Recently in Cool Web stuff Category

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.

Anticipating an increase in service demand - thanks to Apple's much-hyped iPhone - AT&T has hired 2000 temporary employees and has trained them on how to sell Steve Jobs' latest gadget.

Considering that AT&T has some 1,800 stores nation-wide, the surge in available staff amounts to just one extra person per store.

One more thing - in case you were wondering - we are NOT (sadly) getting any kickbacks from Apple Inc., there's just plenty of iPhone-related news coming out regularly.

I saw a plug for the Command Line Warriors blog in a British Linux magazine.

An enjoyable read, to be sure, with lots of GUI content, Mac OS X stuff, general Britannia and even shell account info.

Especially notable are the iPod and Linux series, Installing Gentoo series and Intro to the OS X command line.

My quick hint for OS X users:

Go to Applications, then to the System Utilities folder, then run Terminal. That's the OS X command line (your box is running BSD Unix, and it's there in all its glory).

at the prompt type this:

top

You will see most of the running processes on your machine and the percentage of memory and CPU power they are using.

To turn off top, on the PC it's ctrl-C. Maybe it's the same in OS X. If not, try Apple-C, or just close the Terminal window.

Sorry about the long title, but some things just piss me off so much. In this case, I want to make it clear that Microsoft isn't 100 percent to blame -- maybe 80 percent, since half the times that Microsoft tries to add value to their operating system, software companies that make money downstream by selling you stuff that would be made obsolete by that added value start bitching about it -- and the feds tell MS to back off.

And while I'm no Microsoft apologist, the consumer often gets screwed in the process. But that doesn't have to happen. There are some excellent free antivirus programs out there (I prefer Avast), and just about everybody knows that Open Office can replace MS Office, GIMP can replace Photoshop, Firefox subs for Internet Explorer, Thunderbird and Evolution (not to mention Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and the like) replace Outlook ... (and, of course, Linux can replace Windows, if you're so inclined).

So now on to my point -- and I do have one. The state of multimedia -- audio and video -- on the Internet is a big hot mess. Microsoft controls the Windows Media format. The MP3 format, which can get you a swift summons from the Recording Industry Association of America, has recently led to lawsuits over royalties for use of the format itself -- and besides that it's lossy and sounds compressed. Apple's AAC is somewhat more accessible, but there still is licensing and proprietary technology involved, and Apple Lossless is another proprietary format.

But there is an alternative: the Ogg Vorbis standard for audio and Theora for video are free, open-source alternatives, and Ogg is the primary multimedia format being used by Wikipedia. For true audiophiles, Ogg's FLAC codec -- used by the Philadelphia Orchestra for its online muslc offerings -- allows for compression but is lossless, unlike MP3 and AAC.

But can your computer play them. (Go to the Ogg Vorbis site for setup info, or keep reading). If you have a Linux box, you're in luck -- just about all the players on that platform can handle the audio Oggs, and many (including mplayer, xine, helix and VideoLAN) support the Theora video format as well.

But what if you have a Windows box? Windows Media Player handles MS's own audio/video format and will play MP3s, but it won't play Ogg files without a helper app. Luckily you can play OGGs on a Web page (as Wikipedia does on this C.P.E. Bach excerpt) if your browser uses Java.

Or you can download an application that will make your Windows Media Player (or other player) able to handle Ogg files. So if you are running Windows Media Player (which I do -- I happen to like it), download and run the program, and then download an Ogg file (like this version of "Giant Steps" by John Coltrate from Wikipedia), right-click on the file, then left-click on Open With and then navigate to Choose Program and choose Windows Media Player as the default app for Ogg files. Then when you click on an Ogg link on Wikipedia or elsewhere, the file will download and play in your Windows Media Player

For Mac OS X users, there are some players available that will handle Oggs (again, check the Ogg Vorbis page), but if you use iTunes (and what Mac user doesn't?), there's a plug-in to enable it to play Oggs.

And for all of these platforms, the Democracy Player is open source and handles just about every video format on the Web, including Theora.

