Religious Networking Sites

In this series we have been looking a variety of social networking sites that have been aimed towards specific interests such as writing, the arts, and music but the field of specialized social media is ever growing and a lot of religious communities and organizations are starting to get in on the popularity of the social media craze while trying to fill a gap for many users whose needs are not, or can not, be met by some of the larger mainstream social networking sites.

With some of the larger, more popular social network sites you have several problems that are of concern to some users including the lack of family friendly content and the risk of exposing yourself or your child to offensive or harmful material that may be of particular concern to many families. Additionally, with such large sites it may often be difficult to find others in the crowd who share your particular religious or philosophical views. For these reasons, among others, we are seeing a few religious or ideological themed social networking sites springing up. After scouring the web for such communities these sites proved to be worth a look:

Jewish Social Networking Sites:

Jew Crew: http://www.jewcrew.org/home.php

A social networking site that helps users connect to other Jewish members from around the world.

My J World: http://www.myjworld.com/

A community web site and for personal networking or growing your business by connecting to a Jewish community where you can join clubs, explore videos, or just meet some interesting new people.

Frum Chat: http://www.frumchat.com/home.php

A great site for the Jewish community with easy to use features and over 800 members on an easy to use site.

Christian Social Networking Sites:

Tangle: http://www.tangle.com

A unique social networking site for the Christian community where you can find churches and new ministries, submit and review prayer requests, and read the Bible online.

Holy Pal: http://www.holypal.com

A fairly large christian social network with all the standard features, share videos, upload your photos, create groups, and connect with others.

My Faith Haven: http://myfaithhaven.com

Easy to use Christian site that not only includes some of the traditional social networking features but also features a daily Bible verse and arcade.

My Godly Place: http://www.mygodlyplace.com

Another site that aims to be a christian alternative to myspace boasting hundreds of members along with polls, forums, etc.

Shout Life: http://www.shoutlife.com

Another great alternative to the other sites that offer a “safe and clean” environment for all of your social networking needs.

Generation JC: http://www.generationjc.com

Blogs, music, chat, and more make this site an interesting choice for those looking for christian communities online.

Life Space: http://www.lifespace.cc

A small but growing christian social network that is offering a family alternative to some of the more well known sites out there.

Messianic Social Networking Sites:

The Nazarite Site: http://the-nazarite-site.ning.com

A social networking community for messianic believers as well as others in the religious community of Sabbath observant followers. Nice design and great features make this one a good choice.

Moshiach Now: http://moshiachnow.ning.com

Another small messianic social network worth checking out with customizable profile and easy to use features.

Messianic Evangelicals http://messianicevangelicals.ning.com

A teaching ministry and social network combined that describes itself as a “Union of Two House Messianic Israelite and Evangelicals”.

Messianic Torah: http://messianictorah.ning.com

A small but interesting social network for those in the messianic community.

One to Watch: Another up and coming social networking site for the Messianic community is Kehila which is a brand new site accepting members now but plans to official launch at the end of the month so it might be worth checking out: http://kehilaonline.ning.com

Other:

Buddhist Network: http://www.buddhist-network.com

Christian and Jewish communities are not the only one getting into social networking as you can see with this popular Buddhist community with forums and plenty of interesting people to meet.

Whether it is offering a family friendly environment that you can feel good about your children using, giving you a chance to promote your ministry or service that is of interest to the religious community, or simply giving you an opportunity to connect with like minded individuals, these specialized social media networks are seeing some success and may be worth checking out.

Specialized Social Media: Part 3- Social Media for Religious Communities

In this series we have been looking a variety of social networking sites that have been aimed towards specific interests such as writing, the arts, and music but the field of specialized social media is ever growing and a lot of religious communities and organizations are starting to get in on the popularity of the social media craze while trying to fill a gap for many users whose needs are not, or can not, be met by some of the larger mainstream social networking sites.

