Sizlopedia » Internet

Create Unique Photo Effects using PhotoFunia

Dj Flush — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:14:09 +0000

Lately I reviewed Yearbook, a wonderful web app to convert your photos into old-age memories and today I have to share another very useful and interesting tool which lets you create cool and amazing photo effects out of your ordinary photos.

The tool, called PhotoFunia, lets you create really unique situational effects out of your ordinary photos on the fly. All you do is select an effect of your choice, upload your photo and get the output.

Below are a couple of samples of the photo effects I created using my photo on PhotoFunia.

Poster Effect

‘Vogue’ Magazine Effect

Gallery Effect

Sketch Effect

PhotoFunia lets you create all these cool photo effects for free. Usually you would require professional skill and hours of Photoshop’ng to create these photo effects but with PhotoFunia you can do this all in just a matter of seconds.

There is a variety of over 70+ unique photo effects to choose from. Enjoy!

Yahoo! Web Analytics, its Live

Dj Flush — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:34:13 +0000

Soon after the acquisition of IndexTools by Yahoo! back in May, it was expected that Yahoo! would soon come up with an innovative web analytics tool in order to compete with Google Analytics which still remains the no.1 choice of most bloggers and webmasters when it comes to traffic monitoring.

And finally after all this wait here it is, Yahoo! Web Analytics.

Yahoo! Web Analytics has been designed to enable webmasters to view, in near real-time, the experiences of visitors to their website. Much like Google Analytics, Yahoo! Web Analytics helps you identify the ads, campaigns, keywords and referrals that contribute the most to your website but in a more unique and fashionable manner.

Yahoo! Web Analytics boasts of the following unique features.

Executive Dashboard
Advanced Campaign Management
Real-Time Segmentation
Live Cost Analysis
Merchandise Reporting
Scenario Analysis
Comparative Reporting

and much more. A complete detailed list of features can be viewed here. Below is a little sneak-peek.

Click on Images to Enlarge

Yahoo! Web Analytics will be as easy to use as Google Analytics and Yahoo! also plans to provide a set of APIs for developers to develop applications and software.

It is currently only available to Yahoo! Small Business customers but soon it slowly it will be rolled out to all webmasters and users.

http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/index.php

Gmail Mail Goggles Prevent You from Sending Accidental Mails to Your Girlfriend

UzEE — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:47:37 +0000

Yes that’s apparently, the main theme for this latest addition to the Gmail Labs. It will be useful to those who send messages without thinking (includes me) and then later regret it. It can also be used in situations when you are drunk and are accidentally transferring all the balance in your bank account to your neighbor’s.

Gmail labs is known for its addictive tweaks. I personally like to use my Gmail with mouse gestures and custom label shortcuts. But today’s addition seems to be a bit odd and out of place. In simple words, it will ask you to solve some math related questions before sending your email. This would actually be helpful if you are subconscious and/or not in your senses (but who would write an email in this kind of situation?).

Nevertheless, it can be tweaked further to enable at specific times and days of the week. By default its enabled for the late hours on weekends, when the probability of “drunk emails” is high. Most of us would just pass by this new feature because solving more math problems would be the last thing you would want to do when sending in your calculus assignment late night. But for those of us who have suffered break-ups due to such situations, this addon might prove useful.

Compress and Optimize Images for the Web

Dj Flush — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:46:49 +0000

Yahoo! recently launched a tool for designers web developers called Smush it! which allows them to compress and optimize the size of any image, on the fly, without losing quality.

The online tool is very useful to compress large images and can be used by bloggers to optimize images for their posts which in turn saves a lot of bandwidth and site-loading time.

Using the tool is as easy as browse and upload and no sort of configuration is required. As soon as the image is uploaded and smushed, a zip file containing the compressed images is given to the user to download.

Smush it! even displays the compression percentage once the image has been processed which gives a good understanding of how much the image has been optimized compared to its original. Good thing is, Smush it! even has a Firefox extension which makes optimizing images even more easy.

Make a Cartoon Out of any Youtube Video

Hacker — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:54:27 +0000

Today, I came across TubePopper. It’s for all those creative people out there who can give YouTube videos more colors.

It lets you cartoonize any YouTube video by giving you the ability to add speech bubbles, thought bubbles and subtitles etc. All you need to do is register on their website, search the video you want to edit and click “Pop that video”. From that point, you can start editing that video by customizing it with bubbles, subtitle size, color, transparency, text size/color etc.

It’s a fun website where can you make cartoons out of those youtube videos, translate existing videos into new languages, commenting on those videos or make a story out of images by using subtitles.

