It might sound like something from The Hollowmen, but the Federal Government really is running a ‘Government 2.0′ taskforce to assess how Web 2.0 technologies can be better used to deliver services — and in suitably interactive style, they’re seeking online commentary on it. More »
Need to give your blog or personal site a more modern look? AjaxBuddy, a free repository of Web 2.0-style site tools, is great for site owners who don’t have time to learn an entire programming language, or just need a starter block of code to get building. Grab free, easy-to-modify code for Flickr-like editing fields, quick-loading slideshows and tabbed galleries, instant graphs, date-choosing calendars, and dozens more examples. Many require replacing just a few values to get working, but even the more complex tools are great learning tools.
AjaxDaddy [via Online Tech Tips]Cubescape, a free design tool from code wizards The Man in Blue, is a refreshingly easy way to design a great-looking logo, send a memorable message, or just doodle with the simplicity of stacked blocks. The controls are super-simple, consisting of coloured and clear blocks you drop and arrange into patterns and a tool to destroy your errors. Hit “Save,” and your design is locked away, and you can link to a time-lapse animation of how you built it. Feel free to send the URL to that discouraging high school art teacher. Cubescape [via WebWare]
If you’re one of those folks who handwrites HTML, you know how laborious it can be to type out all the tags and descriptors for a simple but highly-efficient table. Kotatsu, a free AJAX utility, generates clean code for however many rows and columns you need, with optional class options thrown on the cells. The code is blog, personal site, and start page-friendly, and that’s all there is to it (thankfully). Kotatsu [via MakeUseOf]
Need to pick up a little AJAX knowledge to give your website a bit of polish? Have less than a robust knowledge of how databases work? Google Code University offers a heaping helping of computer science knowledge for free. Even better, the site includes a CS Curriculum Search, which can find programming topics within materials published by the world’s computer science schools. So if you only need a specific bit of PHP knowledge to move a project along, you might find just what you’re looking for without having to plunk down cash for a thick manual. Would-be hackers looking into Firefox extensions and basic JavaScript, this is a great place to start. Google Code University [via Geeks are Sexy]
When it comes to reading feeds for a job or need-to-know informatoin, it’s hard to beat the (unofficial) reigning champions of the web and desktop, Google Reader and NewsGator’s (now free!) products. But sometimes you might just want to run through a lot of content quickly, with no read/unread stress to remind you of your email inbox. For that kind of browsing, Alertle, a new AJAX-based feed reader, might be just the right thing. It comes jam-packed with pre-sets in a range of categories, and it moves nearly as quick as Reader (even with seemingly wider support for embedded video and audio). Alertle doesn’t bother marking posts as read, so it’s more a tool for seeing what’s new around the web than hitting a goal. The big drawbacks are non-support of Internet Explorer and a hard-to-grok sign-up interface (check the upper-right corner), but Alertle makes for an interesting addition to the growing stable of worthy feed readers. Alertle [via Google Blogoscoped]
Event organizer webapp Fasterplan creates collaborative “billboards” that help users hammer out the details of an upcoming event. Set up a Fasterplan billboard for your event and drag and drop widgets onto it—like polls (“Where should we eat afterwards?”), date finders (“When’s good for you?”), images, and text notes. Get your event billboard’s permalink and email it out to all your friends to answer the polls and plan your get-together. Check out a sample billboard to see Fasterplan in action.
fasterplan
