Flashblock

Those blinking advertising banners all over the net can be pretty annoying, and the new generation of web advertising is flash-based, which has rendered good-old Adblock and similar countermeasures ineffective.

The Flashblock Firefox extension to the rescue. It simply gives all embedded flash animations a play button. Brilliant, actually.

Update: I have just been informed in a comment by Adblock creator Wladimir Palant that Adblock Plus also works with flash.

Mr Query

MrQuery provides an easy way to search multiple topical search engines.

Zyb

Here's a useful service. Remember that time you lost your phone - and all your contacts? Zyb allows you to create an online backup of your cell phone contacts. friendly interface.

Mind Maps

Bubbl.us is a nice new service allowing you to create online mind maps for brainstorming. PC Magazine has a good review/introduction.

Online Music

Here's a good commented list of some of the social music sites out there - Pandora, Last.fm etc.

Online Photo Editing

Here's a nice commented list of online photo editing sites.

The Freenet Project

If you're into anonymity, privacy and freedom of speech The Freenet Project allows you to share and download data with total anonymity. Cool stuff, this one.

"Users contribute to the network by giving bandwidth and a portion of their hard drive (called the "data store") for storing files. Unlike other peer-to-peer file sharing networks, Freenet does not let the user control what is stored in the data store. Instead, files are kept or deleted depending on how popular they are, with the least popular being discarded to make way for newer or more popular content. Files in the data store are encrypted to reduce the likelihood of prosecution by persons wishing to censor Freenet content."

RadioBlogClub

This is a pretty powerful tool. RadioBlogClub let's you input the name of a song or artist and play the song directly. Straight up. After the song ends an apropriate playlist continues. If you're on the blogger scene the songs are embeddable, too, as seen below.

Navnestatistik

Danmarks Statistik har en ret fed navneside. Du kan se hvor mange, der hedder et givent navn, hvilke navne, der er mest populære osv.

Subtitles

For my subtitle searches I always go to Subscene first. Usually with no need for seconds.

Calc5

With the online calculator calc5 you can plot 2d and 3d graphs, make symbolic calculations such as derivation, and browse 2d graphs with zooming and panning.

Zamzar

Zamzar offers online file conversion.

Musicovery

I like online jukebox/radio sites like Last.fm and friends. Musicovery is of the same idea, but I like their interface better. You place a dot anywhere you like on two axes, one going from dark to positive, the other from energetic from calm. You can choose hits, non-hits and dicovery mode, genre, as well as period of time. You can also see whats music is coming, and skip ahead to songs that catch your eye.

Tinyurl

Tinyurl transforms those way-to-long-to-type urls into the format tinyurl.com/xxxxxx.

http://www.ddavid.dk/2006/11/opus-life-is-life.html becomes http://tinyurl.com/y5h3om.

E.g. this could be useful if you put urls in your MSN name, as these aren't clickable. You get the idea.

Onelook

Onelook Dictionary Search is an astonishingly useful ressource. It let's you look up an english word or term in 98 different quality, online dictionaries in one go. It also offers a powerful wildcard search.

Youtube & Co

Seriously - you need to spend some hours roaming the wonderful archive that is Youtube. An amazing amount of movie, tv and home video clips, music videos and everything else, more or less.
Other similar sites include MetaCafe, iFilm, Google Video and DailyMotion.

Movie Stuff

If you like movies, here's a couple of ressources.
IMDB - Internet Movie DataBase is one of the most impressive databases online. I have never drawn a blank - not even with regards to obscure, 'foreign' movies.
Rotten Tomatoes is a collection of movie reviews from a lot of (mostly American) sources. The generel opinion at the site is sometimes surprising. Be prepared for some stereotypical hammering. Metacritic is a similar site.
Filmz is a danish site, which works. It brings you news on movies and the industry.
I also recommend Apple's trailer-site, if your in the mood for trailers and teasers. The amount is pretty impressive, and it's updated.
For further movie information, check the movie label below. Also check the video label to see the clips on this site.

Last.fm

You need inspiration as to bands you didn't know you liked. You go to Last.fm, enter the name of a favorite band and the music starts to play.

RSS

You should know the RSS-feed concept. The icon is located to the right of the adress in your browser on sites like this one. It puts a live news feed from the site in your bookmarks. The last 100 entries, updated.

MediaFire

MediaFire is an impressive file hosting service. Unlimited file size, unlimited uploads, no sign up required, multiple simultaneous uploads/downloads and unlimited downloads. Sweet.

