Gumtree: Get Your Second Hand Stuff

I recently needed an new monitor for my desktop computer but your average PC World charges well over the price that i can afford on my income. However i have managed to solve this problem (as usual) with technology.

Gumtree is basically Craigslist but for the UK (and some world city’s, but not the US), which makes it a lot more helpful to me (being a UK resident). The main advantage to UK residents is that it has support for a lot more towns/cities. On Craigslist my town wasn’t even listed, but on Gumtree there was even smaller towns listed in my surrounding area.

I found that the user interface was much more user friendly and easier on the eye than Craigslist. It’s easy to find your local location as most of the web addresses start with yourtown.gumtree.com, or the site has a location finder.

Gumtree’s services provide all the things you’d expect to find on a classifides adds site. The is support for properties and room, jobs, personals and (my favorite) free stuff! Gumtree allows contact to posters via a telephone number or e-mail address, and also has the ability to subscribe via e-mail to any updates in a catagories you might want to monitor.

Monitter Twitter

In a previous post of mine i have already stated my fondness of using twitter for monitoring important information i want to know crossing the web. Well i previously was partially to using tweet scan for this, but thanks to a Make Use Of article, i have switched to using Monitter for this task as it is more feature rich, allowing for monitoring of 3 keywords rather than 1. Check out the article for more information.

clipped from www.makeuseof.com Monitter is an easy-to-use application that allows you to monitor Twitter for any three keywords and see what people are saying about them. Monitter can be useful for many things such as finding Twitter users with similar interests as you or monitoring what people are saying about you and/or your website. Personally, I like using Monitter to see what other people are saying about some of my favorite sites and applications such as Digsby, Zenbe, and Feedly.

Zemanta: Making Blogging Easier

While having a quick look around the Mozilla add-ons site the other day, i stumbled across a new a very useful little extension for Firefox that is helping me write this very blog post just a little bit easier.

Zemanta gives you suggestions for tags, links photos etc. for your blog post from right inside your blog dashboard. Currently im using it within the WordPress dashboard.

This is exactly the kind of integration that i love. It’s feature rich, displaying related articles down the side, links that are auto inserted with just the click of a mouse into my post, tags auto generated and related images appearing next to my post editor. In fact the related images are filtered to take out any copyrighted images (very useful).

This saves plenty of time previously wasted on searching through Google for all that i wanted. Another good thing is that it auto-inserts a “Re-Blog” icon into the bottom of posts to allow fellow readers to blog articles to there own blog.

Zemanta also provides an API for developers to intergrate there service into there own projects.

You can get Zemanta here.

4 Tools For Big Internet Releases

So, there’s a big program release coming up and you want to be first in on the action? You want to try and beat the rest to get to the file before the servers get clogged and you get the infamous “Server to busy”. Well here is my suggestion of tools and tips to get you through.

Update Scanner (Firefox Extension)

First off there are quite a few extensions for Firefox in this article so if you don’t have Firefox I’d suggest you get it because its one of the best browsers out there.

Update scanner is a a Firefox extension that allows you to monitor web pages while browsing the web for any changes that might occur. You can set the scanner to check for updates for a time bracket anywhere between 5 minutes and 1 hour. You can also select how big of a change you want to monitor, from very minor changes (just a few words) to very large changes (a whole paragraph).

This is one of my favorite Firefox extensions as its very flexible in its uses. When I used to use Digg a lot a while back I used this to keep me up to date with high priority sites like cracked.com. My most recent use though was to help catch my copy of Windows 7 beta a week or so back. Its pretty simple but very functional, a real essential.

Update scanner is available for install here.

Reload Every (Firefox Extension)

Again another extension for Firefox is reload every. Basically it adds a bit more functionality to your refresh button. You can set it reload the page you looking at at intervals of 5 seconds to up to 15 minutes, with the ability to add custom intervals.

This tool is great for reloading pages which are a bit swamped on the servers or as a alternative to update scanner. It’s also very useful elsewhere, like eBay for the final few minutes of a auction.

Reload every is available to install here

Tweet Scan

As a wrote in an earlier post, some of the most up to date information on what is happening in the world can be found by monitoring twitter. Just look at the Hudson incident last week and how news spread across the internet is about 10 minutes of the plane going down.

Now how about harnessing the awesome power of twitter to help you in your hour of need when servers are crashing around you and all routes seem blocked? Tweet Scan does exactly that. Just type in the keyword that you want to monitor tweets for and it gives you a real time display of what people are tweeting about your keyword.

