Pipes for the Internet

Yahoo has found the Internet's pipes. Well, actually they have this beta project called Pipes which let's you roll your own web aggregator. There have been mashups before using google maps and craigslist, but this let's you do something similar without writing any code. See here for Lifehacker's article on Yahoo Pipes.

Here is my simple example of using pipes. It returns all pages containing iphone, and restricts it to only pages found on apple.com

Wii Fit Brings Wii yoga, wii exercise, wii dance.. Wii Jane Fonda?

Nintendo announced Wii Fit at E3 convention yesterday. Here is the Wii Fit Video. The Wii Fit video shows the different modes, Wii yoga, wii aerobics, Wii dancing, Wii balancing, Wii blocking as a soccer goalie (Wii 'futbol' for international fans). Watch the Wii Fit video below.



What's next, a Wii Jane Fonda exercise video?

Nintendo Wii is Still Hot

The Nintendo Wii console continues to sell like hotcakes, even better. Brand new wiis sell for close to $350 on CraigsList. The Wii is outselling PS3's 6 to 1 in the latest month. At E3, the president of Nintendo America says “Wii has effectively been sold out for all 33 weeks,”. And he also said one in eight men over 50 are regular users of the wii. They also announced Wii Fit, an exercise pad and game. They also announced the Wii zapper, will this wireless gun accessory take the wii to the next level?

Rival Xbox stumbles with Microsoft extending the xbox 360 warranty to 3 years. Many users have reported heating problems and the "red rings of death". Microsoft scrambles to find the cause. Microsoft earlier even blamed a customer that he had faulty wiring in his house. All this finger pointing ends up costing mister softy about $1 Billion. I wonder if Bill let's his kids buy a wii??

Sony concedes ground and offers $100 price cut to entice more buyers. A week earlier, they denied there would be a PS3 price cut. The current model will be priced at $499. They will also release an PS3 with a larger hard drive for $599.

Damn Small Linux Really Is

If you ever wanted to have a way to work anywhere, but didn't want to lug a notebook PC, check out Damn Small Linux.
This linux distribution fits in most USB pen drives. It's only about 50MB. And it requires very little RAM and will run on most anything today. It claims to be able to run with only 32MB RAM.

If you are piqued, check out this article.

Automation via iOpus

Found this interesting app called iMacros from iOpus. iMacros lets you create macros to automate repetitive browser tasks. Sort of like batch files for your browser. Their licenses are pricey, since they are targeted to developers and testers who want to catch bugs with their web applications. They claim to also work with Ajax-enabled sites. So they would be competing with open source solutions such as Selenium. However, they do give away a free plugin for IE and Firefox.

Tame your Passwords with Roboform, or Web Replay

One big problem faced by every web user is managing multiple name and password pairs for each website they visit. What ends up happening is some people use the same password which is not a secure way to do it.

One good solution is Roboform, which will save your web passwords. It remembers them the next time you go to that website. You only have to remember one master password, and Roboform will fill in the web passwords for you. Roboform even lets you use the product for free for up to 10 passwords.
Roboform encrypts all your passwords and they have won many awards and recognition.
Roboform is quite easy to use once you see how it works, but I think they need to go the extra step and make their UI even more friendly to newbies.

Another competitor is Web Replay. It seems to have a similar feature set. But I have not tried Web Replay yet. Take a look at their demo here.

Pidgin encryption plugin - easy to setup and use

If you use pidgin as your IM client, here's a lifehacker article about a pidgin plugin to keep your messages private. (The article refers to Gaim, but this is same as pidgin)

Just install the plugin, restart pidgin, then you can now send encrypted instant messages to other pidgin users who have the same plugin installed. The nice thing about this plugin is it makes public/private key encryption fairly easy to set up and use. I've tinkered with PGP before, and to me this pidgin plugin is "Secure IM for the rest of us".

If you haven't heard of pidgin, you should check it out. Pidgin used to be called GAIM, and they had to change their name because AOL was going to sue them.

Steam Punk - What Sherlock Holmes would use

Check out how this guy modded his PC to look like it was from the Victorian era.
Gas lamps, steam engine, LCD monitor???

Pimp My PC

Here you'll find pics of pimped up PC's. Just one word of advice: Guys, that's not the way to attract the ladies. Pimp the car, not the PC.

Germany's Enigma implemented in Flash

During WW2, the German army used the Enigma to encrypt their messages. The story of England's effort at Bletchley Park to crack the Enigma code has been made into a movie starring Kate Winslet. Another factoid is that computer science pioneer, Alan Turing, lead the effort on breaking the Enigma.

Neal Stephenson wrote Cryptonomicron, about this war effort. I really enjoyed that book.

Click here to use the Flash (SWF) implementation of the Enigma.

Click here for the background and how to use it.

Business 2.0 Vote For People Who Matter

Business 2.0 has a feature titled "People who Matter". That sounds quite arrogant, but it's informative to see the 101 movers and shakers who made the list. From old-timers Gates (msft), Otellini (intel), Dell, as well as a web 2.0 stars from Flickr, BoingBoing, Digg, and Second Life . The list consists of a lot of media companies, and web 2.0 gurus, but also CEOs and suddenly-rich bloggers. Take a look at the article. It also includes the Fake Steve Jobs blogger.

