I’m sure you’ve heard about SOPA and PIPA by now, not to mention seeing the online protests in the form of blacked out websites, the most notable being Wikipedia. Here’s a cool infographic explaining what the bills are about and what their (unintended?) consequences are:




Brought to you by Lumin Interactive and Condor Consulting

The latest Google project to be discontinuing and shutting down is the Google Sidewiki. Google Sidewiki was a browser sidebar that enabled people to contribute and read helpful information alongside any web page available as a feature in Google Toolbar.

According to the announcement, Google Sidewiki will be shut down and all content deleted on December 5, 2011 and included a link so contributors can export their Sidewiki entries.

In my Top Daily-Use Products post, I listed Dropbox and it would still make the list if I revised that list, and that’s not even including the premium version; the free version is that good. Tech deal-of-the-day site, AppSumo is running a giveaway where 10 lucky winners will get a lifetime 50GB account, which normally run $9.99/mo.

It takes 10 seconds to enter – just hit this link. Good luck!

BTW, I totally recommend you sign up for a free account regardless of whether you enter the contest.

PS> Another cool syncing service to check out is SugarSync.

D-Link’s new wireless N dual band MediaBridge (product code DAP-1513) allows you to extend your wireless network by adding in up to 4 extra devices to its 4 Ethernet ports and taking them wireless.

This means you can expand your current network without running large lengths of cable around your house for those Ethernet-only devices.

The MediaBridge accepts signals on the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies, meaning you can bridge either band of network around your home. The dual wireless N capabilities makes this the ideal bridging kit for adding media devices, such as a games console or NAS, to your network and still allow you to carry on with your daily internet-surfing routine while streaming HD video around your house.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $82.57
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

If you’re like most people, you have no idea what Usenet is. You’d probably be surprised to learn that Usenet is more than 30 Years old and more popular than ever.

On Usenet you can find everything from indie musicians who want to promote their bands to hobby photographers’ sharing some of their shots with the world. And you will even find GNU licensed software like the VLC Player or Winzip. But that’s not all. With more than 800 Terabytes (819,200 GB) you will find virtually anything you´re looking for on Usenet.

You need three things to start downloading from Usenet (server access, newsreader & search engine).

First, to get at all those files, you need access to a Usenet Server (or news server). There are basically two kinds of news servers out there.

You could hunt for a free one which are sometimes provided by your internet service provider or your university. Most of these news server are not open to the general public and are strictly moderated by an administrator. The problem with these free news servers is that they are usually very slow and rarely provide full access to the binary newsgroups (the newsgroups where files are posted).

Your second option is to pay for access from a premium Usenet provider. Most premium providers offer features the free servers just can’t match. Access to commercial grade server farms, secure encrypted connections and download speeds as fast as your ISP will allow for example.

As a general rule, if you’re only going to be using Usenet for reading and posting messages in the newsgroups, then free server access will probably work for you. If you are going to be doing a lot of downloading, a premium provider is going to give you a much better user experience.

Once you have access to a Usenet server you will need to get a special Usenet client download from the server. Because the news servers are communicating via NNTP protocol you need to use a so called newsreader. These newsreaders are able to open and download files and postings. A newsreader is nothing more than a piece of software that allows your computer to communicate with the Usenet server.

And finally, the amount of information available on Usenet is staggering. To find what you are looking for quickly, you need a way to search Usenet. Some of today’s more advanced news readers will have search capability built right in. This is an important feature since scrolling through the newsgroups manually to find what you’re looking for is a nearly impossible task.

In the end you have to decide how you want to use Usenet. It’s possible to access Usenet for free on a public server and with a free newsreader if you just want to read and post messages. The more common method is to choose one of the many Usenet providers out there if you also want to download files. These providers aren’t free but will offer you an easy-to-use newsreader, secure connections and high download speeds.

Twitter has taken off in a larger way than perhaps even its founders ever imagined. Personally, when Twitter first appeared, I felt it had only limited appeal, at least in the way it was rolled out and marketed. Of course, Twitter has evolved and grown. And oh how it has grown.

But did you know that Twitter can be used for more than just reading tweets about “Winning!“, keeping track of trends or breaking news?

Here are just 10 unique, innovative and sometimes practical uses for Twitter that make great use of its popular API.

1. Control your PC with TweetMyMac – This is an application that lets you run features on your Mac remotely by tweeting to a dedicated account. There is a long list of features but the best two are probably taking a photo with iSight or making your computer speak the words you tweet – great if your Mac gets stolen! A Windows version is available here.

2. Look after your plants with Botanicalls – Featured in Wired, Botanicalls is a DIY gizmo that you put in a plant pot. Then, it tells you when your plant needs watering. Great for when you’re on holiday — it could even tweet your neighbor’s account for them to get a reminder. Kits are now available here for $100.

3. Turn your lights on and off – Couple Twitter with an INSTEON home automation light switch and you’ve got a remote application to turn your lights on and off. Perfect if you don’t want to get out of bed to turn them off or just want to scare your guests. This requires wiring a laptop up to some home automation hardware though — might be easier just to get out of bed.