With some of the larger, more popular social network sites you have several problems that are of concern to some users including the lack of family friendly content and the risk of exposing yourself or your child to offensive or harmful material that may be of particular concern to many families. Additionally, with such large sites it may often be difficult to find others in the crowd who share your particular religious or philosophical views. For these reasons, among others, we are seeing a few religious or ideological themed social networking sites springing up. After scouring the web for such communities these sites proved to be worth a look:

Jewish Social Networking Sites:
Jew Crew:
A social networking site that helps users connect to other Jewish members from around the world.

My J World:
A community web site and for personal networking or growing your business by connecting to a Jewish community where you can join clubs, explore videos, or just meet some interesting new people.

Frum Chat:
A great site for the Jewish community with easy to use features and over 800 members on an easy to use site.

Christian Social Networking Sites:
Tangle:
A unique social networking site for the Christian community where you can find churches and new ministries, submit and review prayer requests, and read the Bible online.

Holy Pal:
A fairly large christian social network with all the standard features, share videos, upload your photos, create groups, and connect with others.

My Faith Haven:
Easy to use Christian site that not only includes some of the traditional social networking features but also features a daily Bible verse and arcade.

My Godly Place:
Another site that aims to be a christian alternative to myspace boasting hundreds of members along with polls, forums, etc.

Shout Life:
Another great alternative to the other sites that offer a “safe and clean” environment for all of your social networking needs.

Generation JC:
Blogs, music, chat, and more make this site an interesting choice for those looking for christian communities online.

Life Space:
A small but growing christian social network that is offering a family alternative to some of the more well known sites out there.

Messianic Social Networking Sites:
The Nazarite Site:
A social networking community for messianic believers as well as others in the religious community of Sabbath observant followers. Nice design and great features make this one a good choice.

Moshiach Now::
Another small messianic social network worth checking out with customizable profile and easy to use features.

Messianic Evangelicals:
A teaching ministry and social network combined that describes itself as a “Union of Two House Messianic Israelite and Evangelicals”.

Messianic Torah:
A small but interesting social network for those in the messianic community.

One to Watch: Another up and coming social networking site for the Messianic community is Kehila which is a brand new site accepting members now but plans to official launch at the end of the month so it might be worth checking out.

Other:
Buddhist Network:
Christian and Jewish communities are not the only one getting into social networking as you can see with this popular Buddhist community with forums and plenty of interesting people to meet.

Whether it is offering a family friendly environment that you can feel good about your children using, giving you a chance to promote your ministry or service that is of interest to the religious community, or simply giving you an opportunity to connect with like minded individuals, these specialized social media networks are seeing some success and may be worth checking out and they are just the tip of the iceburg, so if you did not see your particular religion of choice featured here be sure to do some searching and you are sure to find a community that will fit your need for specialized social media. And do not forget that these communities can be a great way to promote your products or services that migh be of special interest to religious communities.

Christmas Gifts for the Shutterbug

It seems every family has at least one person in charge of taking family snapshots. After looking over dozens of catalogs and even more web sites, I have compiled a list of great gifts for that camera buff.

Under $20

Giottos Rocket Air Blower. (About $12) Every camera bag should have one of these indispensible gadgets. The Rocket Air Blower shoots a powerful stream of air that will clean lenses and filters. It’s design prevents dust from being blown into the object being cleaned and it does a remarkable job in cleaning the surfaces of filters or lenses.

Bower Wrist Strap (About $6) Small camera or large camera, a wrist strap is cheap insurance preventing a camera from slipping out of your hand and hitting the hard floor. The Bower wrist strap is comfortable to use all day and is large enough to hold a DSLR safely. This is not the tiny wrist strap that comes with some cameras. This one is padded and thick to it won’t cut into your wrist or slip off your hand. Even with my big hands, this wrist strap worked extremely well.