This is such as useful tools as information on the quality of the servers, to direct file links, and to useful articles being published across the net. Never underestimate the power of twitter.

Visit Tweet Scan here.

Google Reader

Google reader is another one of my essential tools for use of monitoring blogs across the internet in one place for an sign of what I’m after. Blogs are the best place to find the some real informative information, but there are sometimes a little late in the day as it takes time to write a post. The information is a lot more reliable than that of the twitter community so blogs are still worth monitoring, and Google reader is one of the best online readers I’ve found, but there are many more. I personally prefer Google reader because of some of the many Greasemonkey extensions that are available for it which make life just a little bit easier.

Here are some here scripts for Google reader

Iphone App: Live Poker

A friend recommended to me the other day this excellent little application for both iphone and ipod touch. It is called (as many of you observant readers may have noticed) Live Poker, and it does pretty much what it says on the tin.

Originally it started out as a Facebook app, but the good people at zynga.com have blessed use with a very addictive iphone app. First you’ve got to buy it, but don’t worry it’s only a mere 59p (about 86c to you Americans), and to start you off they give you 2,000 chips free with another 2,000 chips everyday form then on. You can buy extra chips and become a high roller, but personally i would just save my money and play on the little tables for a while.

As for the app its self, the interface is very simple. You load it up, select your chosen table stakes and off you go. The application its self connects into the same games that Facebook users are using which means that you are able to sign on with your Facebook account.

There are however a couple of glitches in the game. There have been instances which i haven’t been able to sign on, and the occasional time when it has crashed my ipod. But the game is so fun to play that i just look past the faults and onto the positives. Certainly worth the 59p.

Turning That Old Laptop Into a Xubuntu Netbook (Part 2)

Now that we have the operating system all nice and loaded up (see part 1) it’s time for us to take a look at the different software available for turning your old laptop into an Xubuntu netbook.

Pre-Installed

The default Xubuntu install has a number of programs pre-loaded onto the OS to get you started. These include many of the average web users familiarities such as Firefox 3 and Thunderbird e-mail client. There are also a couple of other programs such as Abiword for word processing, GIMP for image editing and Pidgin for IM.

These are all very good programs, but lets take a look at some of the other software out there to do your various everyday tasks that new Linux users may not of heard of.

Installing Software

There are two different ways that any new Linux users should know about, one is Add/Remove applications and one is through the Terminal. Both are equally as good, but you should know both ways.

Add/Remove: this is the simplest option for many ex-windows users. Simply go to:

Applications –> System –> Add/Remove Programs

A window will pop-up giving you a whole library of applications that are ready to install on your computer. Simply search for the application you want, or look through the categories till you find what your looking for and then hit the big install button, it couldn’t be simpler.

Terminal: The terminal is a very new and strange thing to new Linux users, but sometimes it is the best way to get things done. It is my personal preference as the Add/Remove programs menu runs a bit slow on my old laptop and the terminal keeps it to a minimum.

To run the terminal simply go to:

Applications–> Accessories–> Terminal

You will then get a big black window open up with the text

username@computername:~$

to install any new program simply type:

sudo apt-get install nameofprogram

you will then be prompted to enter the administrator password, type it in and hit enter. And that’s all there is to it, the program your after will then be found and installed on your computer. Just look around in the relevant applications menu until you find it.

Now, as promised lets have a look at the sort of programs available to perform all the different jobs that you could want:

Web Browsing

As standard, Firefox 3 comes pre-installed with the operating system. This has always been one of may favorite browsers for a long time. But on the older laptop sometimes it can run just a little bit too slowly for my taste so i often find my self substituting it for Midori.

Midori is pretty much your average web browser. No special bells or whistles attached just simple browsing where you want to go. The reason i like it so much is not because of its simplicity, but because of the fact that it goes like a bullet, even on older machines.

Blog Editing

If like me you just so happen to be a blogger, you may want to try a desktop blog editor rather than online editing. This allows you to save posts directly to your desktop and can let the older technology run a bit faster due to not having to load up a editing interface such as WordPress has.

The best one that i have found (and regularly use) is BloGTK. Again not to much in the way of advanced features, but it gets the job done pretty well. It provides support for most modern blogging platforms (Blogger, WordPress, Movable type etc.). You can select which categories are relevant to your post, add tags, perform basic editing, import posts from online etc. Simple and well rounded.

