On the web
www.omgpop.com
OMGPOP is a place to "hang out, play free online
multiplayer games, chat and make friends". The website allows visitors
to play games and meet each other, and offers a mixture of playing and
thinking through games like Letterblox (making words using a given set of
letters), Jigsawce (putting together jigsaw pieces), and Draw My Thing (pictionary),
among others. It's fun, and – be warned – it's highly addictive! They
claim that their average users log in 100 times a month!
Better Explained
www.betterexplained.com
"Learning shouldn't hurt," says this website.
"Let's share the insights that made difficult ideas click." And
that's exactly what it does. The website focuses on discovering and sharing
intuitive insights that make complicated ideas simple. You can find math,
calculus, business, programming, and many other topics explained here
"at an intuitive level after overcoming the initial complexity". If
you want to play with numbers or learn the basics of web development, this
website might be a good place to start with.
www.giveawayoftheday.com
The Giveaway of the Day project offers free licensed
software that you'd otherwise have to buy. One software title is nominated
everyday and is the giveaway title for that day, presented in its full
functionality – that is, not as a trial or limited version, but a
registered and legal version of the software – free for all visitors. The
software is available along with detailed software reviews and will be
accessible for 24 hours or the time frame agreed upon by the software
publisher. Visit regularly and you might be able to find some useful
applications.
News-e-land
- Decline in number of Wikipedia contributors: According
to a study by Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, collaborative
encyclopaedia project Wikipedia lost 49,000 of its contributors in the first
quarter of 2009, as compared to the same time last year when the project lost
only 4,900 editors. While some suggest that this fall in contributors may be
because of the implementation of more rules governing edits and could mean
trouble for the website, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales says the number of
editors is just stabilising as a result of the articles that are already on
the website.
-Spammer sentenced to four years in prison: US spammer
Alan Ralsky, the self-proclaimed 'Godfather of Spam', has been sentenced to
51 months in jail and fined $250,000. Ralsky, the head of an e-mail spamming
network who gained attention in 2002 by bragged about his spamming activities
in an interview with The Detroit News and subsequently became a target of
junk snail mail after he was mentioned on Slashdot, had pleaded guilty to
"wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering charges and violating the
CAN-SPAM Act" earlier this year.
Tips & Tricks
facebook
Facebook Trick: Press up, up, down, down, left, right,
left, right, B, A, Enter key, then right click then press up and down and
magic circles will appear. To get rid of them, log off or refresh the page.
Defined
Reply-To Munging
Reply-to or Address Munging refers to the alteration of an
e-mail address online in order to disguise it and prevent it from being
automatically collected and used by web-based
programmes that build e-mail lists for unsolicited bulk e-mail and spamming
purposes. Spambots perform e-mail address harvesting and search the Internet
for addresses that have been posted online, relying on recognition of the
unique e-mail address format. Munging disguises the address from such
software, but allows a human reader to easily reconstruct the original
address and contact the person. For instance, after munging, an e-mail
address such as 'username@example.com' may be presented as 'username at
example dot com' or 'username[NOSPAM]@example.com'.