Under $50

Joby Gorillapod (About $45) Every shot can be made better with the use of a camera support. Unfortunately there isn’t always enough space to set up a full tripod. The GorillaPod uses a series of interlocking plastic joints to lock it’s three legs around almost any object. Trees, fence posts, even a kitchen chair. The Gorillapod is small enough to take with you almost anywhere and is surprisingly strong.

Under $100

Samsung 8-inch Digital Photo Frame (About $80) Every camera buff wants a way to display their photos and digital photo frames are perfect. Housing the images on an SD card, updating the images is easy and is limited by only the size of the SD card. What makes this Samsing frame a little different is that it is the ony one I’ve found where you can schedule a time when it’s on and off so it isn’t using electricity while you aren’t at work or asleep. This particular frame can also be used as a second PC monitor.

Under $200

Casio Exilim EX-FS10 (About $175) This 9 megapixel pocket-sized camera works remarkably well. With a bright 2.7 inch LCD display and ISO settings from 50-1600, this camera is capable of many great photographs. In burst mode, it can take up to 30 photos per second, which is impressive for such a small camera. The camera’s video capabilities also set it apart from its peers. Not only will it shoot 848×480 resolution video, but it can shoot it in super slow motion which can be very fun for shutterbugs of all experience levels.

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera (About $180) If you are looking for a sub $200 video camera that shoots HD and fits in your pocket, then this is your camera! Video can be 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second and can upload to YouTube quickly and easily via the USB cable. For the price and the video quality, it will be difficult to find a better video camera out there.

All in all, the variety of photo-centric gadgets keeps increasing and the features continue to keep us shutterbugs happy year after year!

Interview With Jay Feitlinger, Founder and CEO of ShopTab

Recently, I was able to interview Jay Feitlinger, CEO and Founder of ShopTab, a company that allows businesses to sell through their FaceBook pages.

RS: First off, WHAT is ShopTab?
JF: ShopTab is a Facebook App that allows business owners to sell more products by creating a shop tab on their Facebook fan page, showcasing products from their existing online store. Easily. Quickly. Inexpensively.

RS: When did ShopTab launch
JF: ShopTab launched in October 2009

RS: What made you decide to create ShopTab?
JF: Over the past 8 years I have been working with small to large clients with their online marketing and social media strategy. One of my biggest passions is helping small to medium size business owners understand and leverage the internet to connect with their customers. Many of my smaller ecommerce clients have been requesting my help on how they can monetize their efforts on Facebook.

My wife owns an online baby product business http://www.littlebutterflykiss.com. She, as with many of my smaller ecommerce clients, don™t have large budgets to afford website development of a custom Facebook shop tab nor large marketing budgets. I decided to help and after 3 months of development we recently launched ShopTab to complement any ecommerce tool. It has some built in social shopping features such as Share to Facebook Wall to get the word out about their Shop Tab products.

RS: What sets ShopTab apart from other similar applications?
JF: There are a few shop type applications on Facebook but ShopTab specifically:

1. Was designed and developed from the business owner perspective. We focused heavily on the needs of the business owner when developing the application and spent the extra time and money to ensure the tool did not require any technical knowledge. We require no additional programming code or html.
2. Works with every ecommerce tool.
3. Allows a shop owner to export their products from their current ecommerce tool and upload through our easy to use admin tool. A few of our recent customers told me they set up their 500+ product store within 10 minutes.
4. Ds not charge an upfront fee for the shop tab application, nor take a percentage of each sale. Our customers pay a flat small monthly fee starting at $10/mo for up to 500 products. We also offer a 7 day free trial and they can cancel whenever they want — no long term contracts
5. Ds not require they use any specific platform to handle payments, sales tax, shipping, security, etc. We send their prospective customer to their website to handle the transaction.
6. Sends customers directly to an existing shopping site, increasing traffic and enabling a shopping experience unfettered by any limitations within Facebook. For instance, upselling, cross-selling, recurring purchases and so forth can still be handles as they always have.

