The overall goals of Ubiquity is to:

• Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
• Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)
• Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.
• Extend the browser function easily

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Source: How To Pick Passwords That Protect Your Online Experience

Source Link: Jeffrey Zeldman Understanding Web Design

It appears that ALL VERSIONS of Internet Explorer has a major security flaw. The said flaw is already in wide use as a tool to steal online game passwords, with some 10,000 websites infected with the code need to hijack the hole in IE.

I strongly advise you NOT to use any version of Internet Explorer for the time being until Microsoft fixes everything. Other browsers that are not affected are of course Firefox, Chrome and Opera. Microsoft said that they’re already working on the fix but did not set any date. They offered suggestions for a temporary patch, including setting the Internet security zone to “high” and some complex workarounds (however some reports state that the workarounds do not work).

Again I suggest that you switch from Internet Explorer as soon as possible!

Source: Serious security flaw found in IE

Source: David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08

I recommend that you read the interview because it was really inspirational especially the last question when asked what advice he would give to beginning web designers. Below is his reply:

Keep working, keep learning, and don’t be discouraged. Apprentice yourself to, or work with, people who know what they’re doing. Don’t settle for easy. Don’t be too lenient on your own work. Don’t accept the first job you’re offered. Don’t stay in a bad job, you’ll be miserable all the time, and you’ll have nothing to show for your years.

Be excited! You’re inventing something new on the planet. Imitate to get started, sure, but don’t settle for copying any master, because nobody has really figured this out yet, and the person who figures it out best just might be you.

Features:

• Black Search – you can search for sites and content in your top results powered by a custom Google search.
• Black News Ticker – it has a news ticker located on top of the browser just below the address bar.
• Black Bookmarks – access the best of the Black content on the web.
• Black Video – best of Black videos.
• Give Back – show your support for the African American community by giving donations.
• Most Shared – check out what the Blackbird community is reading and sharing on the web.
• Email – you can check your email in the browser’s sidebar.
• Social Networks – add your social networking accounts directly from the browser.

I tried installing some of the plugins for web development like the Web Developer toolbar and Firebug. After restarting, Blackbird will give you a notice that the plugins are not compatible but since it is powered by Mozilla the plugins seem to work anyway.

Its the first time I saw a web browser designed for a specific kind of race and I wonder if it will inspire other races to come up with their own web browser.

If you were an African American would you replace Firefox with Blackbird? Replacing Internet Explorer with Blackbird would be a definite yes for me! I would love to hear your thoughts through the comments.

VISIT THE FULL ARTICLE…

Drop

The simplest most efficient file sharing site that I’ve seen so far. It lets you create your own url, upload your files (up to 100MB), set a password, and have the option to choose how long the drop link should be live. You can then pass the drop url around to share files. There’s no registration, no cost, and no limit to how many URLs you can use.

Jott

Jott is a speech to text technology application. Once you sign up for a free account, call Jott on your phone and you can leave a message which will be converted to text and posted on your blog, twitter speed or to do list.

Mux

Mux is an excellent video conversion/sharing site that lets you enter in the URL of a video clip (or its location on your hard drive) and specify what format you’d like to receive the video in (iPod, PSP, DivX, MPEG-4, and lots more). Give it a few minutes and Mux will send you an e-mail with the location from which you can download your newly formatted video.

Plurk

This Twitter-like microblogging service goes beyond Twitter by letting users share images and video clips through their Plurk feeds. The interface is also a lot more fun to use, and guess what: It rarely crashes (sorry, Twitter).

CreateDigitalMusic

Whether you’re a ProTools wiz, a GarageBand hobbyist, or just like to jam on your iPhone, Create Digital Music can point you to the right tools to perfect your sound. The site includes product reviews and announcements, music-production tips, and an active community offering helpful music-making advice. I’m generally a drummer so you can’t leave this site behind.

CriminalSearches

Criminal Searches provides the scary-but-useful data on how many criminals live in your neighborhood, what crimes they were convicted of, and, in some cases, their names and personal info. It’s all culled from public records, and is presented as a Google Maps mashup. You can restrict your search to sex offenders, search on a specific name to get a criminal history, or do a general search for criminals by city or ZIP code. This kind of data is certainly not for the faint of heart but can be useful in assessing the safety of your neighborhood. (I wish we had this kind of application here in the Philippines.)

Someecards

Not your everyday e-card service website. If you want to send out funny e-cards I would recommend Someecards for you.

Totlol

Totlol is a video website especially designed for kids. All the videos were submitted, screened and rated by parents. Suitable for kids ages 6 months to 6 years.

YouTomb

YouTomb, a research project by the MIT Free Culture student group, tracks the top videos removed from the service for copyright violation, and retains the metadata about the videos so we, the public, can make our own decision about whether the removal was justified or not.

