Saturday, January 16, 2010

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [January 15th]” plus 8 more

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [January 15th]” plus 8 more

Link to MakeUseOf.com

Cool Websites and Tools [January 15th]

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 07:31 PM PST

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

 

URL Opener – Whenever you work online, do you occasionally find the need to copy-paste multiple links and open each one in your browser? This can really be time-consuming since you have to open windows and tabs all the time. URLOpener is a web application that solves this problem by letting you open multiple URL's with just a single click. Read more: URLOpener: Open Multiple URLs Simultaneously.

 

tDash – is unlike any other Twitter management tool out there. Focused on productivity and efficiency, it automatically organizes your unread tweets into folders. A separate folder is created for each of your friends and the number of unread tweets is displayed right next to it. Read more: tDash: Automatically Organizes Tweets Into Folders.

 

 

Walk2Web – is an online app that provides a fun and unique way of exploring websites on the internet through webwalking. It lets you discover new websites by illustrating a network of web pages which you can navigate with manual web crawling. Read more: Walk2Web: A Unique Tool For Exploring Websites.

 

 

Delocator – Not everybody loves franchises and corporate owned stores. For people who want to shop at local independently owned stores in a particular area, Delocator is an excellent resource. Delocator is a web directory that lets you find independently owned stores in categories including coffee, books, movies, music and organic food. Just enter a zip code, select a category and Delocator will display the results. Read more: Delocator: Find Independently Owned Local Stores.

 

 

SearchOpener – A search engine is probably the most used tool on the web. A full time webworker probably runs at least a hundred search queries every day. SearchOpener is a quick and simple tool that helps increase your work productivity by allowing you to do multiple searches simultaneously. Read more: SearchOpener: Run Multiple Searches Simultaneously.

 

Submit Your Web App

 

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

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Share Your Desktop Remotely With Multiple Viewers Easily With LogMeIn Express

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 05:31 PM PST

logmeinexpresslogoI’ve been a fan of LogMeIn Free for quite some time and I know that it has been mentioned several times in MakeUseOf articles.  LogMeIn, if you haven’t heard, is a remote desktop application which allows you to access and control a computer from any other computer with internet access and a browser.  The uses are multiple but a few have to do with accessing information at home from a remote location (hotel or such) and remote IT support (if you ever need help when you’re away from the office).

Well, now LogMeIn has come up with yet ANOTHER free product for us to try called LogMeIn Express.  So far I love LogMeIn Express because it overcomes one tedious obstacle that LogMeIn Free has, and that’s the installation on the PC to be controlled.

logmeinexpresshomepage

Say your grandma who lives in Florida calls and needs you to show her how to find a lost Word document or how to update her status on her new Facebook account.  And say YOU live in Maine.  Well, you’re not there with her to install the LogMeIn program for her and she doesn’t have the “know how.”  Read this article to see how easy it really is for her to share her desktop remotely with you using LogMeIn Express.

If you want to share your desktop with someone, head on over to the LogMeIn Express website, click the “share” button, download the very small file (under a meg), and run it.

logmeinexpress_runfile

I’m obviously running Firefox but the idea is to download the LogMeInExpress.exe file and run it.  After you run the file (may I again mention how incredibly small the file is?), you’ll get a little black box giving you a type of control center to share your desktop remotely, including a session code to share.

logmeinexpress_controlcenter

In the blurry area at the top of the control box would actually show a session code (I blurred it, just for fun!).  Notice the two icons next to the code.  There you have several options to help you share the code.  The first one copies the list of numbers to your clipboard so all you have to do is paste it someplace like an email message or IM program, etc.  The second icon (looks like a letter envelope) will open a new email message from your computer’s default email program (example: Outlook).  You can also put a chat name where “Presenter” is highlighted.

Once you’ve shared the code with whoever is planning on viewing your desktop, direct them to the LogMeIn Express homepage.  When they enter the code and click the “view” button, they can view your desktop.

logmeinexpress_desktopview

As you can see, there’s also a nifty chat area for communicating what’s going on.  Another cool thing about LogMeIn Express is that you can also share files AND remote control with a viewer.  You can ALSO have multiple viewers.

logmeinexpress_shareoptions

I have to share several observations with you.  First of all, realize that this service is currently in beta, meaning you’ll probably find bugs.  I didn’t have any problems when I used it but don’t give up if you run into a small obstacle and share feedback with them.