RS: Why Facebook?
JF: With over 350 million fans and growing everyday and the strong desire for business owners to find a way to monetize their Facebook presence “ Facebook was the right choice for our intial launch.

RS: If I were looking at setting something like this up, what would I need to do to get started?
JF: Simply visit http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=189977524185 and click on Go To Application. From there a business owner would create their account, log into the admin, and either use our product feed upload tool or add products individually.

RS: What features are you looking at adding in the near future?
JF: For this we are relying on our customers to tell us what else they need. Just last week customers asked us for a way to share a product to their wall. That feature was added yesterday. We are going to rely on what features make the most sense for our business owners but do not require an increase in monthly cost to the ShopTab business owner. There are a few features such as horizontal vs. vertical layout that we have in the works but again if another feature comes up that is more important to our ShopTab business owner customer it will take higher priority over our feature roll out schedule.

Check it out: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=189977524185

Companies Behind Linux

One question which amazes many people is how the world of Open Source runs and from where it gets all its funds. Open Source and Linux developers work for free and it is a community driven and open project.

Anyone can join and for that question, anyone can leave as well. There is no-one bossing you around. But that is true only for projects which are hosted for free. There are other projects managed by Linux giants like Red Hat and Novell which get their funds from the Enterprise Solutions they provide. Additionally, there are many companies financing the world of Open Source, especially the world of Linux for their own benefit. Many of them are reputed companies specializing in providing state of the art business solutions.

One such company is Google. Even antitrust controversies like Microsoft are in the game. Microsoft has its CodePlex foundation where, it is said, Microsoft puts employees to write open source code and pays them and has been denying this fact ever since it surfaced. But Microsoft has other better things to worry and care for.

There are many other companies which deal in Linux development specifically.

Red Hat

Red Hat is a S&P 500 company and is a major promoter of Linux and Open Source. Its most popular product includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora. Red Hat was founded in the year 1993 and has never looked back ever since.

The company went public in 1999 and has received wide appreciation from the Open Source world. It has its headquarters located a Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. It has 2800 employees and has a net income of 78.72 million USD. Achievements :

Red Hat grabbed the Operating System Product of the Year award more than once and has been awarded a number of times elsewhere.

The entry of Red Hat into the S&P 500 was a big win for the world of Linux and ensured continued development over the years. Red Hat has followed a number of acquisitions ever since its birth. It acquired Cygnus Solutions in 1999 and the JBoss in 2006.

These were major milestones for Red Hat. Products :

The major products of Red Hat include the Red Ha Enterprise Linux and the community driven and Red Hat backed Fedora Project. Red Hat developers work for the Fedora project project along side their mainstream job and many developments from the Fedora project make it to the Red Hat distribution releases.

Canonical

Canonical Ltd. is a company founded by South African multi-millionaire Mark Shuttleworth. He made a furtune when he sold away his venture Thawte to VeriSign. Ever since, Mark Shuttleworth has been financing open source software and development all over the world through his company Canonical Ltd., which is a private company dedicated to this sole purpose.

The company was founded on 5th March 2004 and has its registered headquarters at Douglas, Isle of Man in Europe. Canonical Ltd. has revenue of 30 million USD and has a little over 200 employees.

Activity :

The company has been involved in a number of activities right after after its birth.

The Software freedom day is held on the third Saturday of every September. Canonicals sponsored the event in 2005-2006 by a huge amount.

Freedom Toaster is an innovative kiosk designed for users to save on download costs and burn CD/DVD of their favorite Linux distribution of choice, for free of cost and in seconds.

Products :

The major contribution of Canonical to the world of Linux includes the Ubuntu distribution of Linux which forms the base for a number of side projects like Mint, Ubuntu Ultimate Edition etc. Ubuntu has a definitive 6 months release cycle ensuring a continuous flow of quality work from the developers. Other products include Landscape, which is a browser based web-server manager, Launchpad, the website containing Open Source software projects and Ubuntu One which is a closed source file synchronization service.

