The transfer of this site to franticindustries.com is now complete. The switch to Wordpress has been relatively painless, and almost all of the content has been transfered to the new site - except the comments, sorry.
Microsoft.com received a complete redesign, featuring lots of unused space and less clutter (that's good), no tables (that's also good), and, most importantly, a menu that gives you quick access to all Microsoft products and services.Labels: design, Microsoft, News
There aren't many sites big enough that they can say something like "iPhone will be launched on monday. It's completely different than what we expected" and have people actually pay attention. Gizmodo is one of them, and since they can't afford being dead wrong on news like this, I guess we'll all have to believe them.
Labels: Apple, cellphones, iphone, News
Adobe has released a beta version of Photoshop CS3, sporting some interesting changes, most notably the one-column toolbar.
Labels: Adobe, News, Photoshop, software
Nintendo decided to recall all of the hand straps delivered with their Wii console because of user complaints that the strap simply isn't strong enough.There's no sense postponing the inevitable. After a month-long experimental phase, franticindustries is moving to its own server and web domain - www.franticindustries.com. Don't go there just yet - there's nothing on at the moment. The move will be done on Saturday/Sunday, so don't expect too many updates over that period.
Labels: franticindustries, News
New service from Google lets you search the entire text of the U.S. patent corpus (that's over 7 million patents), together with images.
Labels: Google, News, search, web
Techcrunch UK, the United Kingdom + Ireland arm of the popular Web 2.0 blogging authority Techcrunch, has been put on hold and its editor, Sam Sethi, is fired by Mike Arrington, the owner of all things Crunch.
Labels: blogging, News, web, web 2.0
Google has announced the release of the beta 3 version of Google Toolbar for Firefox, which sports some really interesting options.
Labels: Firefox, Google, News, web
New social content websites are appearing every day, but I don't see any of them gaining a really big following. I've done a little research to find if there is a secret ingredient that can make a new social content website successful. 
Labels: digg, Features, social news, web, web 2.0
A social news service was launched today at Wikio.com (together with versions for Spain and Germany at Wikio.es and Wikio.de). Wikio was already live and quite active in France and Italy, where they have around 700.000 users altogether. I tried out the service and while I can't say it's bad, it failed to really impress me. Labels: Features, social news, web, web 2.0, Wikio
Google blatantly stole a design template from Yahoo for their get IE7 campaign. It wouldn't be a big deal if they had just used Microsoft's template, but it's pretty obvious that they actually stole from Yahoo. Matt Cutts of Google apologizes to Yahoo's designer team, but doesn't forget to point out how Yahoo copied their AdSense template.
Labels: design, Google, News, web, yahoo
It's no big secret that I'm not really a fan of iPod Shuffle, because to me the absence a feature (in this case, the display) isn't really an advantage. However, if you're gonna do it, at least make it look nice. Apple has done it with its Shuffle, and now iRiver announced S7, a nice little piece of MP3 art.
New York Times stories now include links that enable users to submit them to community news services, in this case Digg, Newsvine and Facebook.Labels: community news, News, social networking, web, web 2.0
Innovations in the field of USB/firewire hubs aren't really that common, but LaCie thinks different. Their LaCie Huby is one hub you simply have to see.Labels: gadgets, hardware, News
A report commissioned by Microsoft and created by IDC claims that Vista will create 157.000 new jobs in the IT industry and generate $70 billion of revenue. Labels: News, software, Vista, Windows
Every time I see one of Vista's "gadgets" it reminds me of a bad naming decision by Microsoft.
