Unfortunately, I am unable to resolve the Hebrew font problems with this blog for now. I mean, I can post new Hebrew posts, but the ones that I had seem to have turned into gibberish. I will try to resolve this, but for now – posting will be done in English only.
Hebrew Problems
This blog is experiencing some problems with the display of Hebrew characters. Unfortunately, I can’t handle them from work, so it might take a while until Hebrew is displayed correctly.
Pandora
Pandora is a very cool and interesting music service. You enter names of artists you like and Pandora creates an instant online radio station with music that you’re supposed to enjoy. It does that by learning the “DNA” of tracks, which you say you “like” or “dislike”. Pandora was created by the Music Genome Project.
(via del.icio.us, Slashdot)
Why I have myself as a contact on my IM lists
Many people ask me, when they see my MSN Messenger’s or Yahoo Messenger’s buddy list, why I have myself as a contact. First of all, let me say that I’m definitely not the only one that does that.
Now, why do I do that? The “official” reason is that this way I’m never alone online. When I look at my list, there’s always someone online. Me. That’s a little comforting, especially if you’re having one of those blue nights when you feel all alone in front of your computer and you log on hoping to chat with a friend and no one is online.
The real reason is that I just wanted to see what happens. It’s the hacker in me, I guess. I didn’t just want to see if I can add myself, I wanted to see if I can talk to myself. It’s funny to see how different products handle the case of self-adding.
In Microsoft’s MSN Messenger you can add yourself, but you can’t chat with yourself. You can send an email message to yourself, though. I sometimes wonder about that. I mean, why would you allow the one but not the other? About the chat, it’s probably a protocol or architecture issue. The thing is that the programmers in Microsoft handled the case of self-adding users specifically, because you cannot open a chat window with yourself, but you can still add yourself to your list. An interesting choice, if you ask me. By the way, the current version of MSN Messenger has a bug, which allows you (in a specific case) to open a chat window with yourself, but you still can’t send a message in that window. That is forbidden by the server.
In Yahoo! Messenger, on the other hand, not only you can add yourself, but you can freely chat with yourself. I think I tried voice calls with myself once, but it didn’t work since the configuration of Yahoo! Messenger would use the same sound card for the call for both parties (me and myself). My first chat with myself went something like this:
Me: Hi — This is the message I sent
Me: Hi — This is the message I got. Surprising, right? Well, it’s not like Yahoo! would do something cool like putting an AliceBot to talk back to you. That would have been funny.
And that was it. It was the shortest conversation I have ever had on IM. Yet, it was all I’ll ever need :)
Lifehacker
Lifehacker is a very useful blog for many kinds of people. The official title of the blog is “Productivity and Software Guide”, and that’s exactly what it is. Useful entries go from “How to stop junk mail and phonecalls” to “How to install RAM memory in your computer” and many other things like cooking tips and useful software recommendations.
99 Useful Windows XP Run Commands
A website called FixMyXP.com, which seems like a pretty useful place to go when you have Windows XP problems, published 99 useful Run commands (to use in the Start->Run… Windows dialog box).
(via Download Squad)
The Writings on the Stall
The Writings on the Stall is a very funny website, which is “an online repository of writings found on restroom walls”.
Let them sing it for you
Ever wanted to sing a sentence you just said? This website finds words you type in existing songs, puts them together and lets “them” sing it for you. If you have a popup blocker, disable it for this link. Enjoy.
(via Digg)
Digg.com
Digg is a “community-powered” technology news website, where one user submits a story and other readers decide whether the story is worth reading or not. No editors involved. It’s a great place to consume well-filtered news, even if you’re not participating in rating the news items or submitting them.
What do you think this is?
Gizmodo put up a picture of this device. What do you think this is?
One of the commenting visitors of the site found these two links, showing how it is used:
Link 1
Link 2
EDIT: Walla! News, the item stealing network, published their take on this device.