4. Find recipes – If you’ve got a few random ingredients left in your fridge but don’t know what to make with them, then tweet them to #quieroreceta. The service will check its database and recommend what you should make! On the other hand, you could just follow the many Twitterers who tweet recipes in under 140 characters.

5. Make popcorn – Some guys managed to make a Rube Goldberg-styled contraption that listens for Twitter posts tagged #popcorn. When it’s got a hit, the gizmo starts up and makes you some popcorn! The video will explain all:

6. Tell you when your toast is ready – Another cool, but pointless, hack is called Social Networking for my Toaster. This is a DIY project that tweets when the toaster is toasting, and when the toast is done. Great if you’re, er, away from your toaster for two minutes.

7. Get your Tweets while driving – Ford seem to think that so many people are tempted to read their Tweets whilst driving that they reckon it’s safer to install a device that reads out your tweets to you. Hands free for Twitter, good idea or not? You decide.

8. Turn your toilet into a tweeter – HackLab has managed to make its toilet tweet in this DIY hack. There’s been a few problems recently but you can see on its Twitter account that it has worked well in the past!

9. Track parcels – Instead of logging onto the FedEx and UPS websites to check your parcels, all you need to do is tweet your tracking details to TrackThis, which will then tweet back when updates have been made to your parcel status — neat! This isn’t just limited to Twitter however — you can get phone, e-mail, and many other notifications via this service.

10. Lose weight - well, not quite, but Weight Loss Charts is a service where you can tweet your daily weight and it will compile the data into a chart and show you your progress over time, the idea being that this will act as motivation and inspiration. You can then share the chart to your followers.

Originally published on Dice News.

Lulz Security (aka LulzSec) have been responsible for some notorious hacks in the past 6 weeks that have made headlines, including the attack on the Sony PSN (Playstation Network).

Thousands upon thousands of Facebook, GMail and PayPal accounts have been hacked and worse made public. Gizmodo has set up a tool to allow you to see if your account(s) has been compromised. Check it out here.

If you stop for a bit and think about how Facebook or any other social network operates, you may realize (if you have your profile wide open) that it really is a invasion of your privacy, albeit self-imposed. Just think about the information you stick up there.

A couple of jokers have capitalized on this seemingly weird social behavior paradox and created a pretty funny video where they pretend to invite people to a real-world social network.

When the iPod was introduced and people discovered how great it was for playing music, it became obvious that it could be used for playing other types of audio files as well.

What is today called a podcast traces its origins to a form of distributed MP3 files that could be downloaded and played on Apple’s popular music player. Some hackers got their hands on an iPod, reverse engineered it and loaded on it different firmware and operating systems. Others, however, took the simpler route of sharing sound files that could be played on the iPod itself.

The technology for distributing such files already existed in the form of RSS feeds. RSS feeds are machine-readable XML files that are able to transmit information between server and client in a more compact and up-to-date format. RSS feeds were already widely used by blogs as a means of keeping readers up to date on their latest posts. but some inventive podcasters came up with the idea of embedding links to audio files within the RSS feed itself so that it could be downloaded to a computer.

With this modification, podcasting took off and became a popular way to transmit information. Individuals could now become deejays or radio hosts and podcasts began springing up everywhere. Software, dubbed podcast clients, quickly came along that could check RSS feeds, extract podcast links and download the audio.

Although the concept of the podcast began with the iPod, people started devising ways to use the audio files with other devices. Some ingenious hackers even devised a way to turn the PlayStation portable gaming console into a podcast player, despite the PSP’s use of a different type of audio file. Because of the podcast’s increasing flexibility, it became a convenient way for more and more people to receive music, news and entertainment online.

Apple entered the fray somewhat belatedly by incorporating podcast handling capabilities directly within its popular iTunes music playing software for Mac and PC. Podcasts can now be subscribed to within iTunes directly from the iTunes store so that new episodes can be downloaded automatically whenever they become available.

In addition, the types of podcasts available have broadened so that they include not only audio podcasts but enhanced podcasts that can contain photos and chapter markers and even video podcasts. ITunes also offers free language lessons, lectures and audio books to the iTunes store as part of iTunes U.

The reach of podcasting has continued to increase with the growth in popularity of audio and video blogs that consists entirely of media files. It’s all part of the expanding reach of podcasts, which are taking good advantage of shrinking costs and expanding broadband Internet connections, along with the growing number of people with high-speed Internet access. Podcasts offer a rich, multimedia view of the world for all to enjoy.

PowerGramo is an enterprise-level Skype call recording suite. There are a few different versions of the software, costing between $15 and $45 for the license, and all can record Skype-to-Skype calls. The basic version will allow you to record conference calls and export to OGG and WAV formats, but as you go up the software grades you get more and more advanced features.

The full enterprise version allows you to export files into a range of other audio formats, share music with the other participants on the call, record the video, and the software can even act as an answer phone service for your Skype account.

Almost anything you ever wanted to do with Skype is covered by the Enterprise version of this software – full list of features here. A free trial is available for download.