The Art of Sharing

Life is a well of delight; but where the rabble also drink, there all fountains are poisoned.

This quote from Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra” applies to the current state of the internet. Internet is great, but the overload of blogs and microblogs pollute the web. The surplus value of the internet as a means to exchange information is undone by the trouble you have to take to wade through the swamp of second hand information to find a single bit of news.
Nascent, Nature’s Blog on web technology and science, has an article about which web 2.0 services scientists use, written by Euan Adie. The conclusion is:

• Almost a third of Friendfeed scientists have delicious bookmarks. Don’t discount non-academic bookmarking services as a source of paper metadata.
• A similar number use the share functionality in Google Reader.
• Despite rumors to the contrary not everybody is on Twitter.
• A surprising (to me) number of people are uploading and favouriting items on Slideshare.

Hmm, I almost never use my Friendfeed account, although it is the easiest way to share online (as you can read on their own website) So, I’ll give it a little more attention from now on. I’ve subscribed to some groups like life-scientists. Of course I hope to learn from others, but I also share information I found on the web. Quid quo pro. Another way of viewing my web 2.0-activities is my Public Plaxo Pulse Stream, but this shows less services than Friendfeed. You can see how much and where I share conveniently arranged in a pie chart at my Geek Chart page, but this covers only a few services: this blog, Digg, Stumble, YouTube, LastFM, Delicious, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.
Yes, I’m on Twitter, but I still haven’t discovered what the hype is all about – except, of course, that it is all about exposing in public what you are up to. Somewhere in the world there must be some very interesting people, but usually those people are too concerned about doing their thing that they are not interested in launching their tweets into cyberspace. Proof me wrong; I still haven’t read one single tweet that changed my life – and I doubt if my own tweets are worth the trouble of writing (let alone: reading) them.
I like Delicious, although last year I transferred a lot of my bookmarks to Evernote. I think Evernote is a great tool for sharing information, but My Notebook at Evernote is not public. Another great service not mentioned in the Nascent article is Twine.
I think I’ll have to delve more into the possibilities of CiteULike, Connotea and Slideshare. I’ve seen some very interesting presentations on the Semantic Web. I wrote about that in an earlier post.

Bespin: web-based text editor in the cloud

Cloud computing: I wrote about it in another post. Now there is Bespin, an extensible, web-based text editor.

Bespin proposes an open extensible web-based framework for code editing that aims to increase developer productivity, enable compelling user experiences, and promote the use of open standards.

It is still in the Mozilla Labs, but it might grow up to a great word processor, extensible like other mozilla applications.

Introducing Bespin from Dion Almaer on Vimeo.

Twine and Web 3.0

The always interesting “Science and Reason” website by Charles Daney pointed me to Twine, a new bookmarking service, like Delicious, but with some social networking features.

A few months ago I had transferred my Delicious Bookmarks to Evernote, a great online notebook application, but now I think my precious time will have to walk a tight rope between Evernote and Twine.

Bookmarks are organizied into groups called “twines”, which can be public or private, and typically cover some recognizable topic area, or whatever people want to use them for. Each bookmark can also have a description and any number of tags, specified by the user creating the bookmark. Each bookmark also allows for comments, which anyone may add.

Introduction to Twine from Twine Official on Vimeo.

The technology behind Twine is called “Semantic Web” or “Web 3.0“. Why not? Web 2.0 is already obsolete (incidently I know people who still don’t know what RSS Feeds are).Swoogle is the Semantic Web Search Engine and may replace Google. Let’s wait and see.
But for me, always interested in new developments, and especially when it comes to collecting as much information as my brain can capture (and this largely depends on the amounts of time I have available – the only limitation to all my accomplishments), I thought it wouldn’t hurt to sign up with Twine and join some twines.

