'm also starting a 5-DAY juice fast! (GULP) After which I'm committing myself to a healthy whole-food diet to go with my exercise routine(s). Cheer me on :).

Gmail: Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox extension) - Lifehacker

Gmail: Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox extension) - Lifehacker

Any full-time gmail users out there? If you like Gmail but think it could be better with the additions of message previews, attachment icons, better filters, and more, go check out Lifehacker's firefox extension (above).

Thunderbird 2

Oh, happy day! ^_^

Thunderbird 2.0 is out :)

=)

Opera, the underdog web browser

Though I have long considered, and still do, Firefox to be the best workhorse browser out there due to it's huge library of add-on functionalities, Opera has always been an attractive replacement to me. It feels faster, looks prettier, and does more right out of the box than either Firefox or IE.

But I was surprised to learn yesterday that out of those 3 browsers, Opera is the only one that passes the Acid 2 standards test (a test that determines how able a browser is in understanding and displaying standards-based code)! I always assumed Opera to be less accurate. Try it yourself in your favorite browsers. I've heard that Safari also passes, but I have been unable to test it.

Still, sites are not being developed with Opera in mind right now, due to their low market share, so popular sites, especially Google's (blogger, docs, calendar), don't work properly with it yet. Which is sad because I find Opera to be a much more comfortable ride. If you don't regularly use the services mentioned, or can use alternatives, check out Opera, you may be pleasantly surprised.

schmedley.com - A different sort of home page

schmedley.com

For those of you who did not take to Netvibes because it was either too complicated or not attractive enough for you, you may want to bookmark Schmedley.

The authors are taking a fundamentally different approach with this start page. Not only is the presentation much more beautiful than its competitors, but it "serves" you the web rather than "smashing" it together.

I could spend a few more paragraphs trying to explain what I mean by that, but I think it is better if you simply go check it out :). Take special notice of the channels up top (my favorite being the weather, stocks, and amazon) and see how they are serving you your favorite websites in a much more compressed and intuitive environment.


With email widgets (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, and pop3) about to be released and the prospect of eBay (with snipe!), calendar, and radio channels, Schmedley (even at it's alpha state) is looking to become a very comfortable place to be.

Good Vibes - Netvibes wins a new user

In my recent discovery of AJAX powered home pages, I've been trying out every offering I could get my hands on. Eventually, I settled for Webwag which met most of my needs in a home page. To its credit, I haven't seen anyone else pull off their "widget on-demand" functionality as well as they did... but I found the RSS reader(s) and layout functions lacking. While it proved to bet a significant benefit to my work flow, it still fell short in some key areas.

NetVibes, on the other hand, fills those needs quite well! Some of the major advantages that netvibes has are as follows:

Your content is divided into 3 columns, like webwag. But unlike webwag, you can change this value, easily, to 1-4. Using just one column allows you to embed an entire website into your homepage, which I have found to be very useful so far. Here are a couple examples:

Google Calendar fully embedded in one of my "tabs".


Google Docs, a specific document I use frequently.

I also have Google Reader embedded for RSS. So, from my home page, I can edit my calendar, read and edit common documents, and read and manage my RSS reader. Not only are these things pre-loaded (faster than using bookmarks), but it uses less system resources because you use only one browser window.

I have also been struggling to find an online solution for my RSS feeds. NetVibes finally got me online. You actually have two options here, I'm trying both.

The built in reader frequently checks your feeds for updates and gives you a preview of the contents when you mouse-over. So far, nothing new.

This is where the competitors usually drop the ball. Click the article you want to read and you are instantly using a full built-in reader. It's not the fanciest reader around, but all the basic functions are there. With a click you can visit the original article, switch to another on the side bar, or revert back to the main view. Very nice.

Although I don't have the screen shot to prove it (guilty of laziness), I also have an embedded Google Reader... not some plugin or something, the full Reader. And I see no reason you couldn't do this with any other online reader if you are attached to one in particular. Of course, you can import your feeds from any other source as you would expect, which worked nicely for me.

Lastly, there are hundreds of user-made "modules" that expand the functionality of your home page. The "Embed URL" for instance, is the module I used to access the Google apps. All the smaller apps you would expect to see are present as well (to-do list, notepad, weather, calendar, stock tickers, etc). There are even some chat clients (gtalk, yahoo!, AIM, MSN) if you really want to go mobile.