Features Include

Add speech bubbles, thought bubbles and subtitles to YouTube videos.
Edit as many videos as you like.
Customize Bubbles and Subtitles: Color, Size, Borders, Transparency, Font size/color, Add pop sounds and more
Embedding of edited videos supported.
Search and browse videos created by others users.
Check out Top rated, Recently Popular, and Recently Added videos, rate and leave comments.

Check out this sample video.

Start Stumbling without using the StumbleUpon Toolbar

Dj Flush — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:19:43 +0000

StumbleUpon has just launched its Web-Toolbar, which means you no longer have to download the toolbar software and install it on your browser. Though I won’t switch to the Web-toolbar from the browser plugin, I certainly think web toolbar is a great feature to have. It makes stumbling so much more easier without the browser toolbar. StumbleUpon is the best source of information and thats exactly why I spend most of my time on it (Stumble Profile: TNerd).

Click Image to Enlarge

To use the web toolbar go to StumbleUpon and click on any of the recommended sites and the toolbar will immediately appear on top of the page. StumbleUpon’s team has tried to replicate most of the functionality of browser based toolbar to web toolbar but there is still a long way to go.

I tried using the toolbar but as strange as it may sound, web toolbar does not offer any login functionality, instead it only lets users to register with the service and precisely for this reason I was not able to stumble sites using the web toolbar.

Another feature StumbleUpon announced is its partner program with sites like Howstuffworks etc. Going forward you will start seeing Digg-like StumbleUpon badges on the article pages. Though these badges will let you vote for the article unlike Digg, it will also launch StumbleUpon web toolbar using which the user can view other similar articles on the same site.

The badge functionality is currently available only on the partner sites; however, it will be open to all the blogs and sites in the future. The functionality is currently limited only to the partner sites as it is still being fine-tuned and optimized for the larger audience.

Overall its nice to see Stumbleupon making it easier for people use its services which in turn helps Stumble gain more audiance.

This is a guest post by Syed Abbas from Technology Nerd. For more web media news and tips please visit the blog or subscribe to its RSS.

Get Old Facebook Layout Back

Dj Flush — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:18:02 +0000

Facebook has rolled out its new interface to all Facebook users and a lot of users like me are not loving the new design and layout, probably because its just too confusing and complex to use.

Haris has discovered two good old techniques to get the old Facebook layout back. This will help users switch to the old Facebook design and navigate in the same old-school fashion as before.

Method#1 involved two steps:

Add the Developer application from here.
After adding that application, click the following link to get the old Facebook back.
http://apps.new.facebook.com/?fbnew_opt_out=1

Method#2 involves making use of a Greasemonkey script which can be downloaded from here. For those of you who don’t know, Greasemonkey is a browser extension for Firefox that allows you to install custom scripts for enhanced functionality on various web services.

Create and Print Free Business Cards

Dj Flush — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:09:49 +0000

Keshav, the Fabworker, shares an excellent resource to create and print free business cards.

Business cards are very useful for sharing contact information with people in the social life. They enhance communication and public relations. Bloggers can use business cards to show off their blogs and share their interests with other people.

Atomic Business Card is basically a very simple Business card generator. It allows you to upload a logo and put some basic information on the card such as your name, title, address, phone number, email etc.

The card can then be downloaded in a PDF and can be printed. Like this, you can create and print a free business card in less than a minute.

SweetCron: Free LifeStream Blog Software

Dj Flush — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:40:27 +0000

The overflow of social networks has made it hard for users to keep a track of everything they do online.

Services like FriendFeed and Plaxo provide a good platform for users to aggregate all their online social activities but all such services fail in offering full control and liberty of customization to the user. Thats why I present to you SweetCron, a free open-source lifestream blog software.

SweetCron is basically a microblogging software (much like Wordpress) which fetches all your activities from online social networks and displays them at one place in a very classy and fashionable manner. As it keeps fetching the data, it displays it in a chronological order thus making a timeline or LifeStream of your online activities.

It is still in its early alpha so there are some bugs and lack of features (contact form, comments system etc). Though the customizability it offers is far greater than the one offered by other such hosted services. Users can make their own themes and plugins (Just like in Wordpress) and can stretch features to their limits using the SweetCron API.

What makes this software a must have is its automatic import feature and the fact that it open-source and free to use. It can be installed on your own custom domain name. A demo is available at SaadHamid which is my personal lifestreaming blog.

Download SweetCron

Google Chrome: An Open Source Web Browser by Google

Dj Flush — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:34:24 +0000

Google has been supporting Firefox well all along. Little did we all know that Google itself has an open-source browser in the works called Google Chrome.

Recently Google published a comic at Google Books highlighting some features of this new browser. For all we know so far is that Google Chrome will be based on WebKit engine and will feature special tabs (not like the ones you see in Firefox).