Gmail introduced a new feature called Mail Fetcher, which lets you read mail from other accounts in Gmail. It's a great feature, and Gmail has already been declared perfect because of it, but let's not get too enthusiastic yet
When it comes to mobile phones, I've seen many innovations that will probably be forgotten in history as just another curiosity, but this one is one of the most bizarre - a cell phone with a dual LCD screenLabels: cellphones, LCD, News
Like many seasoned web surfers, I too barely notice pleas for donations on websites, even those I've frequented for years. Strangely enough, in the last couple of days several websites have attracted my attention with their donation request. Here's what they've done rightLabels: Features, monetizing, web
When something is really simple to use, it stands out. The folks over at DropBoks know this, so they've made their online file storage service as simple as it can possibly be. Franticindustries has had another redesign, I hope you like it. It's 98% done, expect some minor quirks, especially if you use IE6 or earlier.
Labels: design, franticindustries, News, web
An interesting discussion is hot these days about top diggers getting paid to Digg someone's story. Kevin Rose stated clearly that "Diggers will never get paid" because it would create an inequality among those that do get paid and those who do it for free. I offer a solution: give the Diggers some of Digg's traffic.Labels: digg, Features, web, web 2.0
After a long and painful wait, Wii is finally available here in Croatia. And would I be a respectable geek if I didn't try it out immediately? Of course not
More and more journalists end up in jail for their work every day. There are currently 134 imprisoned journalists all over the world, 49 of which are bloggers and Internet journalists. Is blogging real journalism or not, you ask? Well, the jail is certainly real.Labels: blogging, freedom of press, News
It's time to start with the 'best of 2006' lists, and with all the good stuff happening in the hardware department lately, what better way to start with than with the ultimate dream machine for the year 2006.
Antec Nine Hundred. This new product by Antec distinguishes itself from the rest by including spots for 5 120 mm fans and an additional 200 mm monster fan on top of the case. All these fans can make your computer really cool if you crank them up, but they won't produce much more than a hum if you keep them at 5V. Ideal.
Asus Striker Extreme. Simply put, the most powerful and versatile platform today offers me little choice than to include it in this list. For a (long) list of all of its features go here. I chose Asus because of the heatpipe cooling design, most effective I've seen of all n680i implementations.
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66. Sure, you won't feel much difference between it and Core 2 Duo. But 4 cores are future-proof, and although I don't think that a quad-core CPU pays off at this moment, this is a dream computer, right? It's still quite cool and not nearly as power hungry as AMD's FX-70 (not to mention that you need two of those if you want 4 cores).
Scythe Ninja PLUS Rev.B Scythe has positioned itself as one of the top manufacturers of high-end cooling equipment, and their latest cooler and its 12cm fan will keep your Core 2 Quad cool with a minimum of noise.
2xBFGTech GeForce 8800 GTX in SLI mode. Here the choice is easy, as noone disputes that 8800 GTX is currently the best GPU on the market. Why did we choose BFGTech? Well, this is supposed to be a silent computer, and BFGTech really went out of their way to please the enthusiast with this water-cooled version of 8800GTX. Personally, I don't use watercooling, but someone who does will appreciate the effort.
OCZ Dominator XMS2 2x2GB DDR I'm cheating a little on this one because 2GB Dominator modules are not yet available, but they should be by the end of the year. 4GB of RAM memory wouldn't make much of a difference compared to 2GB on WinXP, but in Vista you'll definitely notice it. OCZ's Dominator memory was used in many hardware benchmarks lately and it is generally accepted as one of the best modules available. They come with a cooling heatsink included. 
Blu-Ray Sony BWU-100A Usually, I wouldn't give this much cash just to have a Blu-Ray reader. Especially if I were able to get a PS3, because I get a nice gaming console and a Blu-Ray reader for the same price. But in a dream machine, Blu-Ray is the logical choice.
M-Audio Audiophile 192. Most reviewers usually choose one of Creative's products here, but I'm going for the audio card for the true hi-fi enthusiast. It's not a sound card for professional use; it's just an affordable card that will produce really great sound from your PC. You can plug it into your receiver and it will sound good even on an expensive speaker system.
Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 If you're not really into all that hi-fi stuff, but you still want a really good sound from your system, you won't go wrong with 5.1 system from Klipsch.