Office Equipment

Xubuntu comes preloaded with just a basic word editor called Abiword. While this is all very good im much rather prefer the very popular Open Office suite.

Open Office provides most of the tools that you would expect to find in Microsoft’s Office suite. The Open Office includes a word processor, spreadsheet editor, presentation creator, database, drawing pad and calculator all rolled into one package. The best thing is for new users is that i looks very much like Microsoft Office but is only a small proportion of the file size and is free of course!

The other good thing about Open Office is that it is compatible with loads of different file types including just every version of Microsoft word. Just click “save as” and select the file type.

BitTorrent

I’m not a big BitTorrent user, but if you are then i would recommend Azureus/Vuze. I haven’t used it too much on Linux, but on Windows it provides excellent support for finding, tracking and downloading content form various torrent sites.

Development

This really depends on what type of language you are trying to program in but my preference has always been towards the Netbeans IDE from java. I provides some additional support for other languages also so check it out, but otherwise very functional and well rounded.

If web development is what your after then id certainly suggest the Bluefish editor. Its not exactly an extensive tool like Dreamweaver but i think its miles ahead of Frontpage, but make your own opinion.

And If You Still Really Need Something From Windows…

…use Wine. is an excellent little program that allows for compatibility with many different Windows programs. Of course its not possible to get every program from Windows on to Linux, as a lot of programs have different dependencies outside of Wines control. But hey, nothing perfect and it just gives you a few more options to work with. So please don’t say nothings compatible with Linux.

So there you have it, enjoy life on Linux with your new (or should i say old) Laptop updated to breath new life into it. It’s never going to be as good as actually going out and buying a netbook, but i found that if you have a small, old laptop it more than suffices for those on a budget. If you still need advice on more applications for Xubuntu i would suggest http://linuxappfinder.com/ or have a browse through the library in Add/Remove.

And if your a new user and your having problems adjusting to Linux try one of these forums with your query, they helped me a lot in the beginning:

http://www.linuxforums.org/

http://www.linuxquestions.org/

Tweet Scan: Monitor Twitter!

Do you remember the day that Firefox 3 was released? And how a fair few people (including myself) had problems trying to get through to the servers? Well i finally managed to get through due to a direct link posted on Twitter. And now Twitter (or rather Tweet Scan) has done it again.

I and just about everyone else had problems ascertaining our copies for Windows 7 over the past few days. What with the server failures, product keys not being delivered and stuff just not going right, it was nearly impossible to keep track of what links were working and what weren’t.

This is where Tweet Scan enters. I found that the most clear up to the minute advice on Windows 7 came from the entire community of Twitter sharing what was working for them and what wasn’t. Tweet Scan enables you to enter a few keywords and search for and Tweets with your query in them (in my case it was “Windows 7 download”). Tweet Scan then gives you an automatically updated time line with all the tweets relating to your query, effortlessly allowing you to monitor whats happening in the Twitter world.

When you load up the Tweet Scan homepage, you are given a very minimalistic Google like search box with a tag cloud for the most popular tweets at the moment. Once you have submitted your query, you get a very resemblance to the familiar twitter time line with the incoming tweets updated regularly. Tweet Scan also gives yo the ability to search for tweets by user.

This tool is one of my favorites for understand just what is going on during large events such as major beta releases. You get information that is more up to date than any blog could dream of keeping up with. The only downside is of course that the information may not be accurate 100% of the time. But if you need to be in the know, and you need to know now, the information is priceless.

Windows 7 Launch Fiasco

It’s been a hectic couple of days fro any of use who were planning to get there hands on the coveted Windows 7 beta release, what with all that could, would and should go wrong, going wrong.

I have to say that I really did think, even with my shred of confidence left in anything Microsoft being good, that maybe, just maybe, Microsoft would with all its wisdom and experience, be able to pull a decent beta release out of its over sized posterior.

They were off to such a good start with all the publicity they managed to get with it and with the free (yes we are talking about a free Microsoft product) beta release. But did the purveyors of the most diversly used operating system in the world really think that people would be falling over each other to get at a copy? let alone include the fact that there are only 2.5 million copies up for grabs.

As soon as the gates were open the inevitable happened and Microsoft servers were (predictably) overloaded and taken offline just a few hours after the launch. From the second the downloads started tech junkies scrambled to try and obtain any link to the files that bypassed the overloaded pages. While in the meantime know one could find any of the promised software keys from the product, which had been promised to be released at the same time.