According to Googe, the browser will feature tabs which run as separate processes to ensure security and stability. This way if one of the tab crashes accidently, it won’t influence your work in other tabs.

Apart from featuring a new tabs concept, it will boast some of the following features:

An address bar with auto-completion features called omnibox.
An InPrivate privacy mode like IE8, called Incognito.
Google Gears Integration.
Stand-alone support for Web Apps.
Default homepage with Opera SpeedDial-like feature.

Google Chrome will be released in some hours in its early BETA for Windows users. As it evolves, Mac and Linux versions will be available too.

Keep checking out for the following link, it will be updated as soon as the browser is made public.

http://www.google.com/chrome

How to Download Videos from Veoh for Free

Dj Flush — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:38:39 +0000

Veoh provides a very large database of free online videos and high quality TV Shows.

Unlike YouTube, the videos on Veoh do not have a limited length and users can watch all videos in full high quality. The only problem is that most of the TV Shows on Veoh are limited to users from the US only and users from the rest of the world can’t watch them directly.

The simple solution is to download videos from Veoh directly to your PC.

Veoh Downloder is a simple tool which downloads high quality Veoh.com videos i.e. the originally uploaded version, not the FLV-compressed version with low quality. This program functions regardless of your IP location which means you can download videos even if you are not from the US.

Alternatively you can try OrbitDownloader to download videos from Veoh and other social video sites. If you are looking for an online service to do the same job, check out Clipnabber.

Yahoo! Mash is Shutting Down

Dj Flush — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:12:54 +0000

What comes as a surprise for all Yahoo! Mash users is that the service will be completely shutting down on September 29th, 2008.

Yahoo! Mash was an experimental social network by Yahoo! created on grounds of competition with MySpace, Facebook and Orkut but its conflict with Yahoo! 360 and lack of support and updates might have proved a little too unhealthy.

The service was launched in September last year and back then we served quite well in giving away free Yahoo! Mash invites and free Yahoo! Mash CSS Styles.

The sole reason behind shutting down of so many social networks is the overflow of cloud communication. Perhaps this is the one that caught Yahoo! Mash too.

All Yahoo! Mash users are requested to save any important information or data from their Yahoo! Mash profiles as soon as possible because after September 29th, Mash is going to the dead pool.

QuarkBase: Find Everything About a Website

Dj Flush — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:54:35 +0000

Of all the tools and web services I have ever used to find information about a website, none have succeeded in providing the most up-to-date and relevant data except QuarkBase.

QuarkBase is a free online tool to find complete information about a website.

QuarkBase gets all its data from over 30 data sources and uses many algorithms gathering information from Internet on various topics like social popularity, traffic, associated people, etc.

The information is categorized into various tabs such as traffic, people, spotlight, technical information etc. Moreover it also gives information about the inbound links, number of social bookmarks, server specifications, feed subscribers and traffic sources.

The information is very relevant, 99% accurate and well organized. You should definitely give it a try.

Yahoo Connected TV to Bring Web Widgets to TV

Dj Flush — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:57:38 +0000

At a press release recently, Yahoo! and Intel both have shown interest to partner together and open a new world of entertainment by bringing Internet to TV in the form of dynamic web widgets.

Yahoo! has already invaded the Internet and next-generation mobile devices like iPhone by providing dynamic and stylish web widgets, and with the new Yahoo! Connected TV initiative it won’t be long since web widgets become a common place for home TVs too.

The basic deal between Yahoo! and Intel is to bring web applications to electronic devices based on Intel Architecture by making use of Widget Channel which is a television application framework optimized for TV.

Developers will be able to use XHTML, JAVASCRIPT and FLASH technologies to write TV applications for the platform, extending the power and compatibility of PC application developer programs to TV and related consumer electronics devices.

Moreover, users will be able to interact with the widgets visually.

So now if you wonder how you can get or download widgets for your TV, Keep your fingers crossed as Yahoo! and Intel are already working hard on it and it will be made public anytime soon.

http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/

Photosynth: View and Create 3D Panoramas

Dj Flush — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:02:49 +0000

Recently Microsoft released the final version of its long-in-beta web app called Photosynth.

Photosynth gives users the ability to view and create 3D Panoramas and virtual tours. Basically it takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs the scene or object in a 3-D environment.

Photosynth is potent mixture of two independent breakthroughs: the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs, and the technology to bring that experience to virtually anyone over the Internet.

The Photosynth viewer allows user to zoom in/out, view in 3D/2D and circle through next and previous frames. Below you can see some screenshots of 3D panoramas of Taj Mahal, Smith Tower and the Sphinx.

