Recently in Cool Web stuff Category

I was writing some CSS today and needed to Google a few things — that's how hacks like me figure stuff out.

I came across a site that has helped me before, A List Apart - For People Who Make Web Sites, and I just wanted to mention it here as a great place to learn about Web design. It goes back very far and has a whole lot of quality material.

It looks great, too — as it should, since it's all about design.

I don't think it's in my blogroll, but it should be (and will once I get to it). Webware, which subtitles itself "cool Web apps for everyone" is, indeed one of the best technology blogs out there.

The number of entries is astounding, and the quality of those entries is high.

If you want or need to keep up with what's happening — and going to happen — in Web-delivered services. The number of companies, devices and types of services they cover are too numerous to list.

Just read Webware already.

In OpenBSD, Flash support isn't exactly something to crow about. Flash Player 7 is all that works due to subsequent Linux Flash players needing ALSA sound support, a feature none of the BSD projects possess. And that player only works in the Opera Web browser — and only on i386.

But it turns out that you can watch Flash video in OpenBSD on any platform that runs Mplayer. And this clever hack is something that even Linux, Windows and Mac users can benefit from.

Here's how to do it: While perusing the OpenBSD mailing lists, I saw this post about KeepVid.

Basically what you do is enter the URL of the video in the proper box at http://keepvid.com, and then you get an MP4 video to download. Then you can play that video with Mplayer.

YouTube videos do play in OpenBSD's Opera with Flash, since they don't require Flash 9 or 10, but again, if you have a non-i386 machine (or don't want to run Opera) and want to watch them, this is a great way to do it.

Three things:

1) Not all Flash content has an easily grabbable URL, so I'm not sure http://keepvid.com will work in those instances.

2) Turning a Flash video into an MP4 means you now have a copy on your local machine that you can keep and watch at your leisure and archive as you see fit.

3) http://keepvid.com can be mighty useful even if you don't run a BSD, even if you don't run Linux. If you have no trouble viewing Flash video on your Linux, Windows or Mac OS box, http://keepvid.com still offers you a way to save a Flash movie in MP4 format on your local drive to watch at will with your favorite video player.

For me, anything that knocks Flash off its proprietary pedestal is A-OK.

Since I'm in a pop-culture vacuum, even though I edit an entertainment section, I only heard about comedian and actress Sarah Silverman's "I'm %&$#-ing Matt Damon video when Ilene told me about it. And now longtime boyfriend (and talk show host, if for some reason you didn't know) Jimmy Kimmel has come up with his music-video answer: "I'm ^&%$-ing Ben Affleck." The sheer number of cameos is astounding -- and extremely funny.

If you've been under the same sort of rock as I have, here's Kimmel's video, which I just saw a link to at Out in Hollywood:

And if you want to see Silverman's, here it is:

While I'm pimping Web sites, I might as well put in a plug for LXer, which collects links to posts and articles everywhere about all things Linux and open source.

The beauty of it is that anybody can become a member of LXer and submit their own links of things that look interesting on the Web.

I did it ... and now I'm a contributing editor. I mostly post links to items on Click, but every once in a while I find something not already on LXer that I can post a link to.

The site is valuable because it acts as an intelligent clearinghouse of open-source news. If something's happening in the world of Linux, BSD, or anything in the open-source software (and related hardware) world, chances are the LXer community already knows about it and has links to everything they can find concerning it.

Equally important is LXer's "Latest Discussions," where users bat around the dozens of articles linked from the site.

I've asked my LXer guru, Scott Ruecker more than once: The LXer concept is so novel and works so well -- everything from the conception and ideas behind the site to its programming (no pictures, just ultra-fast PHP and MySQL) -- that I wonder why there aren't LXer-type sites for Windows, Mac, and even for things outside the realm of computer hardware and software. It's a concept that just might work in both larger and different spheres -- everything from politics to quilting could benefit from an identically programmed forum.

LXer isn't as complicated as Digg, nor as chaotic as USENET, and it's not a fiefdom in any sense ... it truly reflects its community. And I couldn't imagine not being a part of it.

I hadn't taken a look at Lifehacker in awhile, but a recent visit proved it to be a good source of tips for the fully geeky, the would-be geek and, occasionally, the rest of us. I should probably start checking it every day.

A site I do manage to get to most days is the great BoingBoing, which once again appeals to the geeky, those who love them and ... yes, there's stuff for everybody.

Click was conceived by Josh Kleinbaum as a way to share cool crap we find on the Web. I usually don't care enough to go beyond looking at the aformentioned myself; I usually am not compelled to share it.

But the 1962 Sears Catalog is a different story. There's no better way to see the way we were (in the cobwebs not of my mind) than an old Sears Catalog. And yes, I'm old enough to remember poring through the toy section during the holidays.

Rumour has it that Apple Inc. is planning on introducing a cheaper, smaller version of the iPhone later this year. The rumour gained momentum last Thursday when it was made public that Apple Inc. filed a patent application last November describing "a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch pad displaying illuminated symbols that could change depending on the mode in use," which Apple enthusiasts are interpreting as an "iPhone Nano."

The beta version of RealPlayer 11 is out and it's free.

Among the new features, RealPlayer 11 allows users to burn videos
to CDs in the VCD format. (You will need to buy the $29.99 RealPlayer Plus to burn to DVDs).

RealPlayer 11 is also capable of recognizing video content protected by DRM (digital rights management) and blocking it from being recorded.

RealNetworks is also planning additional features - such as allowing video content to be downloaded to iPods and other portable devices.

The Communications Workers of America has released a report on how the web access speed in the U.S. compares to other nations. I have to admit that the results surprised me - not because the U.S. wasn't at the top of the list but because how meager our speed seems compared to other countries.

Here are some numbers:

The median U.S. download speed 1.97 megabits per second.
In Japan: 61 megabits per second.
In South Korea: 45 megabits per second.
In France: 17 megabits per second.
In Canada - yes, Canada - 7 megabits per second.

The report also reveals that among the states, the East Coast is definitely speedier than the West Coast.

The Top Five: Rhode Island, Kansas, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.