Wondering who’s making those seemingly random changes to your company’s Wikipedia page, or just curious to see what happens to celebrity pages when scandal breaks? WikiDashboard pulls out information on user actions from the mass-edited encyclopedia and lays them out on a time-scaled chart. Enter a Wikipedia page, click on any of the edit graph notches, and you’ll see what change was made. It makes better sense of the often dense and cryptic edit listings, and lets you better gauge if someone’s got a specific axe to grind, and find out when they’re grinding it. WikiDashboard [PARC via Open...]
Elmo Live (a super-robotic version of the infamous Tickle Me Elmo) has received masses of publicity and is expected to be a big Christmas seller. Digital Journal TV showed true hacking instinct by grabbing the all-singing, all-dancing Muppet and ripping his skin off to show the workings underneath; check it out in the video above. It’s surely only a matter of time before people come up with more elaborate hacks to repurpose Elmo.(Warning: your kids might not like this much.) Digital Journal [via Tough Pigs] More »
Code Magazine runs through the basics of building your own Web Slices. Web slices — one of the key new technologies in IE8 — act as a kind of RSS-on-steroids, letting you show updates and related information within a page. While the IE8 user base is small right now, if you’re in the business of developing sites, this is worth checking out. For a fuller overview of IE8, see our overview, and to see how IE8 ranks for speed against this year’s other new browsers, check out our browser speed tests. Conversely, if web slice mouseovers are driving you crazy, learn how to switch them off. More »
As plans for a government trial of content filtering with selected ISPs firm up, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we might all get stuck with a degraded Internet service with very little justification in public service terms. Over at APC, I’ve rounded up half-a-dozen arguments for If the thought of your Internet connection being censored at the source bothers you, then then the EFA’s No Clean Feed site is a good place to get more information on campaigning against it.
Top 5 reasons to fight government ISP filtering[APC] More »
Google and Sensis (the division of Telstra that does directories and other information services) were very keen yesterday to spread the word about their new partnership, which will see Google provide ad services to Telstra and Sensis provide Yellow Pages ads on Google Maps. What wasn’t really emphasised in the announcement is that this effectively means the end of Telstra’s attempts to build its own search engine, since Sensis will (as of the beginning of 2009) be basically just a front end to the same results you could get from Google. That’s not a bad thing, by the way, since the current Sensis incarnation has a well-deserved reputation for hopelessness. (Case in point: a search for ‘Lifehacker’ doesn’t produce a single reference to this site.) Google dominance can sometimes be a scary thing, but when the alternative is this under-powered, it’s understandable. More »
Israeli blogger Ran wanted a long, low coffee table, but couldn’t find one that matched his requirements — so he slung one together by connecting together five Lack shelves from IKEA. Ran himself admits that the construction is a tad messy, but the end result is a great table if you’re entertaining several friends, and one that’s easy to adapt to your colour scheme (though the orange option isn’t currently sold in Australia).
IKEA HackerWindows/Mac/Linux: Gmail Backup saves and restores complete archives of your Gmail email account using Gmail’s built-in IMAP capability. The Windows version comes with a simple graphical interface — just enter in your email address and password, select a backup folder, and click the Backup button. It will save your messages in Microsoft’s EML format complete with attachments. The Linux version (which also works with Mac OS X) is command-line only. Besides enabling offline access to your archives, you can use the restore feature to upload messages to another account, making it easy to transfer old messages to a new account. I supports regular Gmail accounts as well as Google Mail in Germany and Apps For Your Domain email accounts, as long as POP/IMAP access is enabled under Settings. Gmail Backup is a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Thanks, jonny6pak!
Gmail BackupSince its launch back in August, the GROCERYchoice supermarket comparison site hasn’t exactly inspired excitement amongst Australian consumers, in part because of the lack of detailed and specific data. Nonetheless, the ACCC is plugging away with the site, and the latest bunch of updates suggest that tightening economic times mean even greater competition for consumer dollars. Of the 61 regions covered, Woolworths and Coles were each cheapest for a “standard basket” in 30 regions, while independent supermarkets were the best deal in South-Eastern Queensland. ALDI remains the place to head for dedicated bargain hunters. GROCERYchoice
You’ve already seen our hands-on review of Google’s new mobile operating system, Android—so now it’s time to take a look at what kinds of apps third-party developers have made available for the platform. The first phone running Android has been out in the wild for two weeks now, and every day new applications have appeared in the Android Market that add fun and functionality to your handset. Best of all, most of them are free. Let’s take a look at our favourite free apps (so far) that make working and living a lot easier in Android. (Yes, we know the Android hasn’t hit the local market yet, but think of it as a useful reference for when it does (assuming some of the apps get internationalised), and a handy guide for anyone who’s gone nuts and bought one on eBay.
Encyclopedia is an offline Wikipedia reader for your iPhone or iPod touch—which means that after you install it, it downloads a hefty 2GB of data to your iPhone for offline searching and viewing. Encyclopedia costs $US8 from the App Store, but you can get an early version for free with wikipedia-iphone if you’re jailbroken. Don’t plan on going offline? Try previously mentioned Wikipanion. Thanks Jim!