Passwords

Boing-boing had an interesting article on passwords: Top 500 worst passwords
As I recycle it from them, they recycled it from a website that has recycled it again from a book “Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication” by Mark Burnett; I’m sure just to have you clicking the link to Amazon to make money. So there is a lot of pushing second hand information around the internet. The website has been down due to incoming traffic, but this mirror of the site had the original list, which I will publish (in fact: copy & paste) here:

NO	Top 1-100	Top 101–200	Top 201–300	Top 301–400	Top 401–500
1	123456	porsche	firebird	prince	rosebud
2	password	guitar	butter	beach	jaguar
3	12345678	chelsea	united	amateur	great
4	1234	black	turtle	7777777	cool
5	pussy	diamond	steelers	muffin	cooper
6	12345	nascar	tiffany	redsox	1313
7	dragon	jackson	zxcvbn	star	scorpio
8	qwerty	cameron	tomcat	testing	mountain
9	696969	654321	golf	shannon	madison
10	mustang	computer	bond007	murphy	987654
11	letmein	amanda	bear	frank	brazil
12	baseball	wizard	tiger	hannah	lauren
13	master	xxxxxxxx	doctor	dave	japan
14	michael	money	gateway	eagle1	naked
15	football	phoenix	gators	11111	squirt
16	shadow	mickey	angel	mother	stars
17	monkey	bailey	junior	nathan	apple
18	abc123	knight	thx1138	raiders	alexis
19	pass	iceman	porno	steve	aaaa
20	fuckme	tigers	badboy	forever	bonnie
21	6969	purple	debbie	angela	peaches
22	jordan	andrea	spider	viper	jasmine
23	harley	horny	melissa	ou812	kevin
24	ranger	dakota	booger	jake	matt
25	iwantu	aaaaaa	1212	lovers	qwertyui
26	jennifer	player	flyers	suckit	danielle
27	hunter	sunshine	fish	gregory	beaver
28	fuck	morgan	porn	buddy	4321
29	2000	starwars	matrix	whatever	4128
30	test	boomer	teens	young	runner
31	batman	cowboys	scooby	nicholas	swimming
32	trustno1	edward	jason	lucky	dolphin
33	thomas	charles	walter	helpme	gordon
34	tigger	girls	cumshot	jackie	casper
35	robert	booboo	boston	monica	stupid
36	access	coffee	braves	midnight	shit
37	love	xxxxxx	yankee	college	saturn
38	buster	bulldog	lover	baby	gemini
39	1234567	ncc1701	barney	cunt	apples
40	soccer	rabbit	victor	brian	august
41	hockey	peanut	tucker	mark	3333
42	killer	john	princess	startrek	canada
43	george	johnny	mercedes	sierra	blazer
44	sexy	gandalf	5150	leather	cumming
45	andrew	spanky	doggie	232323	hunting
46	charlie	winter	zzzzzz	4444	kitty
47	superman	brandy	gunner	beavis	rainbow
48	asshole	compaq	horney	bigcock	112233
49	fuckyou	carlos	bubba	happy	arthur
50	dallas	tennis	2112	sophie	cream
51	jessica	james	fred	ladies	calvin
52	panties	mike	johnson	naughty	shaved
53	pepper	brandon	xxxxx	giants	surfer
54	1111	fender	tits	booty	samson
55	austin	anthony	member	blonde	kelly
56	william	blowme	boobs	fucked	paul
57	daniel	ferrari	donald	golden	mine
58	golfer	cookie	bigdaddy	0	king
59	summer	chicken	bronco	fire	racing
60	heather	maverick	penis	sandra	5555
61	hammer	chicago	voyager	pookie	eagle
62	yankees	joseph	rangers	packers	hentai
63	joshua	diablo	birdie	einstein	newyork
64	maggie	sexsex	trouble	dolphins	little
65	biteme	hardcore	white	0	redwings
66	enter	666666	topgun	chevy	smith
67	ashley	willie	bigtits	winston	sticky
68	thunder	welcome	bitches	warrior	cocacola
69	cowboy	chris	green	sammy	animal
70	silver	panther	super	slut	broncos
71	richard	yamaha	qazwsx	8675309	private
72	fucker	justin	magic	zxcvbnm	skippy
73	orange	banana	lakers	nipples	marvin
74	merlin	driver	rachel	power	blondes
75	michelle	marine	slayer	victoria	enjoy
76	corvette	angels	scott	asdfgh	girl
77	bigdog	fishing	2222	vagina	apollo
78	cheese	david	asdf	toyota	parker
79	matthew	maddog	video	travis	qwert
80	121212	hooters	london	hotdog	time
81	patrick	wilson	7777	paris	sydney
82	martin	butthead	marlboro	rock	women
83	freedom	dennis	srinivas	xxxx	voodoo
84	ginger	fucking	internet	extreme	magnum
85	blowjob	captain	action	redskins	juice
86	nicole	bigdick	carter	erotic	abgrtyu
87	sparky	chester	jasper	dirty	777777
88	yellow	smokey	monster	ford	dreams
89	camaro	xavier	teresa	freddy	maxwell
90	secret	steven	jeremy	arsenal	music
91	dick	viking	11111111	access14	rush2112
92	falcon	snoopy	bill	wolf	russia
93	taylor	blue	crystal	nipple	scorpion
94	111111	eagles	peter	iloveyou	rebecca
95	131313	winner	pussies	alex	tester
96	123123	samantha	cock	florida	mistress
97	bitch	house	beer	eric	phantom
98	hello	miller	rocket	legend	billy
99	scooter	flower	theman	movie	6666
100	please	jack	oliver	success	albert

