PS3

Phew. I'm not a big war games fan but this trailer for Killzone blew me away!

Must-have developer tools

Venkman Javascript Debugger - Yes, farewell 'alert' messages!

Javascript Minifier - JavaScript compression for faster loading.

Javascript Verifier - Lookout for potential problems in the code (syntax, unused variables, ...).

IE Developer Toolbar - For IE development. Not as refined as the Firefox Developer Extension but better than nothing.

Applications for 2006

Following this earlier post, I'm now looking for software 'gems' that I may have missed in 2005. I've already found a few candidates, courtesy of the good people at Sitepoint, that I will use and test in the next few months. Who knows, maybe they will make my list at the end of 2006.
And the candidates are:

MWSnap, though not sure if I'll replace Cropper anytime soon
TopStyle
CCleaner
Fiddler, an HTTP traffic inspector
SnagIt, hmmmm maybe I'll replace Cropper after all...
MezerTools

To be updated as I find more of them gems.

Public Domain Name Servers

This comes in handy if the SMTP server isn't an open relay, or when traveling and accessing the Web via different ISPs.
Just configure the SMTP server (Free SMTP is free) with the DNS field set to one of the IP addresses below.

Public (Level3) Name servers (these are OC192's)
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2 (fast)
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6 (fast)

Open to the Public
# ns1.la.us.opennic.glue (New Orleans, LA, US) - 68.15.165.12
# ns1.phx.us.opennic.glue (Phoenix, AZ, US) - 63.226.12.96
# ns1.sfo.us.opennic.glue (San Francisco, CA, US) - 64.151.103.120 (fast)
# ns1.co.us.opennic.glue (Longmont, CO, US) - 216.87.84.209

SpeakEasy Name servers
66.93.87.2
216.231.41.2
216.254.95.2
64.81.45.2
64.81.111.2
64.81.127.2
64.81.79.2
64.81.159.2
66.92.64.2
66.92.224.2
66.92.159.2
64.81.79.2
64.81.159.2
64.81.127.2
64.81.45.2
216.27.175.2
66.92.159.2
66.93.87.2

Sprintlink General DNS
204.117.214.10
199.2.252.10
204.97.212.10

Cisco
128.107.241.185
192.135.250.69

Useful Web2.0

http://instantdomainsearch.com/, as the name indicates, tells you instantly (as you type) whether the domain name is available or not.
Nice.

iPod ressurection

Here's a bunch of cool ideas for when my iPod runs its course.

Peugeot Ad

One of my favorite ads (together with these classics from Honda)

Fighting spam

Duke University has a Web email address 'obfuscator' available to the public. Maybe it is already too late but I'm still committed to reduce the huge amount of spam I get daily.

Icons for free

Flags: http://www.kidlink.org/icons/flagdir.html

All sorts of useful icons: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/

The Vincent Rooms

Fancy a different night out, with dinner cooked and served by future chefs spoiling you with attention?

The Vincent Rooms
Vincent Square
SW1P 2PD
02078028391

Thanks Kamila ;)

"I always wanted to be somebody.

... I should have been more specific."

From David Allen's Getting Things Done, attributed to someone named 'Lily'

Note to self

Download paper:
X Zhang, VR Prybutok, 2005, How the mobile communication markets differ in China, the U.S., and Europe. Communications of the ACM, ACM Press New York, NY, USA

Export/download link

Want to keep the browser from displaying data you want the user to download? Try the code snapshot below on the controller:

String filename = ..............
byte[] content = ...............
String mimetype = this.getServletContext().getMimeType(filename);
response.setContentType(mimetype);
response.setContentLength(content.length);
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment; filename=\"" + filename +"\"");
FileCopyUtils.copy(content , response.getOutputStream());

The Content-Disposition header will force the browser to download the content as an attachment rather than display it on the browser.

STOMP is electrifying!

Go free, entrapped, primeval, tribal soul of my urban-self, go free! There are sounds and instruments in nature waiting to be played and listened to.
Very energetic, very creative, very funny.
My favorite bits? The broom piece, the rubber tubes section, the lighters bit, and the sinks masterpiece.

Blogs as bad PR

I wonder what is the impact of an entry like this from a widely read and influential blogger on future sales of Dell?
Are people listening?
Is Dell listening?

Online repositories

Whenever I need to send large files to people or groups of people I use http://www.yousendit.com/. It is simple, intuitive, and works well. The only caveat is that files are only available to download from their servers for 1 week.
Now, thanks to the cool people at http://www.workhappy.net/, I have been given choice:

• http://www.dropload.com/

• http://www.dropsend.com/


• http://www.box.net/ (Thanks to Scobleizer)
  

I will soon be checking which one is better.

[Update]: http://www.dropload.com/ has a 100MB size limit and 7 days time limit. Guess I won't be using this one fo'sho.
[Update 2]: http://www.dropsend.com/ will definitely have a closer look, since their founder's blog is one of my top reads.

Ain't nothin' stoppin' me

This is a-w-e-s-o-m-e.