Samsung CX305T 30-inch LCD. With this model, Samsung positioned itself as the proud owner of the fastest 30-inch panel available, with just 6ms response time. Other characteristics are 2560x1600 resolution, contrast of 1000:1 and 400 cd/m2 brightness. And with those dual 8800GTX cards, you'll actually be able to play in this insane resolution without having to reduce the quality.When Firefox 2.0 first came out, I was one of those who claimed that it basically didn't bring anything new. However, the more I work in it, the more I discover new features that are really useful. Here's one - Ctrl+Shift+T
Labels: Features, Firefox, howto, software, tips
Dave Ryan, a radio host over at the KDWB station, promised to give a Playstation 3 to the whoever leaves their baby at the station for one whole day. Results? People calling and offering their babies like mad!
In the beginning, there was Digg. And it was good. But there's never too much of a good thing, right? I've dug out (no pun intended) the 5 strongest community news sites and compared them according to their features, design & usability, and quality of content.
Care2 is not just a community news site. It sprung out from a large web portal focusing on health, human rights and protecting the environment. And, while the news part of the site is more or less independant, and covers different topics, the fact that it's all a part of something else shows, so the site lacks the clarity of Reddit or Digg. The design is professionally done, with two columns of news which turn into one column when you click on a category. The voting icons, which are here called "note it!" are visible enough, and most of the stories have pictures, which sets the site apart from its competitors. All in all, most people won't have trouble getting around the site, however, the other features of the portal do get in the way of the news part itself.
I must confess right away that I adore Digg's design. I'm working on a web portal that's pretty cluttered with pictures and ads, so Digg's simplicity was a revelation, just like Google once was. There's simply no way you will be distracted from the main content on Digg, even with the Google AdSense ads that are present on the site. However, the usability isn't always perfect. For example, once I was wondering why my search doesn't work, only to find out that the context of the search changes with part of the site you're on. This is actually a good option, but it can confuse the beginner. Such minor quirks, together with the ads, are the only thing that are keeping Digg from reaching a perfect score.
Netscape, just like Care2, bears the cross of "being a site that did something else before it started to be a community news site". This means that it's a bit more cluttered than Reddit, Shoutwire and Digg, but not as much as Care2. By the way, the famous browser Netscape once made is mentioned only as an afterthought. However, the overall design of the site is still very good - content is in the front row, and users will have an easy time getting around the site. Ads are present, but not overwhelming. Categories, which are called channels, are clearly visible. All in all, although I wouldn't call the site the prettiest of the five, I'd say that it's as usable as the best of them.
Design-wise, Reddit is the most minimal of the five. This means you'll get the minimal possible amount of distraction while reading your content, which is great. This minimalism is present even in the controls of the site, which might confuse some users; for example, you can sort your stories by "hot, new, top, ups", and it might not be immediately apparent what's the difference between "hot", "top" and "ups". The voting button, also, might be too small for people with less-than-perfect eyesight. In general, though, Reddit focuses on the content, and for this type of site, it's the most important feat.
One of the nicer and cleaner looking sites of the bunch, Shoutwire doesn't hide its purpose for a second. You get your news, search, login, submit button, and categories right on the front page, all clearly visible, which makes it probably the most usable site out-of-the-box, if you will. The comments for the stories (together with the map, which I'll cover in features) are also easy to read. If I were pressed to find a flaw, I can only say that it might not stand out of the crowd enough (it looks a bit too much like all the other Pligg sites). Unfortunately, quite prominent AdSense ads and the fact that there's a whole entirely empty column on the right bottom part of the page take another point from the otherwise great design. Labels: Features, social networking, social news, web, web 2.0
The author discovers fresh new web services and products, crunches the numbers in IT and compares stuff so you don't have to. Fresh news and insights on IT, web 2.0, internet culture, Vista, hardware and other tech-related stuff. || Contact me at franticindustries@gmail.com