Voipbuster

Voipbuster is a competitor to Skype and the like. If you put 10 € into your account, you can call landlines in 32 countries and mobile phones in USA, Hong Kong and Puerto Rico for free for 120 days, with a limitation of 5 hours a week. A theorethical 85 hours in 120 days. That's a nice deal. Of course you can also make other calls, for a fee that usually is cheaper than Skype, with the 10 € you paid. Also after the 120 day period. Be aware, though, that calls are rounded up to next minute.

Mailinator

Mailinator is really useful. Oftentimes a site ask for your e-mail, and you really don't want to give it. Then you put in

whatever@mailinator.com

and open Mailinator in a new tab/window. Input 'whatever' and access the open mailaccount which is created as mail arrives, and deleted at a couple of hours intervals. No password. Open your acknowledgement mail. Presto.

VideoDownloader

The VideoDownloader Firefox extension is an extremely useful tool. You get an icon in the bottom right, which will allow you to download every video on the page you are viewing. It works with most major video communities: Youtube, Google Video, iFilm, Metacafe, Daily Motion, Myspace etc. The file format is .flv, which I don't know, but it plays in Media Player Classic, which is all the video player you need, anyway.

Scrybe

Scrybe, launching in beta in october, seems like somewhat of an evolution in the field of organizers. Tjeck the demo beneath.

Digital fotofremkaldelse

Hos Digital Foto kan du beregne hvilken online foto-fremkalder, der er den billigste i et givent format og antal. Kvaliteten er efter sigende omtrent den samme.

15:15

Information har skabt avisen 15:15, der gratis kan downloades og udprintes. Fra hjemmesiden:

"15:15 er en ny eftermiddagsavis, som du selv kan printe få minutter efter redaktionens afslutning. Vi udkommer på alle hverdage klokken 15:15.

15:15 er læsbar og håndterbar. Gratisaviserne danner papirdynger i bybilledet. 15:15 derimod fylder ikke mere end brugeren tillader. I A4-format er 15:15 en særdeles brugervenlig trafikavis.

15:15 udkommer hver dag klokken 15:15. Avisen indeholder centrale historier fra Informations-universet, et dagligt markant synspunkt, en hurtig og kvalificeret nyhedsopdatering og en smule underholdning. "

Lulu Self Publishing

Lulu Self Publishing offers to print your book from .pdf, in any number. Paperback, hardcover and a varity of formats. The pricing seems really reasonable.

Flickr

Photo by Isolatediguana

I've said it before. I'll say it again. Yet another excellent shot in the huge and valuable database of digital photographs that is Flickr. Check out Flickr Leech for a quick overview of a lot of interesting shots. Here's my list of favorites, so far.

Onelook Wildcard Search

I would like to bring to your attention that the excellent collection of good quality online dictionaries Onelook has a valuable feature. It allows for searches with wildcards. For 1 letter ?, for at string of letters * e.g. "fore?t" or "fo*st" but finds the word "forest", as well as other matches.

Writely

Google now has an online word-processor as well. It bears the name of Writely, it works, and it can pretty much do what Microsoft Word does. Furthermore it gives you the ability to create either read-only or editing permissions for other people on the documents you create. That's just *so* Web 2.0.

Drawspace

Drawspace is a comprehensive, good-looking online drawing textbook and I like it.

BugMeNot

BugMeNot is a most excellent extension, which allows you to right-click in the login fields of free, but irritatingly login-demanding, sites, choose BugMeNot in the right-click menu, and autologin with usernames and passwords from the BugMeNot database. Sweet. Of course it demands the use of Firefox.

Free Movies

Today you get a bunch of free movies fallen out of copyright. You can find all sorts of stuff: commercial movies, documentaries, cartoons and stand-up. I especially like the educational movies, like Duck and Cover (1951).

All for your streaming pleasure.

Go Berkeley!

Another sweet source of information here at ddavid.dk - Where Information Comes to Hang Out. Berkeley University of California has been so kind as to put online podcasts of series of lectures. You will find both audio and video, and you will find it here.

Flickr

I feel like mentioning Flickr again. Community for the photographically inclined. You can see some of my favorites here, and some of my own shots here.

Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic is by far my favourite video player. It plays everything, and does it well.

Codecs

And by the way, I use K-Lite Mega Codec Pack for all my codec needs.

Online Whiteboard

This here is another great application. Imagination Cubed has created an online whiteboard, which demands no irritating membership, and allows you to be whiteboard-creative with your friends and colleagues online. Excellent.