Bottom line: In this case, Microsoft and Apple should add Ogg support to their players straight out of the box. Nobody would complain, sue or petition the government if they did. Users should not be steered toward and forced to use restricted file formats when free, quality open-source alternatives are available. Luckily there are work-arounds for this problem, as I have described above, and I encourage all of you to implement them on your own boxes, tell others about them and help your fellow users do the same.

It's Friday, and while's it's been good enough for this Hebrew, I just had to hear the "Sanford & Son" theme, which I've been teaching to the toddler -- hey, it's our cultural heritage!

I found it at Sitcoms Online, specifically right here, where you can click and hear it in all its .wav glory.

To hear the late, great Redd Foxx say, Lamont, you big dummy! click here. To here Fred G. Sanford have one of his many fake heart attacks, click here.

I ran across this site, BSD/Linux Gangster (also known as Linux/BSD Gangsters), and it is freakin' hilarious. Just dip into the forums and be prepared to laugh your geeky ass off.

P.S. The guy pictured on the left is "Mob Tux"

I just came across this great blog, Pain and Glory From the Trenches of the IT World, I'm not really sure who is behind it, other than being from IT (and I do believe it), but for a reasoned look at operating systems, hardware and general technology opinion, I find it to be a very good read.

For instance, he's of the opinion that converting an old PC into a home server is probably a waste of resources, and you're better off adding a hard drive to your existing PC if you need more storage.

And he things NetBSD would be a good OS for the One Laptop Per Child $100 PC initiative (which is currently using a cutdown Red Hat, I think). Here he's talking about Intel's low-cost PC made for the Third World (and not part of OLPC):

I have used NetBSD on a wide variety of older systems, and I have to say, it works wonders. When using NetBSD, it’s quite possible to turn old Sun SPARCstations into very capable mail servers or web proxies. Now, these low-end laptops are far, far more powerful than such obsolete Sun systems. The enjoyable experience of NetBSD on a 33 MHz SPARCstation 10 will no doubt be quite magnified on a 900 MHz Celeron-based system.

As you may have gathered -- and will gather upon more extensive reading, he's rather fond of NetBSD.

He also likes KDE as a desktop environment and thinks it's not just better but faster than GNOME, he again suggests NetBSD as an alternative to one of today's popular "low-spec" Linux distros, Xubuntu:

NetBSD is a truly remarkable and versatile system. And for many people, I think it would make a great alternative to lightweight Linux distributions like Xubuntu and Ubuntu Lite. The very philosophy of the project, that being widespread portability, will no doubt go a long way towards ensuring it remains a modern system that consumes minimal resources. If you’re currently a user of a minimalistic Linux distribution that you think is beginning to get bloated, maybe you should give NetBSD a try. It may just be exactly what you’re looking for.

Let's get it out in the open. Java is slow. Flash, though proprietary and closed-source, rules.

That's why I like the Speakeasy Speed Test for determining the health of your broadband connection -- it uses Flash instead of the usual Java.

The internet is entertainment, no way around it. So it only makes sense that newspapers begin to cover the internet the way we cover movies and television. Which means the inevitable end-of-year lists.

So here, from the Associated Press' Jake Coyle, is a list of the Top 10 YouTube videos from 2006, with the videos embedded for your viewing pleasure:

2006 was the year YouTube became culturally ubiquitous. Declared the invention of the year by Time magazine, the video sharing web site had Ohio judges posting their weekly sentencing hearings and spawned countless explosive experiments involving Diet Coke and Mentos candies. YouTube, based in San Bruno, provides a list of the most viewed videos, which remains the gauge upon which all clips are judged. Here, though, are the most significant YouTube videos of the year:

1. THE FACE OF YOUTUBE: The cute, bedroom confessions of Lonelygirl15 remain the site’s quintessential expression. Of course, the pretty high schooler named Bree was eventually revealed to be 19-year-old actress Jessica Lee Rose, who was acting out a scripted plot with two behind-the-scenes producers. But that strange mutated duality of what’s real and what’s fiction, what’s amateur and what’s professional, remains the heart and soul of YouTube, where everybody and nobody is a star.