Of course, as an internet addict, I have many passwords to handle, and, still being human, my memory is fallible. So I felt the need to develop an algorithm to generate original passwords that I was able to remember very early in the history of the internet. I will not reveal my secret, but there is also another very interesting algorithm, almost similar to mine, that was published at A Clean Design.

Another possibility is to use a password manager, e.g Keepass, that is free and also runs as a portable application. You only need to remember your master password. Or the more web-based PasswordMaker, that generates strong and different passwords for every account, while you need only to remember your master password, the hash system, password length, and list of legal characters.

The bright side of recycling information in the blogosphere is that it generates new comments that are often more useful than the original post; Boing-boing is rather popular, so there are a lot of people who commented on the post.

First of all someone wrote:

This is the third time I’ve seen a link to this list

Yeah, and mine is probably the fourth – and I’m sure not the last.

But Batu B had an advice:

the best password generator I’ve heard of is the acronym for a simple phrase, which generates nonsense, but is easy to remember. such as
“this password is nonsense but is easy to remember”
provides the password
“tpinbietr”

or this anonymous comment:

I always liked passwords that use phrases you know by heart but aren’t obvious. Even if they see you type bbroygbvgw they aren’t going to be able to remember it long enough to write it down unless they are old electricians.

Another way to do it: pick some song lyrics, throw in a symbol and another string and you have an amazingly secure password: aobtd^egbdf (Hint, the first one is popular queen lyrics, the second you should know, and may actually be too common to use)

and, almost the same,

As a Microsoft security expert once suggested. The best passwords (when the field allows it) are made of a simple and long phrase. It is easy to remember and impossible to guess.

by classic01.

So, maybe I should review my own algorithm and change my old “letmein” into something more advanced.

Airset – “Cloud Computing”

What Google started, is finished by Airset. Google has online applications for text-editing and spreadsheets, you can store your documents online, you can collaborate on a paper. That’s all fine, but now Airset offers a complete “virtual computer” a “personal webcomputer” – they call it “Cloud Computing”.

It looks great, but: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. So quanta costa? Hold your breath. As long as you store less than 1 GB Airset is completely free!

I recall the days when I felt jealous because one of my friends had bought a personal computer with a 1 GB hard drive, while I was swapping files to floppies and back to cope with my 512 MB. But now a 1 GB hard drive is nothing, not even fit for starters, a joke – something they have to add money to to have a right to sell it you. So, there is of course a premium service with additional file storage.