Novell

Novell was founded in 1983 and has over 4000 employees currently. Its headquarters are located at Waltham, MA, USA and the company specializes in enterprise software solutions for Linux. This is one of the oldest players in the Open Source world and has played a key role in emerging technologies like the LAN and network security.

The company was one of the first tech giants to compete with Microsoft and started with buying UNIX rights from Novell. Novell was headed by current Google CEO Eric Schmidt for a long period and has flourished to be a key competitor to the closed source world of paid software.

The company ran into many controversies due to its deal with Microsoft and was looked down upon by major Open Source communities around the world. Things have started getting better now and Novell will probably gain back the confidence it had once. Novell has a net income of 8.7 Million USD.

Achievement :

Novell entered into an agreement with Microsoft on 2nd November 2006 whereby it decided to setup a lab which allowed research to be carried out for better compatibility of its software with other software vendors. Novell is especially known for its excellent customer support and it holds support as a top priority in its business solution.

Products :

Novell has a number of products which include Novell NetWare, SUSE Linux and the Novell Cloud Security Service.

10 Questions with upillar.com CEO Trevor Milton

Recently, I was able to sit down and talk with the founder and CEO of upillar.com, Trevor Milton.

RS: First off, WHAT is upillar.com?

TM: upillar.com is a free nationwide online classified website. Items are listed both locally and nationally allowing buyers and sellers to reach the broadest possible audience absolutely free! upillar.com never takes a portion of the sale. We provide our services 100% to the public. Whether you are buying or selling; Motorized vehicles, Clothing, Electronics, Real Estate, or looking for your next job, upillar.com’s free online classifieds are the place to go.

RS: What made you decide to develop upillar.com?

TM: I was going to college trying to make college payments by buying and selling stuff. Nothing was available at the time. The only free services were very cumbersome and difficult to use. I decided the public deserved a place to go where everything was free, and actually easy to use.

RS: Why the name upillar?
TM: The letter “u” signifies “you” or “yourself” , the word “pillar” gives reference to a sign of strength. So you are what makes our free marketplace strong.

 

RS: What is your background? Did you work at an internet company previously?

TM:No internet background whatsver. I ran with this as a dream, and was able to put together the entire site from scratch during 4 1/2 years of development with a whole team of programmers.

RS: What is your vision for the future of upillar.com?

TM:We hope that upillar.com becomes THE place to buy and sell goods for free. With major releases soon coming, upillar.com will offer sections that specifically cater to Real Estate & Jobs. Although you can find those categories in our current classified section, the new release will customize an entire section of our website dedicated to those categories giving some of the biggest names in the internet a run for their money.

RS: What were some of the major obstacles you encountered while starting this site?

TM: Some of our biggest problems were; Name, Trust, Organizing our website, flow(How users click through the website),and credibility. With our newest release coming the first week of December, we hope to improve many areas of our current system.

 

RS: What is on the immediate horizon for upillar?

TM: upillar.com has just signed a major national advertising campaign that will begin the first week of December. We would be happy to tell you more about it once the official releases go out! We anticipate millions of listings in our first quarter of next year.

RS: What sets upillar apart from ebay and Craig’s list?

TM: upillar.com is often referred to as a hybrid of craigslist and ebay at first glance.

upillar.com’s services are completely free like Craigslist.org, but has some major functionality differences between the two. First; when you list an item for sale, the item is placed into a category instead of a city. This enables users to list an item once, and it immediately becomes searchable both on a local level and a national level. Second; You can place up to 20 photos for free on each listing. upillar.com also gives buyers easy access to the seller by providing a safe way to communicate with the seller without giving up personal information.

upillar.com also offers a very powerful keyword search technology that enables users to find what they are looking for in under 30 seconds. This is accomplished by “category narrowization” . Ebay has a great platform where this technology has proven to be valuable. Since upillar.com is a classified website, sellers dont have to worry about monitoring their listings to make sure minimum dollar amounts are met. Just list your item and let it be until someone emails you or calls you.