ExpoTv

Before I spend some amount of money on something I make sure that I look at reviews for the product that I’m planning to buy and see if its worth buying. Most of the time product reviews are only textual and mostly because its the easiest way to provide opinions on a product but sometimes it can get a little boring. ExpoTv provides videos of real unbiased consumers doing their own product reviews. And if you make a video review of a product and submit it, ExpoTV may pay you $10 if they run it, with an extra penny each time it’s played on the site (all via PayPal). Your video review may even make it on ExpoTV’s video-on-demand shopping spots on cable TV.

Howcast

Howcast has the best-looking how-to videos on the Web. Includes topics like “How to booby trap a coworker’s chair”, “How to speak in public”, “How to make a martini” and many more. Sign up to get a How-To Video of the Day via e-mail, as well as to be able to edit their how-to wikis, talk to experts in the community area, or upload your own videos. The user-generated stuff is okay, but the Howcast-produced vids are particularly great.

Searchme

Searchme is an innovative search engine that essentially uses Apple’s Cover Flow interface to present your search results. To search, enter a term and then scroll horizontally through full previews of each relevant Web page until your find what you’re looking for. You can also create “Stacks” of bookmarked Web pages to revisit later. Its weird because they did not have the updated design of my site. hehehe. Anyway Searchme still looks cool.

Whatthefont

To find out which font is being used in an image or on a Web site, upload a scanned image of it to WhatTheFont, or submit the URL. The service analyzes your submission and sends you the name of the font so you can use it in your own design projects.

Oddee

Oddee collects and archives the weird photos blowing around the Internet, broken down into Digg-friendly and easily digestible lists.

Songza

Songza is a search engine that gives you easy access to streamable MP3s across the Web. Enter a song, artist, or both and Songza serves it up free of charge—you can even build playlists. I tried to enter one of my favorite rare drummers and just like that Songza displayed and played it right in my face! Awesome app!

Picapp

PicApp is a free stock-photo service that lets you quickly and easily grab photos of whatever subject you need for use on your blog. PicApp has quite a large image catalog, and photos range from run-of-the-mill stock photos to celebrity pics.

TypeRacer

Put your typing skills to the test with TypeRacer, which pits you against other players for the chance to win money, fame, women, and a slot on TypeRacer’s leaderboard! (You actually get only one of those.)

TypoBuddy

Want to save money on eBay auctions? One tip is to look for auctions with the fewest bidders. TypoBuddy helps out by searching for commonly misspelled words on eBay, pointing you to hidden gems in the eBay catalog. Less competition for these typo entries means better deals for you.

SafeSurfer

Protecting your kids on the Internet and teaching them safe browsing habits doesn’t have to be dull—so says Safe Surfer. The site is jam-packed with games, news, and resources aimed at helping kids protect themselves against the dangers of the World Wide Web.

EarthAlbum

This isn’t the first mash-up of Flickr and Google Maps, but I think it’s one of the best. Earth Album fills your browser with a full map of the world, courtesy of Google. Click on any location, and geotagged photos appear in a strip on the top of the interface. Click one to see it larger and get a description from the photographer. Naturally, you can zoom in on the map to get more specific choices. Big cities and tourist destinations have the most photos associated with them, but click around to get a variety. You can even search for photos at specific addresses.

Did you like any of the websites listed above? Much better question is do you have any interesting, informative, weird, bizarre, nutty or just pointless websites that you would like to share? Hope to hear from you. Thank you for reading.

This can be a frustrating process if you find out that someone else already owns your domain name. Fortunately I don’t have to go through that process again! With the emergence of Ajax ( Asynchronous Javascript and XML), we can just type in our domain names and the results will show up instantly! This can really increase our productivity because a lot of the little unnoticeable actions will be eliminated.

I’ve compiled a list of some if not all of the Ajax powered domain name checkers around. They are listed in the order that they appeared in Google’s result pages using the keywords ‘ajax domain checker’. Of course if you want to use these tools you should make sure that Javascript is enabled in your browser.

Instant Domain Search

If you need to search for a thousand domain names in under a minute use Instant Domain Search!

Ajax Domain Search

AjaxDomainSearch takes a good 3-5 seconds before you get results. Almost the same speed as that of the normal page that refreshes.

AjaxWhoIs

AjaxWhoIs is by far my favorite. You add domain names to your favorites by clicking the heart icon on either the textbox or the results box. They even have plugins for Firefox!

PCNames Domain Search

PCNames has a fresh and clean interface and offers more tools for finding your domain name.

PHPAjaxWhoIs

Same functionality here but the responsiveness can be closely compared with AjaxDomainSearch. Although I like phpAjaxWhois’ interface design.

Tabeze

I really had a hard time thinking how to use Tabeze. I started to read their instructions which is sized at 11pixels! Aside from the font being small the color contrast they have chosen made it even harder to read! All in all I don’t really recommend this tool for you. You can accomplish your goals a lot more with the traditional domain name checkers around. But you should really try it out to know what I’m talking about.

Thanks to Ajax we can become more productive with our work. Its really hard to imagine the way the Web is today without it. Also I’m really puzzled why most of them loves green for their design! Do you use any of the following tools I listed above? If your favorite domain checker is not listed please feel free to send me a message or post it in the comments. Thank you for stopping by and reading.