Talking to a robot

I am very interested in the subject of using robots in customer care systems, and have tried many online robots to see if they can respond in a semi-inteligent way to my questions.
Imagine how curious I was when I saw a new post on one of my favourite blogs by the name of Techie Buzz trascribing his session with the MSN Encarta robot. I think it's a pretty good example of what robots can and can't do when interacting with us humans.
Read all about Talking to a robot on MSN Chat


technorati tags: Robot MSN Encarta Chat techie-buzz

Web Future Carnival

I have decided to open up a new carnival under the name of Web Future Carnival.
This carnival will be a focal point for all bloggers with thoughts about the internet's evolution and how it will look like in the coming future. Instead of commiting to a specific publishing date, I've decided to publish as soon as we have at least 10 good posts worth reading. What are you waiting for? There is already one post in the carnival and 9 more will get us rolling...

If you have a post to contribute to our coming edition of Web Future Carnival, please post it at the following link



technorati tags: carnival web future Internet future post

Google VS Microsoft

Following on Google's announcement of their online spreadsheet product, I had a chance to chat with a friend who works at Microsoft. In the discussion we had, I expressed concern for his current workplace due to this move by Google. "Why should Microsoft care?" he asked, to which I responded with the following theory:

Facts:
1. Microsoft's major sources of revenue are from their Office and Windows products.
2. MS Office is dominating the market and has no real competition.
3. MS Office runs only on Windows (or primarily runs on windows)
4. Google recently bought an online word processing tool by the name of Writley
5. Online applications are gaining popularity over desktop applications.

Estimates:
1. Google to release an online version of office during 2006/2007
2. Once people can get office for free, Microsoft office sales figures will drop
3. If I can get most of my applications online using a browser only interface, there is no need to buy an OS but use free ones such as Linux.

I heard of Microsoft vision of moving their applications online but to this I say "it might be too little and too late"

Let me know what you think...



technorati tags: Google Microsoft Spreadsheet revenue office MS Windows desktop Linux Writley
del.ico.us tags: Google Microsoft Spreadsheet revenue office MS Windows desktop Linux Writley
icerocket tags: Google Microsoft Spreadsheet revenue office MS Windows desktop Linux Writley

Ajax tutorial provided by MuseStorm

Having played with web technology for the past 12 years, I found Ajax to be a great method of transferring web pages into real applications. However, most web developers did not have the knowledge it took to understand how to code in an Ajax environment.

The following Ajax tutorial, explains in very detailed steps how to create Ajax Desktops on your own. Interested? I suggest you go view the Ajax tutorial


Related posts:
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Goowy - next generation personalized dashboard
Netvibes - your personal dashboard

Avant Browser gets more good reviews

As mentioned in my previous post about browsert selection titled 2006 Browser wars, I have switched to using avant browser which I consider to be the best available browser today.
With each day that goes by, I convince more and more of my friends to try it out and they get hooked very fast. Here is another review of avant browser features and capabilities as an alternative to today's common browsers.


Related posts:
2006 Browser wars
The fastest browser

New widget in my blog - MuseStorm

Have you noticed the cool new widget in my blog's sidebar that allows searching google news? I have been taking part in a closed beta of MuseStorm, which brings the Web 2.0 revolution to everyone even without knowledge of AJAX, XML, SOAP and Client/Server technologies

Well...That's all I am really allowed to say about them for now with more details coming soon.

In the meantime, why not try it out and let me know what you think.

Red Square game - a good way to pass the time

Here is a nice game to pass the time.
All you have to do is to hold the red square with your mouse and avoid all other objects on the screen. Do that for 18 seconds...
My score? 17.45 seconds.

Let's see how you do


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Technorati Tags: red square, game, flash, mouse, high score

What Google should develop next

New products being announced by Google every month and it's getting pretty hard to guess what they will come up with next. Here is a nice guess as to what ten products Google should develop next.
My personal favorite? It has to be Google Sing & Draw Search.

On the same note, Have you seen the screenshots for Google Spreadsheet or the videos here?
Even if they are not the first to come up with an online spreadsheet, I think Microsoft should start getting concerned about their entire office sales targets.