RocketDock gives you a Mac-style dock

If you like the fancy application docker on Macs but you have a PC, try RocketDock! I found this cool free app on LifeHacker. Lot's of readers prefer RocketDock over ObjectDock for it's size, speed, and stability.

Here's a video showing RocketDock in action. Click here to get RocketDock

Fake Steve blog

One of my favorite blogs is Fake Steve Jobs, or FSJ. The byline is "Dude, I invented the friggin iPod. Have you heard of it?".

Fake Steve makes fun of Silicon Valley execs from Google, Sun, Oracle, and of course Microsoft. FakeSteve also reacts to your comments as well. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Click here for how they came up with the iPhone.

Automatic version control from a Hamster

Another free app I use has a funny name called FileHamster. What does it do? You see, my wife works a lot with spreadsheets and word documents. And sometimes she needs to go back to an older version of the file. FileHamster automatically watches either specific files or folders and keeps versions of your files. So you can revert to an earlier version easily.

Click here to get File Hamster.

Around the World with Google Spreadsheet

I have siblings living in Asia as well as the West Coast. So recently we were having a discussion on my parent's desire to move to a slightly larger house.

Being one of the geeky siblings, I created an online spreadsheet using Google Docs. In a few minutes, I had an online spreadsheet which allowed us all to view the nitty gritty details-- how much it costs to sell a house, and how much it costs to purchase another house. Email can only go so far when communicating with multiple individuals in multiple timezones. So having an online spreadsheet gave everyone a clearer picture.

Google is an example of a company that provides products that fill the needs of users. In this case, providing a way to share, edit, and publish documents EASILY online. The google geeks are certainly not the first ones to do so, but they have the infrastructure to provide this reliably, and in this case, for free to individuals. Google charges companies a modest fee if they want to use these apps (gmail, calendar, docs and spreadsheets) in-house.

NoScript, and Gspace. Firefox addons

I use Firefox because it’s fast, secure, and for the many add-ons available.

If you are still using IE as your browser, I highly recommend Firefox (version 2) as a browser replacement. Click here to download Firefox 2.

Here are some of my favorite firefox addons:

Sites use a lot of scripting. Some websites however, try to use scripting to exploit security holes. To prevent sites with malicious scripts from from hijacking my browser, I found NoScript. Highly recommended.

Click here to get NoScript

To store very large MP3 files, I use Gspace. After uploading the files, now I can access my MP3's and PDF books from any browser.

Click here to read an article on how to use Gspace.

To channel surf the web, try StumbleUpon. Here is an interview with SU cofounder Garrett Camp.

Welcome new hires- Bangalore style

This youtube video was forwarded to me. A startup in India welcomes their very surprised new employees at Aditi.

Goodbye Acrobat PDF

I'm fed up with Acrobat Reader because it's so slow. Foxit Reader is a quick and small pdf reader, and it's free too. So far I've been using it without a hitch.

Click here to get Foxit Reader

Do you also need to create PDFs? Then get Primo PDF. Whether you have a newsletter, brochure, or any document you require as a PDF. This is for you. Why pay hundreds for Acrobat when this is free? I installed this a few months ago, and my wife says this works great.

Click here for Primo PDF

Another neat solution from Primo doesn't require you to download and install anything. Simply upload any file to http://online.primopdf.com, then get a PDF emailed to you.

Click here for Primo Online

Better Gmail, Multiple gmail accounts

Better Gmail improves your gmail experience. Install this to get saved searches, larger attachment icons, keyboard macros, a filter assistant and right-click conversation previews.

Click to get Better Gmail from Lifehacker

Gmail Manager allows you to easily manage multiple gmail accounts. If you share a computer and need to login and out of different gmail accounts, this is for you.

Click here for Gmail Manager

Ready, set, blog.

Welcome to my blog.

grep, grep, grep
You may be wondering, "grep? What's that?"

Grep (sounds like "step") is a unix command used for searching. This blog is my outlet for the things I come across on the web. I grepped and even found a hermit crab named "grep".



background info.
Grew up in the Philippines, and now live on the West Coast. My interests are personal finance, photography, travel, tech, good food, and healthy living.

I enjoy taking photos, and I have been shooting since my dad let me use his SLR when I was young. I moved to digital photography when I bought an Olympus 3030 cam (3 megapixel) . Soon after I upgraded to a Canon 10d SLR (6MP). I also use a compact Canon SD400 for its portability.

I like to travel. So far I have made it to Italy, and France, as well as trips back to Manila. I enjoy history and I enjoy listening to books on tape while I drive to and from work.

My interest in computers started when my eldest brother began tinkering with early personal computers in the 80's. I remember spending hours on the early Apple ][ clone (Taiwanese cloned labeled as banana pc) and then on the early Mac, and then to IBM PC XT/AT clones.

Currently I am employed in the computer industry as a software tester. My work involves probing software and reporting the issues I encounter. I now spend my time writing Java apps to automate tests. I currently use Linux and Windows daily.

Read more about the interesting tools I find on the web. If you have some favorite sites and interesting news, I'd love to hear your comments as well.

Thanks for dropping by, and please bookmark this site, grepthisblog.blogspot.com, and come back soon.