My other observation is just a small annoyance for me but I understand why it’s there.  When you are sharing your desktop, your cursor blinks.  I’m sure this is to make sure you know your desktop is being shared.  I just found it annoying.  In my opinion, it is a SMALL annoyance and NOT something that will keep me from using this new tool.

What do you think?  Is it user-friendly enough for you to share your desktop remotely?  Do you already use it or do you use an alternative service?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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How To Use NPR’s Free iPhone/iPod Touch News App

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 03:31 PM PST

NPR_11.jpgAccording to Wikipedia, National Public Radio is one of the few nationally syndicated news organizations in the U.S. that still thrives and provides a diversity of news programing. It’s a “privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicate to 797 public radio stations” in the nation. It "was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also led to the creation of the Public Broadcasting Service."

NPR is probably one of the few mainstream media outlets that many people listen to on their way to and from work. It claims a listenership of 27.5 million listeners per week. Though NPR does include commercial advertising, it’s not riddled with it like CNN or Fox News. Nevertheless, unless I’m driving my car in the morning or late afternoon, I don’t usually tune into the station using my radio. Instead, I use the NPR application (iTunes Store link) to create a playlist of stories that I’m interested in listening to before heading off to bed. If I were commuting everyday, the playlist feature of the NPR iPhone app would be equally useful.

NPR_18.jpg

The user interface of the NPR iPhone app is similar to that of its online website. Programs are neatly categorized into News, Art & Life, Music, and Programs. The media organization features 90 different podcasts and several daily programs; however, the NPR app does not include a search engine, unlike the website, so you need to be familiar with its offerings. Not all the podcasts are featured in the app, but you can subscribe and download them from iTunes.

Current Stories

When you launch the NPR iPhone app, it opens to the top stories of the last few days. The most recent top stories are typically posted first in written format, but the following day or two, these stories can be heard in their original audio format. You can also preview current stories listed by Topic (U.S. News, World, Business, Music, Science, Health, Arts & Life.) The last category of the app's homepage is the Hourly Newscast that mostly repeats throughout the day and night, adding changes when needed. What's great about these current news stories is that they're short (usually under 5 minutes) and to the point without commercial intrusion.

NPR_15.jpg

Extended Programs

The second page of the app features NPR's extended programs, including All Things Considered (mix of news and features), Talk of the Nation (news and opinion), Fresh Air (interviews), Science Friday, and Car Talk (auto repair.) There's also NPR Playback which consist of an archive of programs going back to 25 years ago, to around 1984, more or less.

NPR45.png

Local Programing

The application also includes local NPR affiliate stations for what seems like every state in the country. You can save selected stations as favorites; however, these programs are not broken down into topics. Location stations are set up for live streaming throughout the day and night.

NPR_2.jpg

The Playlist

For me, developing a playlist of stories is the best part of the NPR iPhone app, because you get to focus on news and programs that you want to hear, when you want to hear them – even up to a month or longer after they're posted. You can also browse and add stories to your playlist as you listen to a currently playing story. Many stories and programs are linked back to iTunes for downloading.

NPR_5.jpg

MUO published an article last week about 6 iPhone Internet Radio Apps For Every Type Of Listener. So what news applications do you use?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 01:31 PM PST

home2-sshotsLast time I wrote an article on some cool tips and tricks in Windows Live Messenger such as how to remove ads, or view who has blocked or deleted you as a contact. This time, I am going to explore the magical features that Messenger Plus! Live brings to WLM.

Messenger Plus! Live is basically an add-on for Windows Live Messenger that allows you to do a large range of customisations, and it just makes your experience using IM a whole lot better. I have at least two favourite features of Messenger Plus! Live and that is to right click on a contact and copy their email address to the clipboard, and the other one to send a mass message to all your contacts you are talking to at once.

But before I go into more detail, I better go back to the start – and that is, installation. First of all, download the program, and run the installation as you would normally would with any program. The installation file gives you an option if you would like to install a sponsor. I suggest that you refuse it just to save the hassle.

msn_plus2

You will be then presented with a series of options that you can choose. Have a read of each screen to learn more about the program. The Windows Live Messenger installation is now complete.

msn_plus5

To access the menu of Messenger Plus! Live, you will have a Plus! menu on your toolbar, or you can right click on a contact and select Messenger Plus! features.