The price break down is as follows:

• 5GB for $2.00/month
• 10GB for $4.00/month
• 15GB for $6.00/month
• 20GB for $8.00/month
• 25GB for $10.00/month
• 30BG for $12.00/month
• 35GB for $14.00/month
• 40GB for $16.00/month
• 45GB for $18.00/month
• 50GB for $20.00/month

So, when I have a cloud computer with 50 GB storage the price is $24 x 20 = $ 480 a year. I think I have a better home computer with more storage capabilities (at least 250 GB) that will stay with me for 2 or maybe 3 years for this price. So what’s the deal?

I have an account @Airset – of course, I sign up with all web2.0 apps.  I have tried it, but until yet I haven’t found a way to store your files on your own computer or – better – on a mobile device like a thumb drive. With Google docs this is possible, with Airset it should be in my opinion.

Maybe I’m a little old-fashioned, but I wonder if Airset will have the last word on portability and ubiquitous computing.

Flowcharts

Webcomic site xkcd had a comic on flowcharts: “Understanding Flowcharts” last week.

This reminded me of some interesting Flowchart applications.

First of all, there is Dia, an open-source diagram-crating program, based on Visio, a commercial Microsoft program.

Then there is a web-based application, “Lucid Charts“. Of course I have signed up for an account to give it a try:

A similar web-based flow-chart maker is Gliffy, this offers a free basic account and a premium account that is a little more expensive than Lucid Chart.

Of course you can also use the free Dabbleboard for flowcharts.

Flowcharts are a way of organizing your thoughts. Earlier I wrote about the Wellington Grey flowchart on Slashdot publishing.

Pownce

Pownce is shutting down on December 15, 2008. I wrote about the application earlier on this blog, but I almost never used it. Blogging company Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type, TypePad and Vox, acquired Pownce. So I migrated my account to Vox; I probably will never use this service either

Juice firefox add-on

A great new firefox-add-on is Juice: Discover. Organize. Share.

Juice is an intelligent discovery engine that integrates seamlessly with your browser.
Highlight and move a chunk of text, and Juice directly delivers a set of rich, relevant content to you.

As you see on the screenshot I’ve selected from my own recent blogpost on the movie “Entre les murs” the text “entre les murs” I dragged and dropped it into Juice. As the Juice website tells us:

Juice will start performing its tricks.

Data-mining is fun with Juice, together with some other great add-ons like Evernote, Delicious, Readeroo and Zotero.

Juice’s rocking webcast from Linkool Labs on Vimeo.

What’s in a Name?

Or… what’s all this Kuehleborn-nonsense about? Why such a difficult name? Well, as explained before, there was a time when I called myself “giorgio”, the italian form of my daily-life name. That was in the olden days, but when signing up with hotmail for an account I noticed that I was not the only giorgio in the web anymore…hotmail suggested I should use the name giorgio238!

So I decided to chose a username that nobody else would use. I thought about it, and choose “kuehleborn”, simply because it is a character in one of my favourite opera’s (Undine) written by my favourite opera-composer (Albert Lortzing). But when I became more and more familiar with this name, I noticed that I began to identify myself with this character. So, in fact I *am* Kuehleborn.

Facebook’s application “Name Analyzer” brought me closer to this conclusion. When I typed it in, it gave me this analysis of my name:

Yeah, that’s me, and I’m proud of it

Dabbleboard Collaborative Whiteboard

Dabbleboard is an incredibly cool application, that can be used as a whiteboard. In fact, it is a whiteboard, but it can be used for drawing Mindmaps, Flowcharts, diagrams or for marking up pictures.

Dabbleboard is a powerful online whiteboard that’s actually easy and fun to use. With a revolutionary new interface, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw.
Draw with flexible tools. Reuse previously-made drawings. Share and collaborate in real-time. All as naturally as using a marker or a pencil.

Dabbleboard Tour

For teachers this is great, but it works for presentations anyway. Itg will even work better with your favorite slide application (Power Point, OpenOffice Impress or SlideRocket).