 

RS: What was the first item sold on upillar?

TM: First item sold on upillar.com was my own personal Sony camera. First public item sold was a purebred Labrador puppy.

RS: Technologically speaking, what was the biggest issue you’ve had thus far?

TM: Biggest problem so far has been our patent pending technology of displaying book values on all our motorized vehicles. Teaming up with NADA guides, upillar.com was able to create the first ever website that shows what each car,boat, motorcyle, or ATV is worth without ever leaving that listing. Need to know if what you are buying is a good deal? You’ll never have to worry about it again on www.upillar.com. We have since figured the technology out and by January first the values will be displayed in each motorized listing. (Values are currently available on upillar.com, but can be somewhat confusing to some users. The fix will come January 1, 2010 for that specific technology.

Check out the site at http://www.upillar.com

Specialized Social Media Part 2: Networks for Music Lovers and Musicians

Who Should Used Specialized Media for Music Communities:

If you have a product or service that is of special interest to either music fans or to musicians and bands then networking on these specialized social media networks can be a great form of advertising. This can include businesses that sell music equipment, venues that are looking for new talent, or businesses that meet specialized needs such as creating custom web sites for a band or designing promotional t-shirts, or other service can also greatly benefit from getting their name and products or services in front of the right people.

Of course, anyone involved in the music industry will also want to explore social media dedicated to music fans as a simple and cheap way to promote there own music, find new fans and venues, and sell their own CD’s and other music related items. Additionally, music fans who want to stay up to date on what is happening with their favorite bands or discover great new music that they might not otherwise be exposed to will likely find something worth there time at one of the many music related social media networks.

So whether you are looking to sell your own business or service, promote your own music, or simply spend your online time finding the best new music then checking out music themed social networks may be a great choice. Here are a few great suggestions to get you started:

MusoCity- A great little community for music lovers, fans, bands, and music professionals of various musical genres and a great place to discover new musical artists. Get your free account and start mingling with other music fans and discovering new talent right away.

Last FM- This is a great site for music lovers with videos and profiles for just about every type of music you could be looking for including indie, rock, pop, metal, and even jazz and classical music. Musicians can even find ways to sell their music and build a fan base with Last FM.

ilike.com- iLike is designed for music lovers and utilizes a spectrum of other social networking sites to let users share play lists, discover new music, and get personalized concert alerts.

Diletante- This is a wonderful community for lovers of classical music and new artists and composers looking to gain an audience for their musical talents.

In additional to social networks devoted to the broad spectrum of music, certain artists have also started their own unique versions which is not  only a great way for the bands to connect with their fans but it also presents an excellent opportunity for you to network with others who share your common interest or who might loosely fit a particular type of demographic. One great example of this is the network designed by H.I.M. on their web site at heartagram.com.

Regardless of the type of music that you are looking for or the audience that you wish to capture, odds are there is a perfect social network or two out there that can help you achieve your social networking goals while meeting some interesting people and finding great new talent in an easy and affordable way.

Lesser Known But Powerful Linux Distros

Linux has been a thing of pride amongst all geeks. Linux is the buzzword amongst noon-geeks as well; they refer to it as some Martian mojo. Though today, Linux has come a long way from being all fast text being typed into boring terminals and long frightening messages scrolling up and down user screens.

Linux is no more all about the command line. GUI in Linux was popularized by the release of Red Hat Linux 9. From then Linux has improved both, in its features as well as its GUI. Today, Linux has a GUI comparable to any Windows that will be released in the next five years. The plasma effect of KDE desktop and the Compiz effects have proven time and again that GUI is not all about Windows.