Now that the software is installed, we can now look at some of the features that it offers.

Event Viewer

I find the event viewing really useful at times when I want to keep an eye out for a particular contact, when they go online, sign-out or are idle from their computer. No, I am not stalking them, but it is really useful if you're away from your computer and people leave you a message and they sign out. The event viewer also records what songs your friends are listening to, and if you’re shy, its a great conversation starter. "Oh, you like Greenday? So do I!"

event_viewer

Chat Log

You may find that the inbuilt chat log on Windows Live Messenger is alright, but I don't really like that user interface when reading over your chat history. I find that the chat log viewer on Messenger Plus! Live is much easier to use, and to browse for particular conversations. If you are concerned about other users of your computer reading them, you can also set a password to protect your chat logs.

chat_log

Clean Up Your Contact Lists

In part 1 of the post, I outlined how you can see if people have you on their contact list. Another way to see is by choosing the options to clean up your contact lists. It is also a quick and easy way to remove contacts that you no longer require. I think my contact lists needs a bit of a clean up though.

clean_contacts

Lock Windows Live Messenger

If you find yourself having a very private conversation with someone on WLM,  and someone walks into your room, or you are at work and the boss walks in, you might find it very helpful to use the shortcut key to lock Windows Live Messenger. By default it is Control+Space. This minimises all open chats, the contact list and changes the task bar icon so it doesn't look like you’re on Messenger. When you want to resume, double click the task bar icon and enter your password if you asked it to.

Sounds & Audio To Enhance Your Chats

If you are talking to a friend who also has Messenger Plus! Live installed, why not add some sound to enhance your conversation?Below are a couple of sounds you can get, and there are many more.

msn_sounds

Setting Personalised Status & Away Messages

Another great feature is the ability to set your own personalised status and away messages. This lets you tell exactly why you are away (if you want to tell people). You can also set auto-responders, so if someone starts talking to you, they will get a message that you set.

personalised_status

There are many more features as well with Messenger Plus! Live. There are also scripts that you can download to get even more functionality out of Windows Live Messenger. So what are you waiting for? If you use Windows Live Messenger all the time, you should be using Messenger Plus! Live as well.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Boxee Beta – The Best Media Center App for Your TV

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 11:31 AM PST

boxee-logoWe’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: there’s no need for cable television in this day and age. The Internet is simply full of sites where you can watch TV on the Internet with your television for free; hook your television up to a computer and you can enjoy it all without paying expensive cable bills.

Previously we’ve highlighted Boxee as a great way to bring all these shows together. Since then Boxee’s advanced from alpha – the preliminary stage of production—to releasing its first public beta.

The beta is a huge improvement in terms of both layout and conception. In fact, using the Boxee beta will change the way you look at Internet video—possibly forever. Best of all, you can use it regardless of the type of computer you have: Linux, Mac and even Windows. Let’s check it out!

Interface

Boxee beta’s got a slick new interface. Load up the program and here’s what you’ll see:

boxee main page

All the media you’re trying to access – Movies, Music, TV Shows, Photos and Apps – are front and center, as is the ability to simply browse your hard drive. Below that is your feed, which shows you what friends are watching in the style of Facebook or Twitter; featured things, which shows you cool things the Boxee development team wants to share with you; and your queue, which shows you new episodes of your favorite shows and Podcasts. From here any of Boxee’s features are only a few clicks away.

TV Shows

Boxee does a lot, but what it’s really known for is TV shows – letting you watch TV on the Internet at no cost. Click the “TV Shows” button in the main interface and you’re presented with a vast library of shows.

The Boxee alpha featured plugins for individual sites, such as Hulu, Comedy Central and CBS. This arrangement gave access to all content, but depended on users to figure out which shows were on which site. This worked, but was far from ideal.

As you can see, the Boxee beta puts all shows in the same place: the TV Library.

boxee tv show library

Every single show on the Internet – or at least a good attempt at that – is listed in the “Show Library.” Click a show you want, and Boxee will automatically play that show from whatever site it happens to be hosted on. You don’t need to know that House MD is on Hulu, Star Trek is on CBS and South Park is on Comedy Central – it’s all just on Boxee.