View Taj Mahal

View Smith Tower

View Sphinx

Apart from providing a library of 3D Panoramas for users to explore, Photosynth lets users create their own Synth and upload them for others to view in 3D.

It is a Microsoft Labs product so don’t expect it to bug-you-not. To get started with viewing or creating your own 3D Panoramas, hop on to Photosynth and enjoy the tour.

It is currently available only to Windows users.

http://photosynth.net/

How to Bypass Great Firewall of China

Dj Flush — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:20:29 +0000

The Chaos Computer Club is determined to help Olympics reporters and journalists in China to bypass the great firewall, which restricts them from accessing the Internet freely.

For this they have developed some tools and techniques using which any user can bypass the great firewall of China and can surf the web without any restriction.

Technique 1: Use a Proxy

The first technique they recommend is of using a Proxy. Here on Sizlopedia we have a couple of posts on how to use proxies to bypass firewalls:

The proxy method of bypassing Internet censorship works as long as the proxy itself is not blocked by the ISP of Government.

Technique 2: Use Freedom USB Stick

The second technique recommended by the Chaos Computer Club is to use the Freedom USB Stick.

The FreedomStick is an ordinary USB stick with the TorBrowser and Torprojects software preinstalled. These software can be downloaded in EXE and ZIP and can be installed on any USB flash drive to help you bypass Firewall restrictions in China.

Apart from making use of the Tor project, you can take a look at our 10 Free Tools to Bypass Internet Firewalls.

Pixlr: Free Online Image Editing Tool

Dj Flush — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:18:02 +0000

Many free online image editors have emerged in past of couple of months but none of them offer the simplicity that Pixlr does.

Pixlr is a very basic, simple and easy to use free online image editor which allows you to edit, adjust, filter and manipulate three of the very basic image formats i.e. .JPG .GIF and .PNG

The reason I like Pixlr more as compared to other free online image editing tools like Photoshop Express and Phoenix is because Pixlr does not ask you to regsiter to start using the online app and the GUI is amazingly simple and smooth.

Unlike other online image editor apps based on Adobe Flex, Pixlr takes a very little time to load and the interface is not laggy or choppy.

If you are looking for a clean and simple online image editor app then Pixlr is the right choice for you. Get started with Pixlr app.

Windows Live Video Messages

Dj Flush — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:50:26 +0000

According to LiveSide, a new Windows Live service known as Windows Live Video Messages is in the works and will be available to the public in September this year.

Windows Live Video Messages is a web-portal where users with webcams will be able to communicate with their friends and family by sending/recieving video messages, even when they are offline.

The added benefit for Microsoft LifeCam users is that they will be able to take benefit of all Windows Live Videos Messages features right on their desktop using the Vista sidebar gadget and they won’t need to visit the web portal.

The tech preview is coming to the public on September 9. However if you own a Microsoft LifeCam and are just too impatient enough to try it already, use this link below to download the sidebar gadget.

Please do not download and install if you do not have a Microsoft LifeCam install on your PC.

Update The Windows Live Video Messages site is up and running and can be accessed through the following URL.

http://videomessages.live.com/

Muxtape Temporarily Shut Down By RIAA

Dj Flush — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:44:53 +0000

Everyone loves downloading and listening to music but when it comes to sharing music publicly, the RIAA is never very much happy about it.

Previously a lot of sites have been taken down by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as a result of their movement to stop all unlawful and illegal music sharing activities and now their next target is Muxtape.

So far, Muxtape has served users well by allowing them to upload and share music imitating the old-school way of making mix-tape music collections and sharing with friends.

However a recent notice on the website explains that it will remain unavailable for brief period, all thanks to RIAA and there is even a good chance that Muxtape may not come online at all.

Though I wonder why users prefer to use Muxtape even when it has limits such as 10MB per song and 1 Muxtape per account. Making a song playlist is quite the same and it does not even have any limits.

Yahoo! Buzz Opens For All Publishers

Dj Flush — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:50:14 +0000

Yahoo! Buzz, the Digg-Like social network by Yahoo which only allowed stories from some particular sites to be submitted until now has now opened its door to all publishers.

Yahoo! Buzz was unveiled by Yahoo earlier this year with a motif of over throwing Digg in terms of the traffic it sends to the front-page stories and it has quite well succeeded in that.

As TechCrunch reports, Yahoo! Buzz is much different to Digg as the stories pushed to the front-page are handpicked by the Editorial team unlike Digg, where the algorithm takes care of everything.

Also the Yahoo! Buzz Effect is not just a temporary sudden boost of traffic like Digg rather a server-melting stampede which is just too big to handle.

If you think your blog/site is ready to handle such big surge of traffic, head on to Yahoo! Buzz and submit your story.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/submit/

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