Cl1p.net

Cl1p.net is an online clip board and an excellent idea. Easy copy-paste between computers and over time. Just make up an adress in the lines of www.cl1p.net/whatever/, and enter your data. A password can be added.

Mailinator

Mailinator is incredibly useful. Oftentimes a site ask for your mail adress, and you really don't want to give it. Then you put in

'whatever@mailinator.com'

and open www.mailinator.com in a new tab/window. Input 'whatever' and access the open mailaccount which is created as mail arrives, and deleted at a couple of hours intervals. No password. Open your acknowledgement mail. Presto.

Google Maps

Google Maps slår Krak med flere længder mht. kortkvalitet, synes jeg. Ved muligheden for at navigere ved at trække i selve kortet, og ved muligheden for at skifte mellem kort, satellit-foto og hybrid. Begge i forbavsende høj kvalitet. Og Gadenavnene er præcise.

Bemærk dog, at man ikke kan *søge* på gadenavne. Man bliver nødt til at starte ved noget man kender, og bevæge sig derhen, hvor man vil. Men det lærer man hurtigt. Og det er ret sjovt.

Desuden er det muligt at sende eller gemme et link til det billede, du er kommet frem til på skærmen på Google Maps, ved at højreklikke på "Link to this page" over kortet til højre, og vælge "Copy Link Location". Du paster adressen ind der, hvor den kan bruges. Den kan bruges mange steder.

Update: Det er meget smart at kunne tage et screen dump af skærmen, når man kigger på et bestemt kort ved at trykke på tasten "Prt Scr - Sys Rq". Derefter paster du i dit foretrukne grafik-program, og voila. Nu kan du f.eks. skrive på kortet. Eller andre kreative ting.

SkypeCast

This one is sweet. Skypecast is the name of the new feature in Skype v2.5: up to 100 people on the line with a moderator "passing along the microphone". Truly fascinating range of possibilities. This one is hot off the wire.

DevilFinder

DevilFinder is an excellent search engine with regards to images and to some degree video as well. It lacks the porno filters of Google, so be warned. It is powerful.

Findarticles and Magportal

I've written about it before, but I find it worthy of repetition. FindArticles and MagPortal - databases of free articles. An impressive amount of free articles from specialized magazines.

Veoh

On Veoh Channel you can stream a lot of old movies for free. There's some cool ones, too.

Gmail

You really (really) need to stop using your Hotmail as your primary account, mayn. Gmail is just the better choice on all fronts when it comes to web-based mail accounts. All the smart animals has abandoned *that* sinking ship - and Hotmail is just *so* 90's...

You need an invite to join. Just check your adressbook for @gmail-adresses, and request one from one of your friends. Or feel free to request one from me.

PageFlakes

Pageflakes is a cool site that lets you create your own personalized startpage. It just won the Web 2.0 Award for Best Start Page.

Popurls

Popurls is a really nice site which collects headlines from most of the best news sites out there. The layout is good and the page is allround excellent.

Online Newspapers

Here you'll find links to (links to) online newspapers from all around the world.

Hamachi

Okay, this is one of the cooler things I've stumbled across lately. Hamachi is an application which allows you to make virtual LAN's with your friends for gaming, file-sharing etc. Everything you can do over a LAN, you can do with Hamachi. It's extremly easy to setup and very secure. You need to check this out.

Flickr Leech

If you like photos you probably know Flickr. If you like photos you probably should know Flickr Leech - an application that gives you screen after screen filled to the brim with photos from Flickr, choosen by way of things like date and 'interestingness'. Nice.

Hvordan gør man egentlig det der fildeling?

Jeg er ret vild med BitTorrent-systemet. BitTorrent er en ny teknologi på fildelingsområdet, der tager over hvor Napster, Kazaa og lignende systemer faldt af. Du kan finde en god guide hos Piratgruppen, der hedder Kom igang med uTorrent.

ManyBooks

ManyBooks is a pretty impressive collection of free eBooks. You can download the books in a variety of different formats, including PDF and iPod Notes. I think you will be able to find most classics there. As a measure of the size of the collection, the listing of authors starting with the letter S amounts to 420.

Oddcast Text to Speech

Oddcast Text to Speech is a quite impressive application. It is limited to 3 go's, but the limitation is based on a cookie. Thus, to remove the limitation (with Firefox) go to the Tools menu -> Options -> Privacy -> Exceptions, put in vhost.oddcast.com and press Block.