As if this wasn’t enough, you can add shows you like to your personal collection of shows, and recieve updates when there are new episodes. It’s like having a DVR, only without the need for a cable subscription and massive amounts of hard drive space.

Already have downloaded TV shows on your computer? Boxee can find them too, and will add them to your TV show collection. That’s right: online shows and shows on your computer are accessible in the same place. How’s that for simple?

If you want to bring the many sources of free streaming television online and your personal collection into one easy-to-use interface, you won’t find anything better than Boxee.

* Editor’s note – please be aware that the availability of shows will depend on your geographical location.  Some shows may be unavailable to users outside the United States and Canada *

Music, Photos & Movies

boxee movies

But don’t go thinking Boxee’s just for brain-rotting television—it also works fabulously for brain-rotting movies. Point it towards your collection and it’ll index it all for you, complete with reviews and other tidbits of information.

boxee photos

Your music and photos get treated just as well. Having these things accessible from your television makes sharing much easier than when they’re on a laptop. Just launch Boxee and load up what you’re looking for with just a few clicks of a remote.

Apps!

boxee apps

If this isn’t enough for you, why not check out one of the hundreds of third party “apps” which bring you photos, videos and music from all corners of the web? Among my personal favorites is a plugin for 1Cast, an online aggregate of video news from sources like BBC, CBC, CNBC and the Associated Press. If you want a certain website’s content to integrate with Boxee, there’s a good chance it already does.

Be sure to tune in soon for a feature on the best Boxee apps from our very own Stefan Neagu.

Conclusion

The Boxee beta brings the best media the Internet has to offer and your personal media all under one roof. The interface to watch TV on Internet is clean and easy to browse with a remote, but works great with a mouse and keyboard if you don’t have one.

Boxee can be downloaded here for Linux, Mac and Windows.   Give it a go and then let us know your thoughts about it.  What could be improved?  What new features would you like to see?

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RealWorld Cursor Editor – Make Yourself A Custom Mouse Cursor

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 10:31 AM PST

Cursor_ThumbIt's right before our eyes but we hardly give it a second's thought. The humble cursor, that goes flitting about the screen doing what our thoughts command it to do. Could it be the most neglected aspect of our computer’s personalization? After all, it's the desktop and the icons that get to be the eye candy.

The cursor, though the most animated of all Windows objects is like Cinderella before she lost her glass slippers.

The RealWorld Cursor Editor promises to change all that. It hands us some customization power to make a free cursor.

The freeware cursor application helps us create beautiful cursors –static or animated from image files. More importantly, one doesn't have to have a degree in Fine Arts to design the cursors. A friendly wizard takes us through the steps. The drag and drop interface like any good graphic editor also gives it another point on the scale of user friendliness.


With our minds reassured that the RealWorld Cursor Editor wouldn't be a puzzle for most of us, let's wade in and see if we can translate our latent creativity using it.

The RealWorld Cursor Editor comes as a 6.6MB download bundle and also has the option of a 7.2MB portable version. For the sake of simplicity, let's work with the portable version.

Cursor_1

Firing up the cursor editor reveals the wizard which gives us a few options to start off our first cursor project. We can make a free cursor from scratch or use an image as the starting point instead of drawing it out on the canvas.

Cursor_2

For the first time user, it would be preferable to catch the online tutorials by clicking on the large Online button on the left panel. Six tutorials cover the scope of this cursor program. The first (Animated water drop cursor) or the second (Create resizing cursor) would be the stepping stone to learn all the tools in the program.

Cursor_3

The tools are intuitively arranged around the raster image editor. The RealWorld Cursor Editor comes with a full complement of drawing tools (Pencil, Line, Curve, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Flood Fill, Text, and Projected Shadow) and a few tool presets and filter effects. Effects like Drop Shadow, Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Transparency, Motion Blur, Bevels etc can be run on the cursor image or a selected area. The program comes with a full color swatch and support for layers. (See main screenshot too)

Cursor_4

A cursor is different from an icon in the way it interacts with the screen. In both static and animated cursors, the hot spot is the vital area. The hot spot is an intended pixel that fixes the clicking point. So cursor editors should have features that can handle these actions.