NetVibes enjoys, perhaps, the most active user-base in their niche.

Ok, so nothing is perfect. I don't find it quite as attractive as its competitors and it's not quite as easy either (the price you pay for power, I guess). It also was not able to load Gmail, using the embedded URL although there is a decent Gmail module ready from the get go. While I'm sure I will find more to complain about as time goes on, for the time being I'm happy to make NetVibes my new homepage and my new RSS reader(s).

At the speed development appears to be occurring though, I wouldn't doubt if my few gripes were overcome very soon.

NetVibes

Picnik - edit photos the easy way, online in your browser

Picnik - edit photos the easy way, online in your browser

With Picnik you can quickly edit all your online photos from one place. It's the easiest way on the Web to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, or apply effects to your photos.

It's fast, easy, and fun.

• One-click photo fixing or in-depth tweaking
• Crop, rotate, and resize in real-time
• Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
• Amazingly fast

• Works directly with many photo sharing sites
• No download required, nothing to install!
• Works on Mac, Windows, even Linux
• Free version, premium version (soon)

Well, I knew these types of apps would come to maturity one day. A fresh 2007 company, Picnik makes editing picture a... sack lunch with a friend.

If you do not have Photoshop, then I suggest you use Picasa to edit your pics. If for some reason you do not like Picasa or can not access it, use Picnik. It's just as capable as Picasa at editing photos, maybe even more so, and it runs right in your browser. The only pitfall is that you must wait for your photo to upload so you can edit it (it's pretty fast though).

At least you know, if you are at another computer and need to do a quick edit, picnik is here to help. Great little app.

Greased Windows

Since I'm not likely going to be able to make my switch to the world of Apple for a few months, I just had to settle in to Windows and accept my fate. Linux, unfortunately, is not an option for me due to my unique software needs or I'd be there in a hurry. And there's no point going to Windows Vista, is more expensive, slower, buggier, and more annoying than XP (at least for now).

So I decided to make XP as suitable habitat as possible. After reading through many guides, I found some that were worth following and have tweaked my machine to run like a well-oiled machine. It's FAST. Here's what I accomplished:

• Speed: Eliminating useless overhead in Windows and using so performance enhancements has made my machine almost as zippy as it was when I first got it (when it had NOTHING on it). My favorite though, was telling Norton to stop scanning my outgoing emails and program. With that change alone, things are opening in half the time or better.
  
• Beauty: Using some themes for Windows and Firefox that stress speed and space my interface has become delightfully non-distracting and my monitor feels like it grew an inch or two.
• Stability: I can't really claim this one until I've been running it for a while, but I was able to disable most of the superfluous "services" running in Windows. Without so many operations going at once, I expect I will not have as many incidences. Also, I disabled that dumb "Send error report" window! Whew!
• Better Browsing: My browser, FireFox, is no longer a browser for the general public. It's a lean mean browsing machine and it's been bookin' around the web since I gave it a tune up.

So what if your car has live GPS positioning, integrated map plotting, bullet proof windows, four and a half wheel drive, and can drive itself if you can only go 10 mph? I've removed the things in Windows I will never need (I can always turn them back on) and I'm reaping the benefits.

This is extremely Geeky, so I don't recommend this if you don't have at least a couple hours to spend on it (1 hour windows, 1 hour internet). Here's the best of the bunch as far as guides:

PC Stats Beginner Guide
Removing Useless XP "Services" Overhead (be cautious... definitely worth it)
Tweak Guides: FireFox 2.0
FireFox Preloader
TCP Optimizer (speed up your Internet)

That's it. Don't do EVERYTHING in those guides, it would take forever. Just do the things that look the best to you. With a little tweaking, you'd be surprised just how responsive XP can be.

Even More Feedable!

Notice the two new icons on the right? No more complaining about not being able to get my RSS feed. The orange icon will work with any feed reader (Thunderbird, Google Reader, etc) and the shiny-beautiful-new "webwag.this!" icon adds my feed directly to your webwag.

That's ONE click. Can you handle it?

Q&A: Making a Website for Free

Here's a question I was asked recently that you may find interesting:

"Do you know what's the best way to go if I want to set up my own website for free? I googled "free website" and pulled up a bunch of stuff that looked kind of tricky--like officelive.com that said it was free but when I looked deeper it said it would charge my credit card after awhile. I was wondering what you thought."