Flickr

If you're interested in photography, Flickr is a good place to go. A huge community for the sharing and browsing of snaps. The basic membership is free, and allows you to upload 20 MB of pictures a month, no limit on storage. Be prepared to lose a few hours when going there.

Participatory Panopticon

Den fremragende side ITConversations byder på et foredrag af Jamais Cascio, der hedder Participatory Panopticon. Det handler om, at forestillinger om Big Brother-overvågning må vige til fordel for en overvågning, der foregår bottom-up. En overvågning, der er resultatet af enkeltindivider med kameratelefoner o.lign., og som ikke har overvågning på dagsordenen. Rigtig interessant perspektiv.

Google Zeitgeist

På Googles Zeitgeist-site kan du se, hvad folk har søgt på. Der er selvfølgelig nogle forskellige kategorier. Du kan f. eks. se, hvad vi har søgt på i Danmark.

Internationale telefonbøger

Københavns biblioteker har lavet en fed samling af internationale telefonbøger på nettet. Brug den.

Foxit Reader

Your surfing. You run into a .pdf. Acrobat Reader takes a couple of minutes to start up. You get very tired. Luckily there's a bunch of software also able to read to the .pdf-format. I use Foxit Reader. It's simple and quick.

EDB priser

Når du skal have et overblik over priserne på computerhardware, skal du forbi EDBpriser. Jeg bruger den altid, når jeg skal finde en pris.

TV-serier

For all your tv-show needs - tv.com. Here you can find information on all your favorite shows. E.g. you can find out, that the brilliant show The Sopranos continuous 12. marts 2006. Sweet!

Rusmidler

If you seek information on drugs, you should visit Erowid - a really impressive collection of informaion. Know this archive. And know Lycaeum - another impressive large of information on the subject of psykoaktive substances.

Frontline

I have linked a couple of PBS Frontline documentaries on this blog. If you haven't noticed when going there, or just haven't gone, tjeck it. 53 documentaries for you to stream. There's quite a few quality picks in between.
Remember that the site has a lot of traffic. My experience is that traffic increases in inverse proportion to the time of day.

The Wayback Machine

Der er en udbredt misforståelse, der består i, at informationer på nettet forsvinder, når de slettes fra den server, der hoster dem. Informationerne bliver nemlig lagret andre steder på nettet. F.eks. på The Wayback Machine.

The Wayback Machine er et arkiv, der indeholder delvise backups af en lang række sites. Man kan ikke surfe sitet som normalt, da en fuldstændig backup af de enkelte sites ville gøre projektet uoverskueligt. Jeg synes dog stadig, at det er fascinerende. Du kan f.eks. se, hvordan dr.dk har set ud, ved omkring 200 forskellige points in time siden 1996. Imponerende.

Desuden SKAL du kende Google's cache-funktion.

Nogle gange, når du støder ind i et resultat, der virker relevant ud fra tekst-biden i Google's liste over søgeresultater, og trykker på linket til selve siden, er siden forsvundet siden Google besøgte den, og du får beskeden Page Not Found, eller bare blevet redigeret, så den oplysning, Google baserede sin henvisning på, er forsvundet. Irriterende. Men umiddelbart til sidst i hver resultatpost på listen findes et link, med navnet Cached. Et tryk på dette giver adgang til en delvis kopi at siden, som den så ud, da Google sidst indekserede den. - Du vil undre dig over, hvordan du levede uden.

How to Clean Anything

I dag får du et link til databasen How to Clean Anything. Den har en meget fed søgefunktion, der hedder Hvordan fjerner jeg xxxx fra xxxxx?

Onelook

Onelook Dictionary Search is an astonishingly useful ressource. It let's you look up an english word or term in a lot of high-quality, online dictionaries. It also offers a powerful wildcard search.

Skype

I anledning af salget af Skype, et program til telefoni over Internettet, vil jeg gerne slå et slag for dette strålende program. Det er gratis at ringe Skypebrugere imellem, og det koster som hovedregel ca. 17 øre pr. minut at ringe til fastnettelefoner i de fleste af de vestlige lande. Programmet er udviklet af en dansker og en svensker - de samme fyre, der tidligere har skabt Kazaa, et meget udbredt fildelingsprogram. Du kan hente Skype her.

Du skal bruge et headset - hovedtelefoner med mikrofon - for at bruge programmet. Det er et køb, der kan betale sig.

Og lydkvaliteten er forresten betydelig bedre end almindelig telefonkvalitet.