Cursor hot spots can be selected with a click of the hot spot tool. The Test Area is where the cursor can be previewed. If the cursor does not move correctly, the hot spot can be changed accordingly using the tool.

Cursor_5

Similarly, the animated cursors can be created frame by frame. Sequencing the animations takes a few seconds with the left right shifting arrows. Frames can be selected for applying effects one at a time or by all. Setting the speed of the animations is a cinch with the slider. The time between frames is a matter of setting the seconds using a dropdown.

Cursor_6

This is basically an overview of the RealWorld Cursor program. Being a graphical application, the proof of the pudding will lie in the user experience. What I liked about the software was that it didn't diverge much from standard graphical applications. The learning curve is further shortened by the numerous tutorials and a few assisting features like the tooltips, context help and the What Now? button. The online tutorial includes video instructions along with text.

For inspiration or to inspire someone, you can share your creation in the online Cursor Library for the program.

It will take me a few runs to get the absolute hang of it. But even now, as a newbie I am going as straight as an arrow.

Do you pay attention to your cursors? Would you take the pains to make a free cursor for yourself? If both the answers are yes, let us know your comfort level with RealWorld Cursor Editor.

RealWorld Cursor Editor ver.2009.1 is a free download and is supported on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or 7.

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Please Donate To The Haitian Earthquake Victims – Here’s How

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 10:12 AM PST

ICRC_logo_1The island of Haiti is currently going through the after-effects of one of its worst earthquakes ever, with an estimated 50,000 people dead, although many millions more people are badly affected.   Whether they are injured, homeless, mourning the loss of a loved one or all three, I don’t imagine there is anyone on the island who hasn’t been affected by this terrible event.

MakeUseOf would like to urge all of our readers to donate whatever you can to the various charities trying to help the earthquake victims of Haiti.   Even if it’s just a few dollars or a few Euros, every little bit helps.   It’s very easy to sit in safety in your own home wherever you are in the world and switch off to what is happening.   What if this earthquake happened to YOU?   Wouldn’t YOU like the rest of the world to come rescue you and aid you in your hour of need?  The Haitian people deserve no less.

haiti1

However, there are many heartless vultures out there who prey on this kind of incident to rip people off and steal of all the money for themselves.   Therefore you should only donate to reputable organisations who are guaranteed to pass the money onto whoever needs it the most.   You should also donate only cash and not tangible goods such as clothes.

Lifehacker has listed a lot of places you can consider but the two we recommend are the International Red Cross and Medecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).   Here are the links :

Medecins San Frontieres

International Red Cross

Thank you.

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3 Sites To Check Where Your First & Last Name Come From

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 09:31 AM PST

nametagLearning where your last name comes from can be interesting. Your first name often holds an interesting meaning and descent, linking you to the founding fathers, Hebrew, or even the old Greek.

Your surname even more so. Since it’s passed on from father to child, it can be used to track back your family origins for hundreds of years. There’s a story behind your name and lineage, and with the internet in every household, these campfire tales have never been more within reach.

Genealogy and Etymology are two major fields of study, dedicated respectively to the lineage and linguistic origin of your names. In the past, Tina has already talked about fun sites to ‘calculate’ name characteristics, now it’s time to get serious.

Namepedia – A Wikipedia of Names

Without a doubt, Namepedia is the single most extensive free name database to find out where your last name comes from. The reason, as you might have guessed from its name, is because it’s maintained by the community. Like Wikipedia, people can edit pages and add additional information.

Obviously, you need to look at the information with a skeptical eye. Although often swiftly corrected by other users, faulty information sometimes goes unnoticed. Before taking the second screenshot below, I admittedly deleted a (trivial) ‘Simon is a character in this soap opera” entry under “origins”.

Screen shot 2010-01-14 at 19.20.06

Apart from those little, err… mistakes, Namepedia is an invaluable source of genealogical and etymological information. Apart from the default (originated from country a, and spread mid-1500 to country b), Namepedia provides an almost ridiculous amount of information.

Scrolling down, you’re met with a relations chart, connecting this and other names in terms of variation, translation, nick, opposite and pet-name. As opposed to the blue ones, pink boxes display related female names. Selecting any one will make the jump to the relevant page.