Of course, if you are willing to put up with the culture and ads, MySpace was made for this. But since I can't reccomend Myspace to anyone without feeling like I have to make a burnt offering to the Lord afterwards, I suggested a more creative approach... WARNING: This is not for the feint of heart (or those afraid of "words" like HTML):

Free hosting is hard to come by but there are some options out there for the creative.

I guess it really depends on what you need the site to do. If you were doing a basic info site with some downloadable files I would probably try a Wordpress/Google Group combination. Wordpress, while intended to be a blog is actually a highly evolved CMS (content management system) that can be used to make great websites.

The best part is, the site is controlled like a blog, so it is very easy to edit content.

The reason for the Google Group is that you can upload files to it and that link directly to those files on your site (this is transparent to users).

Another plus to using this set up is, no ads! It's completely ad free.

I would advise that you buy a domain name though unless you want mysite.wordpress.com to be your address. You can get one for $8 a year at godaddy.com. Using domain-forwarding through godaddy you can have your site appear to be hosted on your own domain. :)

http://wordpress.com
http://groups.google.com/
http://godaddy.com/

You're going to have to get your hands pretty dirty to get it done (what do you expect for free!), but it should be fun and completely convincing when you're done. WordPress is an awesome system. You'll need a good template that allows for multiple pages. Here's some good WordPress links:

http://themes.wordpress.net (if you don't like any of the defaults)
http://wp-plugins.net/
http://faq.wordpress.com/ - to answer your questions :)

If you need to host images for your template, try photobucket.com or flickr.com.


There's probably an easier way to do this if you want to put up with ads, but for the best end product, this is the route I would take!

Sorry if that seems like too much work to you! You could always fork out the dough if you don't like it though :)

Take Your Life Online: Part 1

If your computer suddenly exploded today, what would be the most detrimental data to lose on your computer?

• Email
• Bookmarks (favorites)
• Documents
• Photos

While we all have our special needs on the computer, the 4 items above represent the most likely items on your computer to be inseparably important to your lifestyle. Up until recent years, you've only had one choice: buy a back up hard drive or burn your data to CDs.

The problem with backing up is that it duplicates your data. Unless you very frequently update it, if something goes wrong you will still be missing data or your data will be outdated.

Although backup solutions are getting better (such as Apple's Time Machine), the easiest way to protect yourself is to store your files AND access them, online.

The great thing about storing and working on files online is that every computer with an Internet connection can now be used as a workstation with full access to your email, bookmarks, documents, and photos. It doesn't matter what operating system or make the computer is, as long as you have a web browser.

Oh yeah, it's all free too.



So let's get started! We've talked about Gmail in the past. Well, I'm bringing it up again! Nearly everyone who is close enough to me to be influenced now has a Gmail account. And it's with good reason too! Gmail provides you with the following features and benefits:

• Full featured email program (like Outlook Express, Mail, or Kontact) right in your browser! Not only is it great software, but it's fast!
• Almost 3gb of storage space... and it's constantly growing. (for most users, that's enough space for 5,000-10,000 emails!)
• No picture ads. Only clean, non-disruptive text ads that do not detract from Gmail's clean look'n feel
• Spam Free - Gmail has the best spam filter I've seen. I didn't receive a single junk mail for many months, and when I did Gmail filtered it safely into my junk mail box.
• Search your email - I can't even tell you how important it is to easily sort through your mail. You can search subject, user, or favorites in your mail box and quickly find what you are looking for.
• If any of your friends are also looking at their email when you are, you can send text messages back and forth (chat) right inside of Gmail!

And that's just some of the features of this stellar email client. Again, you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection.

To make this a little more interesting... suppose you have an email you've been using for years and everybody knows they can reach you there. No sweat! Gmail can receive mail from any normal email account! That's right... ALL your email in one place, and safely online at that, (in case your computer suddenly combusted) that can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection (even your mobile phone!).

If you really want to bring your email down to your hard drive anyways, Gmail can do that too. But it keeps the emails backed up online so that they will always be safe.

So free your email from your hard drive today and take your first step towards hardware freedom. Get your gmail on!