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Google Trends - what are we searching for?
New toolbar from google offers auto completion

Best of May posts

Following up on last month's promise to pick the best posts of the month, here is our selection of May's posts. It was much harder to select some posts while leaving others out of the list as May was definitely a strong month for us.
Here are the nominees for the best post of the May 2006:

May 1st: Making money online
A short guide to money making opportunities online.

May 7th: 3 internet sites to take to a deserted island
What Internet sites would you take with you?

May 8th: Goowy - next generation personalized dashboard
See how web based desktops let people manage their data anywhere.

May 11th: Google Trends - what are we searching for?
The latest toy from google, insight to what everyone is looking for.

May 12th: What does the boss really think about you?
It's not nice to listen to other people's conversations, even if they are chatting in the messenger or ICQ.

May 16th: Searching - can you find what you want?
The basics of information search on the web.

May 18th: Guba - the Usenet at your service
Download video and audio from newsgroups.

May 19th: CoComment - track your comments
Track your comments in a single place.

May 24th: Getting paid to play games
Is that possible? Can I get paid playing games?

May 26th: Evolutionary posts
A new style of blog posting.

May 28th: SEO tips - avoid spellchecking
My personal favorite. How spelling errors promote your search engine rank.

May 30th: ClickDragType - game with no instructions
WARNING: this is a highly addictive game.



Related posts:
Best of April posts

The fastest browser

Does your browser seem slow? is it taking too long to load the first time?
A recent comparison of browser speed leads to the conclusion that IE and FireFox are not the best browsers, at least not where speed is concerned. See the table in Browser Speed Comparison for more details.


Related posts:
2006 Browser wars
How the Internet changed the way we communicate
3 internet sites to take to a deserted islandWhat your homepage tells about you

Puzzle land - short quest game

The game is named Puzzle land in which you are asked to help James Mahoggany defeat his arch rival gregory by going through 5 levels. The game is simple as all you have to do is click on the screen items and your character in the correct order. Each item clicked causes an action on the screen to take place, and it is your task to guess the right order to click them to finish each level.

Can't figure out a level? The game also comes with a walk-through which you can use to get assistance.

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Lost - now the game

If you are an evid fan of the TV show Lost like I am, then you are probably dying for the next season to come. Season one ended with so many open questions just like season one did and I can't wait to see how the story will evolve over season three.

In the meantime, here's a Lost game I found online.


Related posts:
ClickDragType - game with no instructions
Getting paid to play games
It's the weekend - some cool video games
Catch 33 - a fun online game

How the Internet changed the way we communicate

Email, Messenger, ICQ, Skype, IRC, Blogs, Newsgroups, Chats. What do all these have in common? They are all tools we use over the Internet to communicate with other people.
One of the major changes made by the Internet revolution is that it made the world feel kind of small. Sitting at home, I can email a few of my partners at work about a project of ours, chat with friends whom I haven't seen face to face in a long time using MSN's Messenger, while writing a post about Google's newset ad format. Later, I might open my favourite VOIP software Skype and call a friend overseas (as soon as he wakes up first). I can't help but feel that somehow communication technology has taken control of our lives. Let's see what changed...


Communicating at work
My primary tool at work is... Email. The email changed the way we communicate at work. Is that good or bad?

Why is it good?

• It allows me to track my communications with other people.
• It allows me to get and send task status reports.
• I can send an email to someone who might not be at work at this time.
• I can CC the email to more senior employees just to make sure that task gets done.

Why is it bad?

• Email messages are sometimes misinterperted by the receiver which might not happen if the same message was conveyed over the phone.
• People tend to ping-pong the email, sending one liners back and forth.
• Most emails in a company are not business oriented but personal and spam.
• People tend to CC a lot more then actually nessecary, causing a waste of time reading and sorting the emails.

Communicating with friends and family
Skype, Messenger and email are the 3 most common tools I use on a daily basis to communicate with my friends and family. I use Skype's text chat mode to chat with my wife during work, MSN's Messenger for the rest of my family and some friends. Email is used only when I want to send messages that don't need immediate responses or to friends who don't use either Skype or Messenger.

Telephony communication
Need I say more then Skype?

Video communication
Not really using any tool for this.
I have no good reason to video chat

What's next?
You tell me


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Email subscription to Ohad's Internet News
VOIP - using the internet to make calls
BlackBerry - access your email from anywhere