Linux has a plethora of desktop environments, distribution types and specialized distributions to choose from unlike Windows versions of Home Basic version, Home Premium version, Ultimate version, Professional version, Corporate Version and all that confusion.

The distributions in Linux are all managed and released by individual groups of developers. Unlike the Suse, Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux we know of, Linux actually comes in many different flavors and distros with different features and capabilities each. Many of them are built for specialized operation like scientific research, network testing system stability and performance testing etc.

Here are three of the lesser known but widely used Linux distributions. These distributions are specialized for particular tasks only though, general users can always give it a try and the best thing, these professional operating systems, are all free and open source.

Scientific Linux

Scientific Linux, is a Red Hat based Linux distro and is developed by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and CERN in collaboration with many other laboratories across the world. The primary objective of the Linux distro is to prevent duplication of development of the same features by labs around the world and provide a standardized OS for various research and experimental works. It is basically Red Hat Enterprise Linux, recompiled from the source. This ensures a full compatibility with all software from Enterprise. Also, this Linux forms a base for the addition of additional specific packages for a particular lab. Also, each lab is allowed to create its own distribution with all its scripts and custom software, and redistribute it. The OS is available for all users as it is Open Source and you can try it out too if you are curious about what all the CERN uses.

The environment used is Gnome and there is extreme support for programming in Java.

Visit the Scientific Linux homepage here.

BackTrack

BackTrack is the Linux of choice when it comes to networks security and exploit testing. BackTrack contains a powerful 300 application base, packaged into one distro to make it the #1 Linux distro amongst networking professionals. BackTrack was awarded the #1 Security Live Distribution by inseccure.org in 2006. It was formed as a merger of two popular distributions, WHAX and Auditor Security Collection. The BackTrack distribution is based on Slackware Linux and just like any other Linux has a live CD too.

One of the featured applications in BackTrack is Metasploit, which is tightly integrated into the distro. Also, the applications in BackTrack are categorized and structured for ease of access. Any new feature is made available immediately, through updates. This makes BackTrack the perfect Linux for both budding hackers and security professionals dealing in Computer Forensics. BackTrack is used in many institutions providing specialization in network security.

The desktop environment available in BackTrack is KDE.

Visit the BackTrack homepage here.

ArcheOS

ArcheOS is an acronym for Archaeological Operating System. This Linux distro is based on Kubuntu 8.10, although a new version is under development which will be based on Debian Squeeze. The distro is available as a live DVD like any other Linux and the Kubuntu base means full compatibility with the Ubuntu repositories. This gives it the ability to add more software packages. The distro features many specialized softwares like AutoQ3D for CAD, QGIS and GRASS for GIS (Geographical Information Systems), GPSDrive for GPS, Blender for 3D graphics, Gimp for fast image editing and other basic application like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice etc.

The ArcheOS distro features a KDE desktop environment.

Visit the ArcheOS homepage here.

An important feature of Linux, Live CD, which allows us to try a distribution before installing it, is present in all the three distributions. Linux has finally captured more than 1% of desktops worldwide. More and more people are using Linux every day. Clearly Linux is not all about web-servers and any general PC user can always try out one of these distributions.

Chi.mp vs. Storytlr vs. FriendFeed: Lifestream Battle Royale!

As we grow our online personas and login to one of many powerful tools, we spread ourselves thinnerliterally. Posting on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, delicious, Digg, YouTube, StumbleUpon or even your personal blog, we spread our lives across many servers and many sites. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one place where my friends and family could see all of those nuggets of me? Ask and you shall receive, but like the numerous sites you populate already, there are also numerous sites that do exactly what you want. Lifestreams.

This article will take three lifestreams and compare them, bring out their pros and cons, and then let you decide which one may be right for you.

1. Chi.mp. (http://www.chi.mp) A slick web site that allows you to amalgamate Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and RSS feeds. The interface is clean and setup is fairly easy. The one stand out feature is the ability to select a custom domain name, for free, to point to this new collection of your internet life. Chu.mp or Pi.mp could be your chosen domains, or the simple BillSmith.mp can make that address much easier to remember. The downfall of the site for me was the use of the site. Once I set it up, I never went back. For my use, Chi.mp had no traction for me. No big payoff.