2. NETWORK WAKE-UP CALL: Saturday Night Live’s “Lazy Sunday� mock-rap sketch was, in some ways, what started the revolution. The video was seen by more than five million viewers before NBC asked YouTube to remove it in February. Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg’s rhymes boosted the hipness of “SNL,� but more importantly, it was the first time networks were alerted to their new competition. NBC reacted fearfully, and later opted to built up its own Web sites with online video. The networks continue to experiment with YouTube; recently, CBS has claimed its late shows have increased in ratings after posting clips from “The Late Show with David Letterman� and “The Late Late Show� on YouTube.

3. POLITICAL FALLOUT: YouTube — like the Internet in general — has made it a specialty to reveal the gaffes and mistakes of the establishment. Of course, few would say Virginia Sen. George Allen didn’t deserve his fate after a video of him calling a rival campaign staffer “macaca� drew constant clicks on YouTube. Allen went on to lose an extremely close election — a race that YouTube could well have turned. On the other end of the spectrum, Michael J. Fox’s tremulous campaign ads for various Democratic candidates who support stem cell research proved powerfully effective and were seen by millions more than would have otherwise caught them on TV.

4. FLOUNDERING FOUNDERS: When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in October, YouTube
founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen posted a goofy, unrehearsed video with a glint in
their eye and a smirk on their face that said unmistakably: “We just became insanely
rich.� It was true to YouTube style, but the site’s video-posting community couldn’t help
thinking, “Didn’t we do all the work?�

5. OK STOP: MTV turned 25 this year, but it became clear a long time ago that its programming doesn’t have room for music videos anymore. YouTube’s expanse is endless, of course, and the site turned a little-known power pop group into the music video sensation of the year. OK Go’s video for “Here it Goes Again� was made in one long take with the amateurish creativity that YouTube specializes in. Their playfully choreographed treadmill dancing was the most absurdly graceful thing of the year: YouTube saved the video star.

6. CELEBRITY SPY: Michael “Kramer� Richards’ racist rant at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood in November would have drawn headlines without YouTube, but would millions have seen it? We’ve all become trained at this point: if something happens — check YouTube.

7. NOT JUST TEENAGERS: Though YouTube is generally viewed as a playground for the young,
many elderly people have seen its unique facility for communication. A user named Peter
who goes by the name geriatric1927 has become one of the biggest and unlikeliest stars of
the YouTube community. Dubbed “Virtual Granddad,� the British 79-year-old is beloved for
his “Telling it all� series of posts in which he warmly recalls his life stories — from
his days as radar mechanic during WWII to his life as a motorcycle salesman.

8. DOCUMENT OF INJUSTICE: A number of videos led to legal action that might not have otherwise been taken. Footage of a police officer striking suspect William Cardenas in Hollywood was viewed in court in September and a Superior Court commissioner ruled the officer’s conduct was “more than reasonable.� But after the video hit YouTube, it triggered an FBI investigation. The law can work both ways on YouTube, though. When two Nebraska teenagers posted a video making threats against their high school, they were soon arrested and ticketed on suspicion of disturbing the peace.

9. INTERNATIONAL COMPENDIUM: Unlike perhaps anything before, YouTube compiles videos from around the world, making for a truly borderless repository of pop culture. We’ve become accustomed to seeing soccer highlights among the most-watched YouTube videos, and aren’t surprised to see videos in Japanese or other languages. In this environment, two art students in China — known as the “Two Chinese Boys� — became internationally known without saying a word. The basketball jersey-wearing duo (Huang Yixin and Wei Wei) captivated with their passionate lip-synching of Backstreet Boys songs.

10. STAR MAKER: One of the most viewed, most discussed videos shows a slight figure, his face obscured by a beige baseball cap, sitting in front of his bedroom computer playing electric guitar. Sounds typical right? Except he’s playing a rock arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon using a difficult technique called sweep picking. The guitarist, named in the video only as “funtwo,� was eventually revealed to be a 23-year-old Korean named Jeong-Hyun Lim, now known the world over. Others, like the comedy duo Barats & Bereta, parlayed their video success into deals with giant media corporations like NBC Universal. Some didn’t find fame on purpose: Aleksey Vayner saw no humor in his boastful video application for an investment banking job.