Screen shot 2010-01-14 at 19.31.42

Further down, you’ll also find name dates, frequency rates, famous people, and another mention of related names, listed according to similarity. Find out how appreciated your name is, and the activity in different countries and languages, as well as the cycle in which it currently resides.

I was a little shocked to find out that my name was rated so-so, and appears to be fading around the world. Well, I guess that’s the risk of demanding information.

Behind the Name

If you can’t find what you want on Namepedia, or like a lot of people, just don’t trust wiki’s, it’s time to venture elsewhere. Compared to Namepedia, Behind the Name is far off in quantity, but the information provided is solid. True, Behind the Name also allows people to contribute information, but not after a rigorous registration process (which tends to chase away the trolls and ignorant ‘contributors’).

Screen shot 2010-01-14 at 19.41.16

At first glance, Behind the Name appears to offer little more than pronunciation and origin. At the far-right portion of the screen, you can summon popularity graphs (rank and percent used) from a number of different countries.

Screen shot 2010-01-14 at 19.49.21

Also available are related names, and comments. These last can be incredibly interesting – they include unconfirmed information that has not (yet) been included on the page.

FamilyEducation: nameLAB

nameLAB is the odd one out on this list, but also a worthy mention. Primarily a ‘family’ site, FamilyEducation offers a little extra genealogical information, like popularity graphs and relation charts. Instead, this part of the site seems to be aimed at parents investigating baby names.

Screen shot 2010-01-14 at 19.56.24

Albeit limited to, that doesn’t take away that the offered origin and meaning is often even more extensive than on Namepedia and Behind the Name. What the site misses in raw analytical data, it makes up in interesting facts and story-telling.

Of course the respective sites of genealogy and etymology aren’t limited to the above three mentions. Perhaps I even left out some of the best alternatives to find out where your last name comes from. Feel free to drop a comment of suggestion or appreciation below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Make Online Shareable Notes With Ketchup

Posted: 15 Jan 2010 07:31 AM PST

mHeadDo you have a job? Or maybe you are a student. Either way you are both sitting through some sort of lecture. It may be a meeting or a class and you need to take notes in an easy to input, easy to understand manner.

When I was in school (yeah you young whippersnappers I said when I was in school!) we took notes on paper with a pen. When I tried to use my laptop or Palm Vx I would get in trouble and be told to put my toys away. Nowadays these 'toys' are welcome in most situations.

Taking notes at a meeting with your laptop or handheld is super simple with Tomato. Yes you read that correctly, the application is called Tomato for no good reason. But Ketchup is for meetings…

k1

You will need to sign up for an account to use Ketchup to take notes. To read someone else's notes you do not need a login – they just have to share the URL with you in order to share notes online. And that eludes to Ketchup's sharing feature which we will get to in a bit. Keep on reading. Use Ketchup is the URL to get you to the application.

k2

After you sign up you will automatically be logged in and ready to take notes. Click on the get started button at the bottom of the Here's how it works section.

k3

Ah ha! We are in and ready to take notes. We will need to add a title to your project / meeting notes. Simply click the title field and fill it in. You can fill in the date and attendees as well. Click get organized when you are ready to enter your notes.

k4

I entered January 14th 2010 at 6:12pm, and the name of the event is “test meeting” – I know how original! This could be a class name or specific project you are working on. Next we click on the “+” sign below the agenda to add an event.

k5

I left the default called First Appt. Then you can click on the add note link as you see below to enter details or notes.

k7

Go ahead, populate your notes and then get ready to share notes online with classmates or colleagues. Below you will see a checkbox to make the notes public. This is another way of saying that Ketchup will make the site live with the URL next to the checkbox.

k6

When navigating to that URL - http://useketchup.com/meetings/0pv7Wx)L – this is what I see:

k8

All my data but no way to edit it. Very nice indeed. Especially for those of you who have lent your notes to someone, only to discover that they dropped the class and now you are stuck without your notes for a test. Ha! Take that Sharon from my English Lit class!  I will find you some day and get my notes back!

Do you have another favorite free notetaking application where you can also share notes online? Online or off we would love to hear about it in the comments. If there are some interesting suggestions maybe it will warrant another post!

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