2. Storytlr.(http://www.storytlr.com) . I am growing more and more fond of this site. Storytlr has access to your accounts on Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Vimeo, Youtube, and many others. Besides the broader reach of Storytlr, it also brings sidebar widgets similar to Wordpress, comments, and pre-made themes to skin your site. Antoher feature that I find useful is the ability to crosspost, so if you post onto Facebook, you can have it update your Twitter account and link to that post.

3. FriendFeed .(http://www.friendfeed.com) . FriendFeed taps into delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Gmail/Google Talk, Twitter, Amazon, and RSS feeds. There are 58 services in total at the time of this writing that they support, and I see just about everything I need. It also has premade themes to transform the look of the site. FriendFeed also added the ability to friend people within FriendFeed, adding another layer to the site complete with direct messaging that can cross over to Twitter. Lastly, and I think possibly one of the most valuable features is the live updates. No site refresh needed, so I can set up FriendFeed and let it spin all day and I can always catch new updates. Of the three sites, FriendFeed is by far the most likely to grow and catch on. If you don’t have a FriendFeed account, go get one now.

Will these sites revolutionize how we use the internet? Probably not, but they will make our daily lives a little easier and maybe they could spark innovations in how we communicate with friends, family and colleagues.

Four Sites that Could Teach you to do Just About Anything

 Have you ever wanted to learn how to play guitar, change your car’s oil, increase your Twitter followers, or become way more skilled in Photoshop?  Knowledge is power and there are many web sites out there offering a Boat-load of knowledge for free.  I will cover four web sites that cover a wide array of topics and have instructions for you to accomplish just about anything you want.

 

The first is eHow (http://www.eHow.com).  A great multi purpose site, eHow, covers topics like Careers, electronics and even legal and Parenting.  For instance, are you wondering what constitutes Reasonable Suspicion for a police officer to stop you?  There’s an article on that.  Are you wondering how to pierce an ear like a professional?  Or maybe how to best choose a tattoo design?  eHow has a mountain of user-submitted articles covering all these topics and more.  The downside to this site is that many of the instructions are of a very basic nature.  Over all, eHow has provided me with a few tips and tricks valuable enough that I will go back.

 

Next is Tutorialized (http://www.tutorialized.com).  Focusing on the more technical side of tutorials, Tutorialized does a really good job of providing articles on Photoshop, Gimp, and even AutCAD.  With over 12,000 tutorials on Photoshop alone, this is a great resource for any graphic designer or photographer.  They have some great articles on simple enhancements all the way to very specific tips and tricks, like How to Create Glossy Lips and Change Hair Color.  Each tutorial has stats like the number of views, votes and a simple rating system so you can quickly evaluate which tutorials seem to be better. 

 

Not commonly thought of as a tutorial site, but Mahalo (http://www.mahalo.com) has some pretty decent tutorials covering a wide range of topics.  Just check out the How To section of the site (http://www.mahalo.com/category/how-tos) to find some great articles like How to make Pumpkin Pie or How to Make Money off of Facebook.  The articles are well done and rival just about any tutorial I’ve seen on the internet.  Don’t under estimate Mahalo the next time you are looking for directions on how to do something. 

 

Lastly,  MonkeySee (http://www.monkeysee.com).  An aptly named site, these tutorials are all video-based and range in topics from automotive repair to pet care.  One of the more interesting articles is, How to Play Air Guitar and How to Read Tarot Cards.  I thought I knew how to play air guitar, but watching a video from the world champion air guitarist, I guess everyone has something to learn. 

So, the next time you find yourself wondering how to accomplish a task on your Honey Do List, don’t worry, because you can look it up on the internet.

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