The following day, Microsoft relaunched its servers allowing the masses to finally obtain the beta.The Product keys were also made available at this time an from then on everything seemed to run smoothly.

As i write this post, my own personal copy of Windows 7 is downloading (66% so far :P). I would like to thank lifehacker for keeping us all constantly updated with the latest on the release. I hope everyone out there managed to secure your own copy of windows 7, but if you didn’t there always BitTorrents.

As for whether Windows 7 will be any more successful than its predecessor only time (and lots of beta testing!!) can tell. Enjoy Windows 7 everyone!

Diigo: the new Delicious?

Ever since I started using Firefox as my main web browser i had constantly used Delicious bookmarks add-on for keeping track of my important pages.

That was until a few weeks ago when I read about Diigo. Diigo in many respects is very much like Delicious, boasting many of the same features of “social bookmarking”. I have, however, come to realise that there is much more to Diigo than Delicious.

Firstly, and may be being superficial here, but i prefer the websites user interface much better than delicious. That may just be my opinion, but i just feel that the interface is a lot smoother and more easy on the eye that Delicious.

The next thing i like about Diigo over Delicious is the integration into Firefox is much better than. Numerous times have i loaded up Firefox to find that i have to sign-in to Delicious, when it should be auto-saved. But i have never had any problems of this kind with Diigo.

I also like the tool bar a lot better than Delicious. With Diigo you get a proper tool bar to work with rather than just three little buttons. With this tool bar you get most of the functionality that you would expect (ie. bookmark, visit the site, sidebar bookmark search, friends bookmarks etc.) but you also get a lot more.

There are options when you bookmark a page to “read later”, there’s an option to “Send to” where you can post to a blog, twitter and Facebook as well as regular e-mail. Another feature that i particularly love is the two folders names “Unread” and “Recent” which allow quick access to my latest bookmarks. Something which saves an awful lot of time instead of rummaging through the sidebar.

Finally, one of my favorite features as a student is that Diigo includes the functionality to highlight contents of a web page and add annotations to content, a life saver when doing research.

I was once a big fan of Delicious but i am now fully turned to Diigo by the shear multitude of features and the way it still manages to remain simple and easy to use. If your a Delicious user i would certainly recommend trying Diigo instead.

Turning that Old Laptop into a Xubuntu Netbook (Part 1)

As mentioned in my previous post, i recently received and new (or rather old) laptop just before Christmas and set about turning it from a very slow clunky XP machine into a tool i could actually use for my college work. And after a few weeks of fiddling around with it here’s what i suggest to get anyone started on Linux.

Firstly, take one old laptop (mine just happened to be a HP Pavillion of about 6 years old) and choose one of the many different Linux distros to install on it. I chose Xubuntu as this was free and was recommended for laptops running lower memory. The following instructions are hence for Xubuntu, but but if you want to run Ubuntu or any of its other derivatives the process should be pretty similar.

1 – Go to the Ubuntu website and go to download the Xubuntu desktop edition. Or just follow this link. I downloaded the Intrepid Ibex edition, but you can choose which ever is preferable.

2 – Once the OS is downloaded write it to a disk

3 – This is probably the MOST important step of all, make sure that you back up all the files/folders on the computer your going to install on to ensure that you don’t lose anything valuable. It shouldn’t happen, but occasionally things go wrong.

4 – After you have got the installer onto a disk you can then transfer the disk to your other PC load it up. At this point you will have a choice whether to install the OS along side the existing one, or to try the demo running off the CD and then fully install it as the lone operating system.

Xubuntu website also provides an alternate installer for older (mostly pre-2000) machines that may not be quite up to speed on there CD drives.

5 – Simply select the option you want and then follow the instructions through. I wanted to jump straight into the installation of Xubuntu for real so i ran the demo off the CD and went from there. Your PC should then reboot and Xubuntu should load up for the first time.

If you like what you see then run the installation (this is the last time you will be able to go back to the previous OS so choose carefully) and, again, follow the instructions through. The hard drive will then be partitioned and after all installation is complete then you will have Xubuntu as your brand new OS!

In part 2 i will discuss what i have found to be some of the best software available on Xubuntu for turning it into a very useful little psedo-netbook. In the mean time, familiarize yourself with the new OS and enjoy the wonderful world of Linux.