Incoherent Babble

It’s interesting how I can go forever and not really find anything I’d consider exciting or really interesting in the news. Then there are those rare days like today, when it seems that I can’t flip through an unread feed without finding something else that’s of incredible interest.

Some of these items are from a few days ago, but I lumped them in with today’s post for one huge news-filled batch of goodness…

First we have Automatically generate .htaccess files. As with Jordan from DownloadSquad, I often have troulbe remembering the syntax of an .htaccess file, and using all those weird regex(-ish) commands just makes my head spin. For anyone developing for the web, this handy little tool has got to be a goldmine.

I’ve been a long time Symantec user (and McAfee hater) when it comes to antivirus products. Still, I’ve often wondered why people pick one product over another (particularly when it comes to enterprise solutions that are centrally managed). Also from Jordan over at DownloadSquad is a tip towards a CNet roundup of six major players in the consumer antivirus market: AVG, Computer Associates eTrust, F-Secure, Kapersky, McAfee, and Trend Micro. Oddly absent is anything from Symantec, but it’s a good read none-the-less.

Now generally if I don’t recognize one of the thousands of processes running on a Windows PC I sit down at, I’ll just Google the name and see what comes up. With search spam on the rise lately, finding a relevent result seems to be more and more difficult (particularly with so many ‘clean your PC’ products clouding results, promising to remove a variety of filenames). In steps yet another pick from Jordan @ DS - the exeLibrary. It’s a very quick, very clean site that indexes almost every executable file you can think of. Not a frequent hitter, but definitely worth keeping a link in your digital toolbox. I know one’s going in mine.

Everyone’s probably heard of Photobucket, ImageShack, and any number of the hundred and one knock-off services. Not everyone, however, has probably heard of AllYouCanUpload - a new service from, surprisingly, CNet. While I’m shocked that CNet of all people would be the ones to offer a new free, unlimited, upload-as-you-need service, Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch thinks it’s a great move into a somewhat already crowded space. Because the blogosphere works in circles, we also can’t miss yet another Jordan special from DownloadSquad covering the matter.

My absolute favorite piece in today’s news was, you guessed it, from Jordan. His tip on snagging EasyEclipse to make the installation process for one of the most advanced and cool code editors I’ve ever seen is sure to save me a ton of time. It’s also pretty damn cool that they’ve got packages for Windows, Linux and my beloved Mac. Writing PHP can’t get any easier!

While not of use to me, since I’m poor, the TechCrunch lead (and discount code) on a cool little company called Logoworks is pretty interesting. I’ve always wondered why it had to be so difficult to get marketing and design work done (not to mention expensive), and it looks like these guys were thinking the same thing. If you need a logo designed (relatively) cheaply, be sure to check them out.

In a huge string of news from Download Squad, we also learn that Google’s promoting a green lifestyle, Microsoft has finally released OneCare (the product I hated), Google claims they have no plans to release a browser (not surprising, given their stake in Firefox), and FireFox 2.0 alpha 3 is out - complete with its new Google anti-phishing utility. Hey, was there anyone other than Jordan Running alive at Download Squad today? And is it just me, or does that sound like a made up name?

As usual, as soon as I buy a product, they release a new model. Looks like my recent Motorola Razr V3c purchase is no exception, since Engadget Mobile has an intro to the V3m that points out all the cool features it aquires in the latest rev. Hey, who needs an SD card on a regular phone anyway?

To finally wrap things up, we most recently have a story called Yahoo Battles YouTube, But Forgets to Bring Flickr from TechCrunch. Looks like a no-brainer to me that Flickr and the new Yahoo! Video service should have been linked. One of the attractive points of Flickr is its simplicity (which is very un-Yahoo!). I’m not sure how well the video service will fly apart from our long-time pal.

Like I said, a big news day, but now we’re done and I think I’m going to hit the sack for some extra sleep. Have fun reading up on all the news I picked out of today’s noise. With a little luck, I didn’t typo any of those URLs…